False God: how the globalization myth has impoverished Canada

Review

By James Laxer | 1994-05-01 12:00:00

This book is especially valuable for its analysis of the drive for corporate, multinational control of all aspects of economic (and ultimately political) life which goes under the name of "globalization." With the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) now in force, it is essential to understand what kind of "new world order" we are getting into.

Made possible by the unprecedented mobility of capital, the free trade agenda includes an assault on wages, especially at home, the weakening of labor unions, and the erosion of social and economic programs. It also weakens the political control and undermines the traditional prerogatives of the nation state-the ideology that justifies this market-driven program has been adopted by Liberals and Conservatives alike.

Taken as a whole, Laxer argues that this process pulls Canada closer and closer into the orbit of American power and American business and social practices. His central chapter, "An American Decline," points out the increasingly vulnerable position of the United States of America in the world and the corresponding deterioration in the social fabric of American life.

Peace Magazine May-Jun 1994

Peace Magazine May-Jun 1994, page 23. Some rights reserved.

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