John Minns

The Labour Movement in Taiwan

The spectacular industrialisation of Taiwan has created a large working class. Yet, while there have been a number of inspiring struggles and attempts to organise, a powerful labour movement has no...

Whose Streets? Our Streets! Activist Perspectives on the Australian Anti-capitalist Movement

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of the Australian anti-capitalist movement of 2000/01 as seen through the eyes of its activists. On the basis of thirty-five interviews conducted in mid-2002 we examine the background of the activist layer, the nature of the social networks and connective structures which shaped the Australian anti-capitalist movement, the character of the mobilizing structures that were used to organize the protest movement, the degree to which the Australian movement was connected to international activity or learned from international political theorizing, the tactics that were used at the protests, and the political frameworks that shaped the thinking of key activists. We conclude with some considerations as to the strengths and weaknesses of the movement.

The Labour Movement in South Korea

The labour movement in contemporary South Korea has emerged as one of the most militant and dynamic in the world. Like many other labour movements in the developing world it bears the marks of its colonial background. Two other more singular factors have shaped the modern movement. The first is the devastating impact of the war of 1950-53 and the anti labour governments which followed it in Koreas intense and long-lived Cold War. The second is the state-led industrialisation drive from the 1960s to the 1980s which produced rapid industrial growth, a concentrated and powerful working class and very close ties between business and the state.

Australia’s Refugee Policy: Not a Model for the World

The image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s body, washed up on a Turkish beach is only the most visible face among the large number of tragic deaths resulting from the perilous journey of the world’s desperate to reach safety. Over the years, the arrival of asylum-seekers to Australia has been an issue of significant political contestation. In October 2015 former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott urged European leaders to follow Australia’s example and prevent the recent wave of Syrian refugees from crossing borders. Contrary to Abbott’s appeal, the ‘Australian Solution’ is a model neither Europe nor anyone else should follow. Australia’s refugee policies emerged not in response to the number of asylum-seeker arrivals, but rather as a political appeal to fear and segregation in order to scapegoat the Other. We outline Australia’s refugee policies over the previous two decades (1992–2015), discuss some of their negative consequences and the implications of the Australian model being adopted internationally. Finally, we propose alternative ways forward for both Australia and Europe.

Independence and Revolution in The Americas

The articles in this special edition of the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research began as papers presented at two conferences held at the Australian National University in 2010. One was the Ninth Biennial Conference of the Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia (AILASA) under the theme of Independence: Two Centuries of Struggle. The other was titled Mexico: Revolution and Beyond. The AILASA conference marked a very significant occasion for those involved in Iberian and Latin American Studies: the bicentenary of independence from Spain for five Latin American countries—Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. In a broader sense the year 1810 also represented the beginnings of struggles which finally led to independence for all of the possessions of Spain in the Americas and, later, those of Portugal. Mexico: Revolution and Beyond, marked the centenary of the beginning of the Mexican revolution, a period of huge and violent upheaval that resulted eventually in a ruling party which maintained its grip on power for over seventy years. Both commemorations involved great historic turning points which shaped the future. Along with the French and American revolutions of the late 18 century, Latin American independence helped to transform world politics in the centuries to come. Independence in Latin America also had a profound impact on the once-great empires based in the Iberian Peninsula. It underlined their continuing decline in relation to more economically advanced European rivals. The conference on the Mexican revolution also highlighted a major struggle, although one with more local importance. The Mexican revolution was one of the most bloody of all time and was the first successful revolution of the twentieth century. It brought onto the stage of history millions of the Mexican poor attempting to impose their revolutionary agenda for social change onto what began as a bourgeois liberal attempt at reform. It helped to create a notion of the heroic rebel, gun in hand, fighting for the dispossessed, an image which persists in zapatismo in Mexico even today. Yet both major upheavals—critical as they were in reshaping the positions of states and social classes—eventually brought great disillusionment. Bolı́var’s dream of a unified state—Gran Colombia—collapsed amid rivalry between regional elites. Moreover, political independence did not transform Latin America’s place in the world. Economic dependence remained; intervention by European great powers and especially by the United States continued. Mexico’s revolution laid the basis for what Mario Vargas Llosa labelled the “perfect dictatorship”. However, both great historic events—the struggle for

Taiwan: the Migrant State

Unlike Mexico and South Korea, Taiwan has never hosted an Olympic Games, and is very unlikely to do so. But Taiwan, or the Republic of China (ROC), as its government calls it, has had the most intense, long-term and stable economic growth of the three. Between 1965 and 1988, real GNP grew at an annual average of 9%.1 The value of manufacturing increased from 15.6% of GDP in 1955 to a peak of 37.6% in 1985.

The Rise and Fall of the Midas States

The gap between the advanced capitalist societies and those in which most of the world’s population live continues to widen. Of course, many millions of poor people live in the richest countries. But one is much more likely to be poor in some countries rather than others. The gap in income between the fifth of the world’s population living in the richest countries and the fifth living in the poorest was 11 to one in 1913, 30 to one in 1960, 60 to one in 1990 and 74 to one in 1997.1 The world market simply does not deal kindly with underdeveloped countries. The industrial transformations of Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan are incomplete. Although the first two of these were admitted to the OECD in the 1990s, all three are still the poor relations of the advanced capitalist countries. However, compared to most underdeveloped countries, they have indeed undergone massive industrial growth – a fact which makes them unusual in the Third World.

South Korea: Devastation and Development

South Korea, along with other rapidly growing economies in East Asia, was dubbed a ‘miracle’ by many with an ideological axe to grind – especially by those who advocated export-oriented policies and the ‘discipline’ of the world market. The ‘miracle’ was given official approval with the publication of The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy, by the World Bank in 1993.1 Even compared with other NICs, the transition of South Korea was spectacular. Its GDP per capita in 1960 was about the same as the Congo. Until the early 1960s, per capita income lagged behind many African countries – including Ghana and Kenya – and behind most in Latin America.2 The Philippines at this time was considered by many as a nearly unreachable role model for Korea.3 Over the following 30 years, South Korean growth easily outstripped all of Latin America and Africa. By 1992 it was the third biggest producer of colour TV sets and the second biggest of videocassette recorders and microwave ovens.4 In 1996 it joined the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – the first of the Asian ‘tigers’ to be admitted – and became the twelfth largest economy in the world.

Newly Industrialising Countries and the State

King Midas had the power to turn everything he touched to gold. A similar touch was apparently possessed by the states of South Korea, Taiwan and Mexico for at least several decades. They were among a very select group of Third World nations which, since the Second World War, made the transition from primarily agricultural economies to industrialised ones. In each case the state, rather than private business, was both driver and engine of growth. If there was a ‘Midas touch’, it was the state which had it.

The South Korean ‘Miracle’ in Decline

In 1988, South Korea hosted the Olympic Games in Seoul. The government bid for and planned the Games as a message to the international community that South Korea was a modern, industrialised and democratic country. But well before the opening ceremony, the South Korean ‘miracle’ had already begun to unravel.