Life and Debt

Stephanie Black's documentary on Jamaica's economic woes begins with the
arrival of a group of exclusively white vacationers into the airport
wearing expectant grins on their faces. En route to Montego Bay, their
frolics at the beach or around the hotel swimming pool will appear
throughout the film as an ironic counterpoint to the economic realities of
the other Jamaica, a country suffering from a 30 year IMF austerity regime
and multinational domination of the traditional self-sustaining, largely
agricultural economy. 

This powerful film is the first to put a human face on what is known
popularly as "globalization". While it relies heavily on the informed
narration of Jamaica Kincaid (based on her "A Small Place") and interviews
with former leftist Prime Minister Michael Manley and radical economics
professor Michael Witter, the true stars of the movie are the farmers and
working people of Jamaica who not only understand what is going on in class
terms, but can explain it eloquently. In addition, there are a group of
three heavily dreadlocked 'rasta' men who function as a kind of Greek
chorus. As they sit around a campfire in the dead of night, they explain
their brethren's suffering through a combination of biblical prophecy and
anti-imperialist common sense. As a sort of devils advocate, Stanley
Fischer--second in command at the IMF--is interviewed throughout the film.
With an unrelenting cat that swallowed the canary smirk on his face,
Fischer defends IMF policies as beneficial for Jamaica despite the
documentary's repeated evidence to the contrary.

Although Michael Manley has been out of power for many years, his
bitterness over his ouster and his country's subsequent decline remains
palpable. His take on the primary cause of Jamaica's descent into hell is
most interesting, considering the current conjuncture. He states that the
energy crisis of the early 1970s forced his government to take out loans to
cover the rising expenses of fuel-based imports, from fertilizer to
gasoline. Since private banks do not make such loans, his only recourse was
to go to the IMF and World Bank. Since Jamaica had only recently emerged
from colonialism, the economy was vulnerable to begin with.

Key to its success was a long-term development plan that could have
prioritized native infrastructure and resources. But the IMF was not
interested in the long-term. Demanding short-term repayment of the debt,
they insisted that costs be cut in exactly those sectors that could support
long-term development: education, health and native--largely
agrarian-based--production for the export market. Not only would Jamaica
have to tighten its belt, it would have to open up its doors to foreign
imports by eliminating all protectionist measures that favored local
industry and farming.

With these economic and political foundations in place, "Life and Debt"
then proceeds to examine various sectors of the economy that have fallen
victim to "globalization". It starts with a trip to the countryside where
local produce farmers explain how potato, onion and carrot imports from the
United States have put them out of business. In farming villages that
formerly provided livelihoods to virtually every family, there is nothing
but unplowed fields and abandoned houses nowadays.

While the vacationers in Montego Bay assume that they are enjoying local
cuisine, in fact everything they are eating has been flown in from Miami.
In one scene, a Jamaican hotel guide warns them about watching out for
thieves when they stroll about on nearby streets. In all likelihood, the
thieves are youths who have been forced to flee to the city in search of
non-existent work. The only sector of the Jamaican economy that is
expanding at this point is the security guard business. We see young men,
with no other job opportunities, being trained with vicious looking German
Shepherds to keep the 'riffraff' at bay.

We also learn that the native dairy industry has been destroyed by the
import of powdered milk from the United States. Jamaican dairymen, who have
been prosperous for most of their lives and who have provided jobs for
their countrymen, show us the abandoned stalls that cows once occupied.
Most of these animals were sold to slaughterhouses at a loss years ago.
They also explain that it would be virtually impossible to restart the
dairy industry if the price of powdered milk ever shot up. What is being
fostered by the neo-liberal regime is not development but dependency.

The crowning blow against Jamaican agriculture arrived in the context of
the "banana wars" in Europe that newspaper coverage--to no great
surprise--left Jamaica's national interests at the margins. This conflict
was seen as a bitter rivalry between the USA and the EU over whether or not
Dole, Chiquita and Delmonte would be allowed to crack a market that had
been excluded to them.

The documentary fills in the details. As it turned out, Great Britain had a
long-standing trade agreement with Jamaica that favored their banana
exports. This was seen as a way of compensating for the legacy of
colonialism. Moreover, this was the only place where Jamaican banana
exports stood a chance since they were more expensive to grow than in
places like Honduras where American firms could rely on the cheap wages
provided by a union free environment, enforced by official and
semi-official state repression. With 95 percent of the world's banana
market sewn up by American multinationals, they were not satisfied. Unless
Great Britain's market could be penetrated, they would not rest. With their
success, Jamaica's collapse was ensured.

As ruined peasants flooded into Kingston, they became a source of cheap
labor. Imperialism then decided to do the Jamaicans a favor by creating
Free Trade Zones that consisted of huge textile assembly plants near the
docks. Ships would unload materials cut in the USA and a mostly female work
force would work for $30 per week sewing garments for Hanes, Brooks
Brothers and Tommy Hilfiger. Women who worked in these plants showed how
their pay slips matched up against their expenses. Basically, it would be
impossible for somebody to survive on these wages. When working-class
protests against low wages and miserable working conditions erupted, the
owners closed the shops down and relocated to Mexico, where a more docile
work force had been found. Of course, the same kinds of migration from the
countryside into the cities in Mexico was creating the kind of reserve army
of the unemployed that provides a fertile soil for maquila type exploitation.

"Life and Debt" is now being shown at the Screening Room in New York City.
In the unlikely event that it appears on Public Television in the USA,
where leftwing documentaries are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, it
should be viewed by activists and academics determined to fight global
capitalism. A tape of this documentary would be an excellent organizing
tool for the former and a classroom resource for the latter. Finally, on
the July 23, 2001 NY Times Op-Ed pages, there is a piece by Orlando
Patterson that makes many of the same points as the film:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/23/opinion/23PATT.html

Orlando Patterson, a professor of sociology at Harvard, was special adviser
for social policy and development to Prime Minister Michael Manley of
Jamaica from 1972 to 1980. He notes:

"The bad news is that Jamaica's attempts at economic development have
largely failed. Here, as in Puerto Rico and most other Caribbean islands,
post-independence attempts at industrialization have fallen apart. Jamaica
now has vast shantytowns; unemployment at depression levels; and high rates
of economic inequality, crime and drug abuse. The government has met many
conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund in return for much-
needed loans: a stable annual inflation rate of 5.8 percent, falling
interest rates, adequate international reserves and the return of positive
growth. But at the same time, public debt is nearly 160 percent of the
gross domestic product and interest consumes more than half of all
government expenditure, leaving little to address the social problems."


Louis Proyect
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