Lusaka — GLOBALISATION has left us with ruthless growth associated with inequality and poverty, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) director of research Austin Muneku has said.

During the just ended ZCTU/International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU-AFRO) workshop at Lusaka's Holiday Inn, Muneku said even the United Nations Development Programme had attested that market driven growth strategies had resulted in growth that did not expand employment opportunities.

"It has resulted in voiceless growth in the absence of democracy or empowerment and rootless growth that withers culture identity," Muneku said.

He said globalisation had brought about futureless growth that squanders resources needed for future generations.

Muneku said globalisation had impacted on collective bargaining in that labour was the first target for cost cutting, lowered labour standards and through competition, unions were curtailed leading to violation of worker's rights.

"Despite an apparent increase in global growth and steadily increasing per capita income, the gap both within and between rich and poor countries is widening," he said.

Muneku said research in Brazil indicated that the richest 20 per cent earned 28 times as much as the poorest 20 per cent.

He said globalisation had resulted in the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few countries, corporations and individuals while marginalising the majority.

Muneku said in 2000 alone, trade liberalisation, resulted in the European Union gaining US $80 billion while Africa made a US $3 billion loss.

He said two thirds of international trade was accounted for by 500 corporations and 40 per cent of that trade was between different parts (subsidiaries) of the same multinational corporations.

Muneku said the 10 largest multinational corporations had a total income greater than that of 100 of the world's poorest countries two thirds of which were in Africa.

He said while the old form of globalisation was characterised by massive exploitation of raw materials, cheap slave labour as well as use of colonies as dumping grounds for surplus goods, today's concept was motivated by the quest for profits by multinational and transnational corporations by maintaining the lowest costs possible.

Muneku traced the evolution of the global economy to the European imperial and colonial era that was motivated by an obsession to explore the perceived wealth into the unknown world beyond Europe on boundaries.