The 1970s human rights movement actively undermined the New International Economic Order

Evidence

The success of the NIEO, as Berger has noted, would have required the capacity to redistribute resources on a global scale. By the time the NIEO was calling for the extension of redistributive welfare policies to the global arena, these policies were in crisis. Anghie has argued that, given that the human rights movement of the 1970s shifted attention away from the structure of the global economy, it is ‘surely not a coincidence’ that this movement flourished alongside the imposition of neoliberal policies by the international financial institutions. I have suggested that there is more at stake in this ‘non-coincidence’ than a shift of optics. The activist humanitarians of MSF did not merely divert attention from global economic structures to individual rights violations on the part of states. Rather, their focus on human rights violations by postcolonial states was only one aspect of a concerted campaign against Third Worldism and the utopia embodied in the NIEO. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 427

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to debate on whether human rights discourse serves as a depoliticizing or legitimating force under capitalism — Samuel Moyn’s ‘Not Enough’ treats this directly. — connects to: Economic rights realization was tied to a just international economic order — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 319; Neoliberal intellectuals coordinated an attack against the New International Economic Order. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 163; OPEC’s 1973 embargo inspired the Global South’s New International Economic Order. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 413 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how far does Whyte’s stronger claim (concerted campaign, not just shift of optics) hold against the view that the movement’s growth was diffuse and improvised?

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals saw human rights standards as a way to depoliticize international economic relations #corroborates (0.82) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 450
• Neoliberals weaponized human rights language to protect private property and market order #corroborates (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 76
• Neoliberal human rights primarily preserve the market order rather than protect individuals #corroborates (0.78) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 45
• IMF-led economic liberalization escapes human rights categorization entirely #corroborates (0.75)