Resistance in Theory and Practice to Global Capitalism and Austerity, September 19, 2014, Gwangju, South Korea

By Peter Bohmer, faculty in Economics and Political Economy,
The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, U.S.A.

Presented at the International Symposium Lecture series, Globalization and Democracy at the at the Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, Gwangju South Korea, September 19, 2014

I want to thank the organizers of this event for inviting me. It is an honor to be here. I also want to thank the Korean people who have struggled for democracy and for economic justice, who have resisted U.S. militarism and neoliberalism. I am inspired by the heroism of so many in Gwangju in the May, 1980 uprising against the military dictatorship, for the unification of Korea and for self-management . From May 18th-May 27th, 1980, you showed what a participatory democracy could look like. I hope to learn from you about past and current struggles in Gwangju and South Korea and to share my understanding and insights based on 47 years as an activist in struggles against U.S. imperialism, and as a college professor of economics. By economics, I do not mean neoclassical economics which justifies the obscene global inequality of income and wealth and takes capitalism as a given. I consider myself a people’s or political economist which takes as its starting point the needs of all people for food, quality health care, shelter, clothing, education, communication, transportation, meaningful and joyous work, and the ability to live in harmony with nature. Economics should investigate the role of past, present and possible alternative systems in meeting or not meeting human needs. If our current system systematically prevents these needs from being fulfilled, let us imagine and create alternatives. …