Population control and global inequality

1. Population control and global inequality Attila Melegh Reformers of all countries unite?

2. Aim of the seminar • Self-positioning of the „reform“-internationalisms within, and in relation to, global inequality and global power relations. Reformers of all countries unite?

3. The space: system of global inequalities • Global colonial-capitalism since the 18th century and its cycles. • Global economic hierarchy. • Global imaginary: civilisation, coloniality Reformers of all countries unite?

4. Malthus and the liberal humanitarian utopia • Definition of population control. • How hierarchies are set up? • Positive and negative checks. • Biopolitical balances. • Measuring societies. Reformers of all countries unite?

5. Malthus and global inequalities • Subordination of agrarian capitalism. • Colonialism. • „If we do not then consider this apathy of the Americans as a natural defect in their bodily frame, but merely as a general coldness, and an infrequency of the calls of the sexual appetite, we shall not be inclined to give much weight to it as affecting the number of children to a marriage; but shall be disposed to look for the cause of this unfruitfulness in the condition and customs of the women in a savage state.” Reformers of all countries unite?

6. Development of the internalization of Malthusianism • Internal development of the thought. • History of the global system. • Internal positioning and interplay. This latter is crucial and not researched. Reformers of all countries unite?

7. Colonial epoch • No international movement, but still exported. • British empire: practiced „inside” and „outside”. • Colonial intervention and non-intervention. • Extreme biopolitical racism and liberalism. Reformers of all countries unite?

8. National population movements. The era: • Scientific progress. • Demographic changes. • Uprooted populations. Reformers of all countries unite?

9. National reform movements: internal development • Neo-Malthusianism and the alliance with feminists, anti-immigration campaigners. • The rise of national and inter-national organizations and co-operation. • Global position in the system of inequalities. Reformers of all countries unite?

10. National reform movements: varying reactions • The spread of neo-Malthusianism and discrepancies. The need to become populuos. • France and Italy.”The combination of quality and quantity”. Reformers of all countries unite?

11. National reform movements: varying reactions • Germany: Differentiation according to classes and „races”.. • Latin-America: anti-local and anti-immigrant (Argentina). • Latin-America and Eastern Europe: pro-local, anti-”alien”. (Mexico, Hungary). Reformers of all countries unite?

12. The rise of the international reform movement • Shift in hegemony, decolonization, the rise of communism. • Overpopulation globally: Demographic transition and modernization theory. Reformers of all countries unite?

13. The rise of the international reform movement • Colonial systems, formal and otherwise, in which the mother country endeavors to retain the colony primarily as a source of raw materials and as a market for manufactured goods stimulate population growth without reducing the potentialities for future population growth. The influence of the United States should be exerted against the reestablishment of such systems where they have broken down and toward their alteration where they exist. The upheavals of the war, and the strong stand already taken on freedom of access to raw materials and markets offer an opportunity in that direction. (Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton Box no. FW.1). Reformers of all countries unite?

14. The rise of the international reform movement • Improvement in this situation is slow to develop, because it has so happened that the advanced nations have tended to transfer to dependent peoples that part of their culture, which reduces mortality, but they have not disseminated the complementary cultural developments, which tend to bring about a rational control of fertility. … • The dissemination of birth-control information, while of undoubted use in reducing population growth, would not meet the needs of these colonial populations. Therefore, the only lasting solution is one, which would bring about a reduction of growth potential. • Continuing, Mr. Notestein pointed out that in all probability a reduction of growth potential can only be brought about by education, urbanization, and a gradual increase in the standard of living (Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton Box no. FW.1). Reformers of all countries unite?

15. The full development of this movement • The shift of anti-communism. • The need to intervene. • USA leading and international league. • Maintaining the combination in new circumstances. • International organizations: International Planned Parenthood Federation. • Internal blows. Reformers of all countries unite?

16. Varying reactions • Cruelly, you [Western demographers] intend to adjust the population to the economy, while we Communists want to adjust the economy to the population (Name is not given cited by Petersen, 1988, 93). • India: population emergency plans. • China: the victory of science. • Control of quality in Eastern Europe: the rise of a new Nazism. • Latin America: suspicion and radicalism: Reformers of all countries unite?

17. Varying reactions • Wealth of the continent is not yet utilized. • There is a low population density. • The aim is to reduce social pressure in this way and through massive social changes. • The US wants to reduce foreign aid with this. • The concern in the US for population control (wanted fertility) is lower. • The US wants to reduce demand for resources. Reformers of all countries unite?

18. Loosing the grip • Reintegrating development and population. • Not anymore a reform idea. • New ways of protecting piriveleged lives. Reformers of all countries unite?