How is the military used to safeguard the interests of capitalism?
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apitalism is an economic or political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
The East India Company was an English company formed for the exploitation of trade in Asia and India. It started as a monopolistic trading body, but the company gradually became more influential within politics and acted as an agent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century. The company regularly used force to capture land and killed hundreds if not thousands of people in the process. (Banerjee, 2008). The East India company governed India from roughly 1770-1860. This is an example of corporate colonialism where the internal governance of the state was disrupted and controlled by a corporate imperial centre. The company engaged in conquering markets, eliminating competition and securing cheap sources of raw materials. This is also a prime example of necrocapitalism which is organizational accumulation that involves depriving people of their land and controlling them by using force and the threat of death. (Banerjee, 2008).
Klein (2007) argues that neoliberal free market policies as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some developing countries because of a deliberate strategy of ‘shock therapy’. ‘Shock therapy’ involves exploiting a national crisis to push through controversial policies. For example, airstrikes in Iraq caused a shock and led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Three different types of shock were used in Iraq including the shock of war (e.g. the airstrikes), then economic shock therapy (e.g. privatising the oil industry) and finally the shock of enforcement (including torture). In the first 3.5 years of occupation, over 60,000 Iraqi’s were captured (shock of enforcement). Shock treatments such as torture were then used in prisons. Klein argues that the Iraq War may have been undertaken with the intention of pushing through unpopular policies such as selling off the Oil industry (which was previously owned by the Iraqi Government) to mainly US and British companies.
Private contractors were heavily used during reconstruction in Iraq. For example, In Iraq in 2003 KBR provided 70,000 contractors to support the US in Iraq. Private firms specialise in a particular role which enables them to respond faster and more cost-effectively compared to military or government workers. This can lead to contractors being more efficient and innovative compared to national forces. (Jackson et al, 2007). These firms often recruit a lot of former soldiers, police men and civil servants as they generally pay significantly higher wages. A major benefit of this is that the new employees have already been trained to a high standard and have experience within the industry. Contractors often avoid sanctions even when they violate human rights e.g. US companies were involved in the torture of Iraqi detainees. They use the government contractor defence which effectively means they can’t be held liable for their actions as they are operating under the exclusive control of the US government. This leads to contractors have a lack of accountability.
Th School of the Americas (SOA) is a US combat training school for Latin American soldiers established in 1946. The school was set up with the intention of preventing the spread of communism in Latin America and encouraging capitalism instead. SOA has trained over 70,000 soldiers and leaders from Latin America. SOA taught its students about right-wing military suppression and torture. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped and assassinated by those trained at the SOA. For example, many Chilean graduates were involved with the running of Chile’s dictatorship era from 1973 to 1990. The overthrowing of the government in 1973 was backed by the CIA. Thousands of Chileans went missing or were murdered under the regime. The regime implemented neoliberal economic reforms (e.g. privatisation, widespread deregulation) which were advised by a team of Chilean free-market economists known as the ‘Chicago Boys’ who were educated at American universities. (Brender, 2010). Many of Chicago Boys trained under Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago.