With the neoliberal capitalism which has ruled the planet for the last two decades imploding all over the globalized world, it is for sure that nation states will now be moving to more regulated financial and economic systems. That “regulation” can only come from the governments of those nation states, which means that the world will be moving towards various versions of that socialism which the neoliberals have demonized, made into a dreaded concept during the Friedmanite era.
During the turbulent 1960’s, however, it had been widely felt that governments had a right and, more than that, a duty to interfere in the markets from time to time in order to protect the working and teaching and farming and fishing masses of their people. This interference was called “socialism.” Where governments actually ruled the markets and planned their behaviour, this was called “communism.” In both systems, which essentially yielded to neoliberal capitalism in the late 1980’s, workers and teachers and farmers and fishermen had rights and they had dignity.
This was surely not the case under neoliberal capitalism. Neoliberal capitalism created an economic model which gave opportunity for investment bankers, politically connected entrepreneurs, financial speculators, lawyers/accountants, and other types who, strictly speaking, were non-productive, to rule the roost and, if they so wished, to loot public treasuries through all kinds of complicated and nefarious schemes. Well, it is now clear to all and sundry that these types did so wish, to loot, and the result of that looting is that we are now witnessing and experiencing a global financial collapse.
In a sense, Ralph Fonseca, beginning 1989, was just riding a global rhythm, but in 1994, for example, there was still enough workers’ and teachers’ and farmers’ and fishermen’s power within the People’s United Party for Fonseca’s model and might to be challenged, by “May 15.” We can see now that Said Musa’s PUP leadership victory in 1996 was really Ralph Fonseca’s triumph, and beginning in August 1998 in Belize there was the classic Friedmanite free-for-all with public moneys, at the systemic level of a private elite.
The fact of the matter is that under Ralph’s regime, the PUP, founded in 1950 on the workers and the teachers and farmers and the fishermen of Belize, moved, amazingly, to the right of the right wing UDP. So that, what you saw in the streets of Belize City and Belmopan in early 2005 was the grandchildren of the founders of the PUP fighting against the financial “colonialists” who had successfully conspired to take over the PUP.
The PUP had moved so far to the right, in favor of capital, privilege and property, that the UDP, which had, from its National Party foundations in the early 1950’s, been the right wing political party here, found itself, whether consciously, sub-consciously or unconsciously, pushed into an alliance with the working and teaching and farming and fishing masses of the Belizean people. This took place in August of 2004.
That perhaps strange alliance swept the UDP to national municipal victory in 2006 and general election victory in 2008. The presumed discomfort of that alliance, however, may have been exposed on Sunday at the UDP’s convention to choose a Belize City Council mayoral candidate for 2009. The right wing leadership of the UDP just naturally assumed they would go through the motions and oust the incumbent mayor, Zenaida Moya, but Moya’s trade union roots shocked UDP leadership with the force of their militancy. The party printed 6,000 ballots but expected only 3,000 voters on Sunday. What they got was nearly 7,000, and Moya swept to victory.
The alliance which Zenaida forged in order to defend her incumbency featured Mesopotamia area rep, Michael Finnegan, a man who has for 35 years been unfailingly loyal to the UDP, as an organization, and to UDP Leader, Dean Barrow, as an individual. The reason we say it is now Barrow’s move is because he cannot allow this Zenaida-Finnegan alliance to continue. If he does, that alliance will grow. It will grow from strength to strength, and it will extend into the countryside. If Hon. Barrow does not cut a deal with Hon. Finnegan, the political landscape will change not only in the UDP, but in the whole nation of Belize.
You know how the weather people will often say, with some discernible relish, how “conditions are favorable for development” when these tropical storms and depressions form? Well, the international conditions are completely favorable for the Zenaida-Finnegan storm to develop.
In the aftermath of the sensational Moya victory on Sunday, there have been public accusations that Lord Michael Ashcroft was prominent in Moya’s campaign financing. We mention these accusations, but we will not comment on the accusations, or speculate on the implications if the accusations are of substance. That is another story entirely. For now, to repeat, it’s Hon. Barrow’s move.