  Microcredit is an illusion of freedom which is being sold to the poor by finance capitalists. Under capitalism, even freedom becomes a commodity.
Mike B)
<http://www.france24.com/en/20080404-bangladesh-burden-microcredit-
caring-grameen-bank-mohammed-yunnus&navi=ASIE-PACIFIQUE>
CARING
The crushing burden of microcredit
FRIDAY 04 APRIL 2008
In Bangladesh, FRANCE 24 reporters find that far from alleviating
poverty, microcredit has been plunging people deeper into debt.
By FRANCE 24
Microcredit changed Shobi Rani’s life. An impoverished yoghurt
seller, Rani travels across her region in northern Bangladesh on a
cycle rickshaw, selling her dairy produce. She is a beneficiary of
microcredit, the much touted development scheme to help eradicate
poverty.
Three months ago, Rani received a loan for 500 euros from the Grameen
Bank to start her little dairy enterprise. Every week, a bank
official carefully checks how her business is going.
The brainchild of Rani’s fellow countryman Mohammed Yunus, who won
the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, the Grameen Bank has been hailed for
executing the microcredit mantra: giving the poor a helping hand, not
a handout.
Called ‘the banker of the poor,’ Grameen has been attracting big
businesses such as Danone, the French food giant, who supplies the
yoghurt to Rani and thousands of other women in the area involved in
similar projects.
But the situation is far from rosy in Kalihati, one of the first
Bangladeshi villages to benefit from Grameen’s low interest credit
scheme. The villagers here who have taken a loan are unable to
reimburse their credit, and claim to be harassed by Grameen Bank
representatives. Korshed Alom, a former debt collector, was put into
early retirement for having questioned the Grameen Bank’s methods:
‘Their technique is to scare borrowers and insult them. We tell them
to sell their clothes, that they have no other choice. I’m not proud
of myself, but several times, I had even been obliged to say ‘sell
your children.’’
The Bank’s representatives choose not to respond to these
accusations. It is impossible to obtain an interview with Mohammed
Yunus, and the Grameen Bank headquarters are off-limits for
journalists who are too curious.
The Grameen Bank counts more than 100 million clients in the world’s
poorest countries. It targets 500 million clients in 2020.
 | This is a safety valve for capitalism to maintain the market even in the most deprived populations, It amounts to a bandaid to keep the creaking system running globally. I much prefer the barefoot economics of Manfred Max Neef as a means of liberating the poor as far as is possible from market forces under the conditions of the global capitalist hegemony. In Marxian terms it is the lumpenprolitariat and the peasantry from which change will arise in response to the catastrophic systems failure. There is clear evidence of such developments in Venezuela, Cuba, Paraguay and Bolivia these are in my view the developments we must defend and must expand these stepping stones to freedom in whatever way we can. |
 | The simple thing is that when you are living in poverty you cannot afford to take on credit, no matter how it is packaged. You have no cushion against any adverse circumstance even the slightest ripple will knock your pack of cards flying. I have looked sideways at these schemes before, you post finally details why I was right to be wary about them. Thank you. |
 |  In Marxian terms it is the lumpenprolitariat and the peasantry from which change will arise in response to the catastrophic systems failure. There is clear evidence of such developments in Venezuela, Cuba, Paraguay and Bolivia these are in my view the developments we must defend and must expand these stepping stones to freedom in whatever way we can.  I used to think that *some* hope lay in that direction. That was back in the days of the Black Panthers and SDS. I still think that there are positive aspects to rebellion in what has become known as the Third World. I'm certainly not for attacking attempts being made to improve the living standards of the poor--the lumpen and peasantry-- or, to bring them into the industrial working class. This is essentially what happened in China and Vietnam. But to think in any way that wage labour is a key to socialism, a classless society or to a higher stage of freedom than civilization now stands on, is illusionary, IMO. So, while I can support measures taken to develop education and to raise the living standards of the indigenous in the South American region of the world and applaud both the collapse of authoritarian capitalist regimes of various colours and anti-imperialist resistance, I still maintain that the next stage of freedom can only come about when the workers become class conscious enough to organise their own emancipation from wage-slavery. This kind of praxis (unity of theory and practice) cannot come about on the basis of nationalism or religion for these are alienated, reified forms dominating real, sensuous life and enabling the politics of domination to remain intact. |
| You're welcome, Iri. It's hard to live without the cruch of illusions to prop one up; but if we are to face reality and embrace the potential of our freedom, it must be done. No running to some bureaucratic power structure headed by the usual patriarch. No running to illusionary ideologies which ground themselves in our hopes for a kinder, gentler form of exploitation. |
| I completely agree. Actually those illusionary crutches are fast resembling stone walls and iron bars. |
 | My father used to tell me "pay cash, live longer." Debt is the yoke of capitalist slavery. |
| Which is an interesting quote Frank, when we consider the insistence that World Bank loans assist developing (poor) countries, I suppose that is "macrodebt" and now we have a demonstration of "microdebt" supposedly "giving a hand up".
