FTZ/SEZ 2024 – 19 x 49 x 12cm, photograph, sheet plastic, spray paint, acrylic paint, wire, tape
Freeports are part of a process through which libertarian ideologues are installing a global push to reconfigure nation-states, to reverse and dismantle democracy in the 21st century. The zone is a harbinger of offshoring wealth with no checks and balances, no rights, just raw corporate hegemony. This is an experiment which, according to libertarian Tom Bell, “may or may not work”. It goes like this: break up a nation, subdivide the land, invite foreign venture capitalists in, and hand over powers of governance to them while reducing elected government oversight. This means tailoring private laws (as opposed to the often negatively- framed ‘statist’ laws) to corporate demands, legalising the breach of hard-won rights and freedoms.
In short, right wing libertarians believe that a democratic society destroys a free economy.
