The Neoliberal Project and Globalization of Poverty

In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by the United States, Canada and Mexico. This treaty economies and undermined the sovereignty of the three countries. Under the guise of "free trade" actually trying to empower corporations at the expense of nations - the Reagan-Thatcher revolution on steroids. Under such treaties corporations have the right to sue governments if regulations undermine corporate profits. Consumer safety, protection of the environment and the rights of workers are concerned little to the corporately controlled World Trade Organization ( WTO) which rules on such claims. Since then a series of similar treaties "free trade zone" have been prosecuted involving various combinations of nations.

The Neoliberal Project went into high gear in 1995 with the establishment of the World Trade Organization, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO launched immediately a systematic campaign to increase the power of companies, through treaties 'free trade' which are mandatory for all WTO members, including of course the EU. the overall effect of Neoliberal Project has been decreasing living standards, undermine national sovereignty, destabilize national finances, and generally destroy everything the Bretton Woods system was meant to protect.

In the so - called "third world", particularly in sub - Saharan Africa, the ravages of neoliberal project have been extended further by the actions of the IMF and other means - as documented by John Perkins in  Confessions of an Economic Murderer .Governments are encouraged or forced to take on debts that have no ability to repay. 

When governments turn to the IMF for relief, additional loans are granted, but are taxed by draconian conditions. Governments are forced to cut social services and are forced to sell national assets such as water rights at bargain prices to corporations. 

It becomes something illegal for people, to give an example of what it means Draconian, collect rainwater, as it is considered a steal corporations who have bought the water rights of the nation. By such means poverty has been systematically created wherever the IMF has managed to get its claws.