How did that old song go "I owe my soul to the company store"
|
| I've heard that-that is the tune. And going into debt is the primary way to establish credit. One must use debt wisely by lending it to others lol |
| but if you are not going to go into debt, why do you need to establish credit? lol |
| SIXTEEN TONS - 20/01/1956
4 weeks at #1 - 11 weeks on chart
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said Well a-bless my soul
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you, then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I posted the original to my vidi clips you tube on this page. |
| I found it lol and thanks for the lyrics too. |
| I cheered when the dockworkers in Zimbabwe refused to unload the Chinese vessel of armaments. I hope others take note....... Exactly wren..I work with a group called "Community Solidarity" here in WA. It's composed of workers who help other workers who are struggling for better wages and working conditions. Solidarity between official unions is "outlawed" in Australia. It's called "secondary boycotting". But, workers in the community can individually decide to help other workers, regardless of union affiliation. This is akin to the One Big Union which the IWW promotes. We Wobs organise the worker, not the job. And so, I too cheered when the dock workers in South Africa and other workers in the community of the southern region of Africa refused to move those arms from that Chinese owned ship so that they could be sent to the rulers of Zimbabwe to crush the workers' opposition (even more than they're crushing them now.) Anyone wishing to, might go here for a summary of these recent events: Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7366599.stm |
 | The strikes are starting here, a major oil refinery is closed at the moment and many schools were closed for a day recntly. Strikes are a last resort but people here in many sectors have been pushed too far, poverty is at it's highest level for two decades There is still little support for people fighting for better conditions especially since Thatcher took away so many Union powers when smashing the miners in the eighties. I remember trying to support the miners in Yorkshire but being stopped at a road block by 'police', with no identifying numbers or badges who were preventing anyone suspected of supporting the strike from entering the county. I eventually managed to get to a mine where I come from in Northumberland ... more unidentifiable police attacking miners , thugs or soldiers dressed in police uniforms.. There are now strict legal restrictions on joining picket lines or supporting workers in other sectors or unions. This in a supposedly 'free' country. |
| This just in from economist Dean Baker on the question of how to assess debt: [ http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=04&year=2008&base_name=did_robert_rubin_jeopardize_fi#comments]__________________________________________ The Government Debt Needs a Denominator The U.S. debt was much larger in 1975 than in 1945, at the end of World War II, yet the country was much less burdened by debt. The U.S government debt is more than 200 times as large as Zimbabwe's government debt, yet Zimbabwe is far more heavily burdened by debt. If these statements seem paradoxical, they shouldn't. To assess the indebtedness of a nation (or a person or corporation), you must know their income. A debt figure in itself will provide little information. One million in debt would be a very big deal to most of us. It would be virtually invisible to Bill Gates. In assessing the presidential candidates' various commitments, the NYT reports [ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/us/politics/27fiscal.html?hp] that they would add at least $5.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. This implies an increase of a bit more than 60 percent over the current level of indebtedness, which is a bit over $9 trillion. Since the economy is projected to grow by approximately 55 percent over this period, the growth in debt implies an increase in the ratio of debt to GDP of about 3 percentage points. That is more debt than I would like to see, but not exactly a disaster. More importantly, since the NYT gives no data on GDP, the article provides little basis for assessing the potential damage posed by running deficits of the magnitude projected. It is a very simple matter to include debt to GDP ratios in stories such as this. They should be there. --Dean Baker |
| And yet their work is vital to Target's success. They do have power but have been neutralized psychologically You're so spot on, maicelia. Workers, Target workers included, have the power to run industries already BECAUSE THEY DO RUN 'THE ECONOMY'. However, they don't own and control 'the economy' they run. They actually resist the notion of gaining freedom from wage-slavery because they don't want to upset the people they believe are their masters, their betters, the CEOs and other bureaucrats who have the power in contemporary class society. Eric Fromm discovered and wrote about the social psychology behind this phenomenon in his great work, ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM. People in general and most people are workers (i.e. they have to sell themselves into wage-slavery in order to make a living) are brought up to accept top down authority. This work was based on his social psychological reseach he had done at the University of Frankfurt during the last years of the Weimar Republic and up until the Nazis gained State power in Germany. In one part of ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM, Fromm wrote:
"..freedom has a twofold meaning for modern man: that he has been freed from
traditional authorities and has become an 'individual,' but that at the same
time he has become isolated, powerless and an instrument of purposes outside
of himself, alienated from himself and others; furthermore, that this state
undermines his self, weakens and frightens him, and makes him ready for
submission to new kinds of bondage. Positive freedom on the other hand is
identical with the full realization of the individual's potentialities,
together with his ability to live actively and spontaneously."
|
 | I do appreciate Erich Fromm. I never recovered from reading his The Sane Society in the 60's.
It does seem that fear lies beneath the individual's acceptance of bondage; fear and its companion, alienation. How has this happened to us? |
| I really think that alienation begins when humans start setting up systems which justify, legitimate and make seem the norm, the separation of the humans from what they create. This dynamic begins as soon as we are born within class society and we learn to accept the authority of adults who have previously been brought up within such systems of power for separation of the person from the object which they create is the essential building block of oppressive social relations. Accepting that system is part and parcel of what we recognize as maturation.
A social revolution would have to begin by attempting to turn that dynamic around in oh so many ways. It would be what the Wobs call in the Preamble, the beginning of "creating the new society within the womb of the old." One can have authority, indeed one has to have authority in bringing up a new generation. The key to freedom is to enhance it by allowing the younger generation to learn from the older geneation and for the older generation to pass on knowledge in way which the younger generation recognize as enhancing their freedom as opposed to putting limits on it just for the sake of saving and continuing top down authority as it exists now. Fromm has much to say about this in all his studies. I think he nailed the situation of passivity and acceptance in class society, not only this one but ones of the past as well. Fromm's not perfect; but he really did have very valuable insights into the social psychology of why so many people act like automatons and why there is attraction to leaders who would have people willing give away their freedom for the security of knowing their leader approves of them. |
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