Tax Havens and Global Capitalism: Vanuatu and the Australian Connection

The growth of tax haven activities has been a feature of recent global capitalist development, yet geographical analysis of these activities has been limited. Vanuatu has become the South Pacific's major tax haven, expanding through its ability to capture (mainly) Australian and Asian investment in the 1970s and 1980s. Tax haven activities in Vanuatu have increasingly contributed to local employment and income generation, despite the growth of competition from newer tax havens in the region. Vanuatu is not used by major Australian public companies to the extent that either Hong Kong or the Caribbean tax havens are used, and it is suggested that activities from Asia are increasingly dominating Vanuatu's finance centre. Recent Australian taxation legislation may reduce Australia's role in the Vanuatu tax haven further, although it is apparent that there are limitations to the legislation's effectiveness in stopping tax haven activities.     

AL MINA AND HISTORY

Summary. Woolley's finds at Al Mina and subsequent discoveries of Greek material along the Syro-Phoenician coast, are reassessed in the light of recent claims for Phoenician priority in the dissemination of orientalia in the Mediterranean world. The markedly different character of Al Mina and the goods likely to have been distributed from the area is demonstrated by comparison of the record of Al Mina and that of other eastern sites, and the pattern of distribution of orientalia. Reluctance to acknowledge the role of the site in Greece's orientalising revolution is examined.     

INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING IN A PERIOD OF CRISIS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE CANADIAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY, 1973–83.*

The recent crisis in the North American economy is rooted in the disintegration of a particular model of capital accumulation known as Fordism. Using the empirical context of the auto industry in Canada the paper analyses the development and subsequent breakdown of Fordism and the forms taken by the restructuring which has occurred in response to the crisis.