According to its anti-terror blueprint, the United States said there exists an axis of evil comprising Iran, Iraq and North Korea. But an even insidious axis, one which unleashes economic terror, is housed within the US itself under the guise of the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and The World Bank.

Having achieved military might, the superpower has now embarked on an economic conquest, its weapon  globalisation.

Social activist Agnes Khoo who is in Malaysia in conjunction with the International Womens Day spoke to malaysiakini on the topic of globalisation and its impact on workers in Asia.

Agnes  social critic, feminist, environmentalist, anti-globalisation activist, human rights activist  grew up during the turbulent 70s in the then fledgling Singapore. She witnessed a political upheaval and saw the arrest of people close to her.

It was during these pressing times she learnt the meaning of solidarity and international brotherhood in the face of political oppression, including the Internal Security Act detention. Although Agnes was never detained, the impact on her was indelible  she became a full-time activist.

Her work today involves dealing with the everyday Joe: The factory worker, the working woman, and college students on social and economic issues. She works predominantly with women, those at the bottom rung of the economic scale.

In 1998 she coordinated the Women Workers Exchange Programme involving women in the Asian region in response to the 1997 economic crisis, while working with the Committee for Asian Women. She had earlier worked with in-your-face environmental organisation, Greenpeace.

Agnes, who is in her mid-30s, is in Malaysia to talk about her experiences as well as learn of the local conditions of women workers. She was invited by a non-governmental organisation  Strategic Info Research Development.

The unassuming Agnes, sipping on Evian at the Dome Caf in Kuala Lumpurs Mid-Valley Shopping Mall, was rather reluctant to speak about growing up in Singapore.

However, she was more than willing to share her views on the negative impacts of globalisation.

She is currently a research fellow at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, working on a project documenting the oral history of women in the country. She was, peculiarly, tight-lipped over her work which she says will be completed in 2003.

Why oral history of women? Agnes explains, Women have very rich valuable history to share. But men are not interest in them. Men write history about battles with other men, conquering one country after another. Agnes work is a historical study of the lives of women.

Exploited labour

Globalisation, she said, is the intensification and expansion of capitalism. While capitalism is the economic system in which all or most of the means of production and distribution such as land, factory, railroads are privately owned and operated for pure profit, globalisation is an attempt to corporatise the world.

According to Agnes, globalisation is not the white knight it is popularly made out to be.

She describes globalisation as a collusion between governments and business elites, turning the entire earth into one global market for their goods and services.

It effectively turns the global village into one mobile, flexible pool of exploited labour. It legitimises the full utilisation of the world resources for the benefit of its practitioners pockets.

Women workers suffer most from the globalisation agenda, said Agnes. Privatisation leads to retrenchments and women are most often victimised

After working for 20-odd years in a factory, the women finds themselves out of job with minimal notice. It is difficult for them to get new jobs as they are now older. New jobs would also mean lower salaries. Women find that they are unable to upgrade or improve themselves as theirs is a dead-end job.

In Korea, Agnes said, men are given preference over women when it comes to retaining jobs. Their rationale is that men are the breadwinners. The affected Korean women, predominantly office workers or pink-collar workers, protested but were set upon by the kusadai or hired gangsters.

In India, the working conditions of data entry clerks are as bad as those of a factory worker.

Where women workers are dominant, the working conditions, salary and security are dismal, said Agnes.

In Hong Kong, if a woman is over 40 it is difficult for her to land a job as there are much younger workers to take her place. And when factories moved from Hong Kong to China to capitalise on the cheap labour, women were again at the losing end.

Also in Hong Kong, foreign domestic workers (all women) were told to take pay-cuts while the country weathered the financial crisis.

However, they refused to take this sitting down and protested the pay-cut. The migrant workers trade unions came together for this purpose.

Migrant workers in Malaysia should do the same, said Agnes, who added that they should gather as an autonomous force.

In this way, the migrant workers can solve their own problems, and Malaysia will gain recognition for its efforts to assist the workers.

Permanent feature

Describing globalisation as a permanent feature of the 21st century, Agnes explains it was not a modern concept which materialised out of thin air. It is a continuation of capitalist development that took place at the end of World War II.

The Globalisation Era follows-up from the Development Era characterised by export-led development strategies. The Development Era effectively led to the reduction of the rural agricultural sector which was forced to give way to the rapidly growing urban manufacturing sector.

There was intensive labour use which led to exploitation in high productivity sectors such as the garment and shoe manufacturing sectors in Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong and the electronic products sector in Singapore.

The 1997 Asian economic crisis that began with the collapse of the Thai baht ushered in a more intensive and hectic IMF-led economic development mode  Globalisation Era.

Globalisation is characterised by the privatisation of previously government controlled enterprises such as health services, education, water, electricity, transportation, media and telecommunications.

The consequence of globalisation is the removal of the basic security of the peoples survival. Profit-orientated corporations will move to retrench workers in the name of productivity and increased efficiency. Downsizing exercises, mergers and takeovers are synonymous with globalisation. This evidently leads to the collapse of small and medium-sized enterprises, on local and regional scales.

Retrenchment, early retirement, and high unemployment are common features of privatisation exercises. Capitalists who feed on privatisation projects do not look favourably upon trade unions and workers movement. This leads to the abuse of labour rights.

People are made to work longer hours with lower wages. They are taken on as temporary workers. The mushrooming of sweatshops in the West and increasingly in Asia are the results of globalisation, said Agnes.

She added that with globalisation, labour resource moves from country to country. When this happens migrant workers are oftentimes left unprotected and at the mercy of the receiving country.

An example, are the Indonesian maids in Malaysia whose plight is constantly highlighted by the local media. The workers have been physically and economically abused as there is a lack of regulation for their protection. Sending countries, on the other hand, are reluctant to raise the issue for fear of their citizens being sent back as this would translate into a loss of revenue.

Global migration of workers leads to increased xenophobia and racism against migrants and foreigners.

Globalisation also leads to liberalisation of trade which allows for free competition between foreign and local products. The WTO becomes the parent body with control over and above national governments in trade negotiations and arbitration of disputes between countries.

In the end, globalisation will widen the gap between the rich and poor, divide the North and the South, separate men and women economically and socially.

Free trade also leads to increased competition within the region for international investment. Countries are pushed to provide a cheap labour force in order to win investments.

Industrialisation signals the abandonment of the agricultural sector which leaves many in rural areas suffering from poverty. Urban-based industrialised countries suffer from massive lay-offs, and the control and crushing of trade unions.

Grim future

Agnes also paints a grim picture of the future of the world under the cloud of globalisation.

It will leave the control of food production in the hands of the powerful nation. The United States will become the greatest grain producer for the world  exporting rice to Asia.

It will lead to the control of basic necessities such as water, oil and gas in the hands of rich nations. They will also control technology and intellectual creativity.

According to Agnes even communal conflicts have their roots in globalisation. Perpetual communal conflicts along religious, ethnic and national identity lines are the negative impacts caused by economic problems that have their roots in globalisation.

However all is not loss, claims Agnes: Workers are struggling against the tide through strikes, slow-down actions, petitions, negotiations by trade unions and demonstrations.

In Hong Kong, these was a March Against Poverty and anti-globalisation rallies during the World Economic Forum in November last year.

In Taiwan, new issues are constantly generated such as sex workers rights, homosexuality and disability rights.

In China, workers industrial actions have increased alongside WTO admission.

Lastly, Agnes said from Think Globally, Act Locally, the slogan has changed to Global Hope and Global Struggle.