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The city of Amsterdam pursues a policy of attracting inward investment, the standard neoliberal urban strategy. So do many other cities: this is from Ken Livingstone's programme for London http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/solintro.htm "If London is to maintain and expand its prosperity in this new economy it must build globalisation into the very foundations of the city and our thinking.... ...the prosperity of every Londoner is completely tied up with the city's role in the international economy...." "For this very reason, it is impossible to combine the economy of the greatest international city in the world with narrow mindedness and Little Englander attitudes." "This has direct economic implications: - London must maintain and increase its attractiveness for inward investment." ...and so on. In relative terms Amsterdam is more sucessful, especially in the ICT sector. So sucessful, that the urban-regional economy is overheated. House prices are expected to double soon, there is upward pressure on uncontroled rents, and indirectly on controled rents, the student-housing shortage has reappeared despite falling student numbers, major new road infrastructure is planned to combat congestion, and electricity consumption is expecetd to rise by at least one-third from Internet use alone (server farms, switch houses). The arrival of Cisco's European HQ (biggest inward investment in 20 years) in the next few years will worsen all this. A high-income group benefits, of course, but the negative effects dominate. Amsterdam does not need the new jobs, and it certainly does not need the extreme gentrification and inequalities that come with them. The answer to this in political terms is obvious: reject the inward investment. Why not just say no? Why is it that Ken Livingstone's attitude is the standard view? Why does no-one question the need for inward investment? I never heard of a single group in western Europe campaigning against inward investment, as such. Yet so mnay cities would be better off without it. Why is there no "investors-go-home" campaign in London, Berlin, or Amsterdam? -- Paul Treanor %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%