Our Responsibility to Teach about Global Apartheid

• In Event: Poster Session: Foundations Division I

Abstract

Since the founding of the UN we have had mis-information about minority rule in global governance and its parallels with apartheid in South Africa. This presentation draws on my book Unravelling Global Apartheid: An Overview of World Politics (Polity 1996) and lessons from 30 years engagement with institutions of global governance, including campaigns for global accountability, climate justice, the Millennium Development goals, and debt relief.
The concept of global apartheid offers powerful insights into our world order, but has largely been ignored. Its main elements are
Unequal citizenship, based on national identity rather than overt racism, although race is a factor. Global citizenship rights are even more unequal than in apartheid South Africa, as shown by the annual chart of ‘passport power’ produced by Henley & Partners. Majority World citizens experience ‘visa pass laws’ enforced on the Mexican border and by the EU.
Minority rule in the most powerful institutions of global governance: 80% of UN Security Council permanent members are white- majority western states, 60% are European; western political dominance of international economic institutions is even greater.
One-sided protectionism and rules of trade that secure the largest share of value added for the G7 and EU.
To simplify, globalisation, increased competition and migration from poor countries contribute to wage stagnation in the dominant counties and the rise of support for anti-immigration nationalist politicians such as Trump, Le Pen, Brothers of Italy, Farage etc, who echo demands of poor whites in South Africa 100 years ago.
World politics is more complicated than apartheid South Africa, and much has improved over 70 years, but global political and economic inequality is even starker.
We therefore have a responsibility to teach about global minority rule, address the chronic mis-information about our world order, and enable people to identify and use levers of change effectively.
The public and policy makers need to understand the powerful forces at work and address structural inequality. The West did this internally through the “great transformation” after the Great Depression, creating welfare safety nets that have been eroded since 1979. We need an equivalent transformation at a global level to tackle the climate crisis, poverty, inequality, biodiversity loss and other existential issues. Conflict is likely to accelerate as our population grows by another two billion people in less than 40 years. These problems are all solvable, if we recognise the intrinsic equality of all humanity and enable people to have an equal voice in solving our shared problems.

Author

• Titus Alexander, Democracy Matters