CBU profs focus on the failure of capitalism

CBU profs focus on the failure of capitalism
McConnell library hosting presentation Thursday

March 27, Sydney - The financial crisis that emerged in the United States last year has not only escalated into a full-fledged economic crisis for that country.

While Cape Breton's industrial past may not seem connected to the global meltdown of financial markets, for more than a century, the Island’s economy has been intrinsically linked to a global economy that is a product of the process of industrial capitalism and globalization.

Cape Breton University political science professors Terry Gibbs and Garry Leech, have been studying how the global capitalist system has indeed had an impact here.

The authors of The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Colombia and Beyond (new from CBU Press), professors Gibbs and Leech are giving a talk on the subject at the McConnell library on Thursday, April 2.

"Neoliberal globalization, centred around North American and European influences on global economic systems, exploits the natural resources and labour of societies at the periphery," says Garry Leech, "and then moves on."

The reality is that under the dominant free trade ideology, people throughout the world suffer, particularly with regard to socio-economic and environmental issues, he said.

Terry Gibbs and Garry Leech's book, The Failure of Global Capitalism, as the title suggests, examines how that exploitation has affected the industrial economies of Cape Breton and Colombia.

Their talk on Thursday will look at how the instability and insecurity inherent in the global capitalist system has impacted Cape Breton and how we can learn from alternative models challenging dominant free trade ideologies by focusing on democratic participation, economic self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability.

The talk begins at 7 p.m. at the McConnell Library, 50 Falmouth Street, Sydney. For more in formation, call 902.562.3279

Terry Gibbs is an assistant professor of Political Science and director of the Centre for International Studies at Cape Breton University. She specializes in issues related to democracy and globalization. Gibbs is a contributor to the book New Perspectives on Globalization and Antiglobalization: Prospects for a New World Order (Ashgate Publishing, 2008) and her articles have been published in various journals.

Garry Leech is a lecturer in Political Science at CBUand an independent journalist. He is the author of several books, including Beyond Bogotá: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia and Crude Interventions: The United States, Oil and the New World (Dis)Order. He is also the co-author of The People Behind Colombian Coal: Mining, Multinationals and Human Rights.