PRESS RELEASE
Egyptian Daily: Time To Join Lyndon and Helga Zepp LaRouche To Counter Globalization
May 7, 2008 (EIRNS)—The official Egyptian Arabic-language daily Al-Ahram published an op-ed on April 21, by its columnist Abdul-Adhim Hammad, which was republished this week by Oman Daily in Oman. Hammad states that when globalization took the economies of developing nations by storm in the 1990s, as happened in Russia, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, the Western policymakers who control the world financial and monetary system did not panic, nor think they had to rethink the whole globalization policy. Now that the crisis [the subprime crisis—sic] has hit the West itself, Hammad emphasizes, they are screaming and calling for a solution.
Hammad refers to statements by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said that this crisis was the worst since the Great Depression.
Hammad discusses in detail the impact of the crisis on the world economy, including the current food crisis. Then, he reminds the readers that during the Asian and South American crisis in the 1990s, voices were raised to stop the wild free trade and globalization policies. He cites, among other such opponents of globalization (French thinker Susan George, two German thinkers Greg Beckerman and Ralf Beck, and the ATTAC movement), the long-standing American economist Lyndon LaRouche and his wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the global civil rights movement. The efforts of those people led to the adoption of recommendations in parliaments in Russia, Brazil, and Italy demanding the reform of the former Bretton Woods agreement that created institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, and measures to control speculation.
In conclusion, Hammad calls on his readers to join people like the LaRouches, and use protectionism in Egypt. What should we do here in Egypt, and the other countries with weaker economies? The most urgent duty upon us now is to join, forcefully, those movements and forces that are calling for controlling globalization. But in order to do that, each government must lay out the policies that ensure the protection of its markets and its population from these effects, Hammad concluded.
Egypt is one of the worst-hit nations in Africa by the current food crisis. Violent riots broke out in April, and wide-ranging strikes by impoverished workers are taking place constantly. The government last week raised the wages of government employees, but had to raise the taxes on fuel and other commodities.
