Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 08:54:39 -0500 (CDT)
From: Paul Gomberg <P-Gomberg@csu.edu>
To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: imperialism and poverty
Dear friends,

I am a philosopher writing on a popular argument (in philosophy) that
people in affluent nations have a moral obligation to forego consumer
spending on unnecessary things and to donate the money thus saved to
poverty relief organizations such as UNICEF and OXFAM.  Most attacks on
this argument are from the (Malthusian) right, but I think there is a more
interesting attack from the left: UN and related imperialist institutions
create poverty by destroying food production for local populations; food
aid and other humanitarian aid is part of the process by which people are 
made poor and dependent on the imperialist economy.

I am aware of Greider's "One World, Ready or Not" and I have found very
useful Michel Chossudovsky's "The Globalisation of Poverty: Impacts of IMF
and World Bank Reforms."  But there must be much more that I am
ignorant of. So I am asking for bibliographical help on the question of
how imperialist institutions contribute to poverty, hunger, dysentery,
etc.  It would be particularly useful if there is anything about the role
of *UNICEF and OXFAM* in this process of creating poverty.  Thanks in
advance,

Paul