Labour Market Forum 2010 - Planning Institute of Jamaica

perhaps most importantly, he argued that the crisis was
produced by an ideology of market fundamentalism – which
he describes as “a belief in the self-regulating properties of
markets and denigration of the role of the state and public
welfare systems.”
On this continuum we can go back to the eighteenth century,
the days of the Industrial Revolution, and recognize that, like
globalization, it too offered opportunities as well as posed
threats. It was to have a positive impact on the growth and
development of European states, but similar to its successor, it
also proved to have very negative consequences for the social
dimension of the development process. The Combination Acts,
for example, which were passed by the British Prime Minister
William Pitt during the period of the industrial revolution,
between 1780 and 1800, were to facilitate the uninterrupted
gestation period of the new and emerging industries for
increasing job opportunities and economic growth, but which
dubiously legitimized the actions of workers to defend their
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