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June 16, 2016
Dear Mr. President Jaspal Singh and members of the Indian Political Economy Association, Dear Mr. President Cheng Enfu and members of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE), Distinguished guests,
It is a great pleasure, I am sure, for all of us, to gather at this very important country, INDIA, in this very famous Punjabi University at Patiala, for discussing and debating about "Globalization, Employment and Agriculture."
But first, on behalf of the Indian Political Economy Association and of the WAPE, let me say our sincere welcome to the scholars and experts from more than 13 countries around the world who are going to attend this forum. I would like also to express our deep gratitude to the leaders, scholars, and staff members at the Punjabi University of Patiala, who co-host this forum.
After these words, which are not only the words of politeness but the words of friendship, I would like to say some words concerning our coming debate.
Be sure I am not going to start a forum inside this forum. I would simply like, after the words of politeness and the words of friendship, to tell you the words of fight. Because, whatever deeply and sincerely peaceful we are, we, intellectuals, scholars, researchers, deans, professors, teachers, students, also have to fight with our appropriate weapons.
Let me talk and ask some few questions about the three following points: (1) Agriculture and globalization; (2) Employment, working conditions and globalization; (3) Nation and globalization.
1. Agriculture and Globalization
We are used to thinking of agriculture as if it were a very special activity compared with industry and services.
Of course, there are differences between agriculture and industry. But in reality, agriculture, which is more and more penetrated by industry, is not so different.
Through the huge quantities of problems affecting agriculture, we can observe the dual meaning of globalization today.
A. The first meaning is that globalization is a capitalist process, more and more critical.
On one side, globalization is a capitalist mature process, going on within the frame of what we name "Imperialism," since Hobson and Lenin.
Agriculture is a part of this process. We can observe three points which make this activity a part of the present global crisis.