THIS IS REVOLUTION＞podcast Ep. 199: Neocolonialism in the 21st Century w/ Owen Schalk

The brutality and invasiveness of the capitalist imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was readily evident. With utter ruthlessness the imperial powers of the era smashed opened markets with gunboats and plundered the wealth of Asia and Africa through conquest and occupation. The process of decolonialization in the 1960s and 1970s raised hopes that a new era of peace and prosperity was about to dawn in those parts of the world that had been ravaged by imperialist exploitation. Unfortunately, those hopes have been dashed by the rise of informal networks and methodologies of imperial dominations. While the territorial empires of old no longer exist and imperialism is now a dirty word, behind the façade of independence, the peoples of the developing world continue to labor under foreign economic and political domination. However, today this domination is rarely exercised directly. Instead, it is often realized through indirect economic pressure with so-called international institutions such as the IMF and World Bank acting as the vanguard of this insidious neo-colonial order. What are the systems that perpetuate this state of affairs? How do the IMF and World Bank serve the interests of western capitalism? And what is the cost to people in the developing world? We ask these questions and more. This is Revolution. Owen Schalk Owen Schalk is a writer from Winnipeg.  His short stories have been published by Fairlight Books, Sobotka Literary Magazine, Goat's Milk Magazine, and others, and his political analyses have been featured in Alborada, People's Voice, and Protean Magazine.  He is a regular contributor to Canadian Dimension, and you can read his new essay on the culture industry and the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini in the November edition of Monthly Review. About TIR Thank you, guys, again for taking the time to check this out. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you have the means, and you feel so inclined, BECOME A PATRON! We're creating patron-only programming, you'll get bonus content from many of the episodes, and you get MERCH! Become a patron now: https://www.patreon.com/join/BitterLakePresents Please also like, subscribe, and follow us on these platforms as well, especially YouTube! THANKS Y'ALL YouTube: www.youtube.com/thisisrevolutionpodcast   Twitch: www.twitch.tv/thisisrevolutionpodcast & www.twitch.tv/leftflankvets   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thisisrevolutionpodcast/   Twitter: @TIRShowOakland  Instagram: @thisisrevolutionoakland The Dispatch on Zero Books (video essay series): https://youtu.be/nSTpCvIoRgw   Pascal Robert in Black Agenda Report: https://www.blackagendareport.com/author/PascalRobert   Get THIS IS REVOLUTION Merch here: www.thisisrevolutionpodcast.com Get the show's music here: https://bitterlakeoakland.bandcamp.com/album/coronavirus-sessions