Reality in Writing : Caribbean Political Economy

May 31, 2012 NACLA.org The more a corporation can drive down the cost of their products and/or services, the larger the profit. This is a fundamental rule which is especially apparent in the banana industry. Walking down the produce aisle in your local supermarket, you might have noticed that banana prices have hit historical lows during a time of rising food prices. The reality of these cheap prices is that bananas, like milk, are often sold at a loss to customers in order for supermarkets to attract customers who will purchase other items during their trip. Any trip to a major grocery store will reveal that a pound of bananas costs anywhere from 65 to 89 cents. This is because bananas are what retailers call a “Known Value Item” which refers to a basic everyday product to which the consumer is ver y price-sensitive. Photo credit: www.gerry.odonoghue.com Price wars between supermarkets in an effort to gain the lowest possible cost of bananas has led to a race to the bot

May 24, 2012 NACLA.org Since the adoption of the European Union’s Single Market for Bananas in 1993, Caribbean banana farmers have faced a permanent state of uncertainty and declining prices. Despite being an industry historically rooted in highly unequal terms of trade, the banana trade did bring forth a degree of stability and genuine, albeit relative economic development to the Caribbean, supplying governments with their primary source of income. All of this changed with the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 1995. Despite only contributing 2% of the global banana trade , the tiny Windward Islands of the Caribbean and their protected trade with England became the primary battleground for sanctity of free trade. The WTO lead an all out assault on the nearly 50-year-old arrangement. In several rulings regarding the "legitimacy" of such protected trade agreements, the WTO decided that despite being the economic backbone of several nation

May 11, 2012 NACLA.org As part of her election campaign, Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller announced her intention of breaking ties with the British monarchy and becoming an independent republic. While no doubt a long overdue and symbolic act, in the wake of a newly released report on Jamaican debt by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR), a critical conversation about doing the same to the real (neo)colonial power in Jamaica—the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—should be a much higher priority of the Jamaican government. While the economic fates and futures of entire nations hing on arbitrary indicators such as investor confidence and credit ratings, is Jamaica better off with the IMF or without it? Jamaica’s current economic situation is, to be blunt, bleak. Thus controversial questions must be raised over whether or not the IMF is actually providing the kind of help that Jamaica actually needs. In most other professions, a 30-year track record

Posted May 4th, 2012 NACLA.org The recent news out of Haiti is that Port au Prince is currently undergoing a building boom—but it’s not the much needed homes for the estimated half million internally displaced people , it’s due to upscale hotels being built to house foreign investors and aid workers. The news is no doubt heavy with contradictions, as the reports optimistically explain that the best way to reconstruct Haiti is to first build infrastructure for foreigners, while the displaced remain in the many sprawling tent camps, vulnerable to disease, eviction, arson, and violence. The Washington Post reported that “At least seven hotels are under construction or are in the planning stage in Port-au-Prince and its surrounding areas, raising hopes that thousands of investors will soon fill their air-conditioned rooms looking to build factories and tourist infrastructure that will help Haiti bounce back from a 2010 earthquake that officials say claimed 300,000 lives. S

A Colonial WikiLeaks? The Migrated Archives and the Caribbean Pt.3 April 25th, 2012 Originally Posted on NACLA.org As mentioned in prior articles, April 18th marked the public release of the first batch of the secret colonial documents known as the "migrated archives." Robert Hill, Professor of Afro-American and Caribbean History at UCLA, who has been deeply involved in the "migrated archives" since their discovery, shares his insights into the release of the archives and what it entails for the Caribbean history. Professor Hill is editor of The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers Project, and is also internationally recognized as a leading authority on the life of Garvey and the history of the Garvey movement. He is also the Literary Executor of C.L.R. James, the Marxist historian and Pan-African political activist. Interestingly, Professor Hill’s work with the migrated archives is not the first time t