>From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Shutting down Seattle (WTO) > >The Seattle Weekly 8/19/99 > >Shutting down Seattle > > BY GEOV PARRISH > >The World Trade Organization's talks are scheduled to be held in free >trade-friendly Seattle this fall. So is "the Protest of the Century," as >WTO opponents gather to give the ruling class a kick in the groin. > >On a cool but soon to be warm, sunny, and perfectly serviceable midsummer >Saturday morning, when you'd think otherwise rational people would have >something midsummerlike to do, some 120 organizers filed into the Labor >Temple in Belltown. They came to hear the true believers fire them up over >global trade issues. They also came to prepare for days, months from now, >when it will be cold and dark and wet. > >And loud. > >"It's historic . . . the confrontations in Seattle will define how the >bridge to the 21st century will be built and who will be crossing >it--transnational corporations or civil society." That's Michael Dolan >speaking, field organizer for the Washington, DC-based Naderite group >Public Citizen. If Dolan has his way, the opening talks of the Seattle >Round of World Trade Organization consultations, set for November 29 to >December 3 this year, will be a benchmark, a huge protest of corporate >dominance of the global economy that will give politicians pause and CEOs >cold sweats. > >The WTO represents over 100 countries in an unprecedented effort to >globalize commerce. Advocates see it as a means of boosting the world's >economy by bringing down trade barriers. But opponents believe the WTO is >systematically gutting worker, consumer, and environmental protections, >and deliberately usurping the rights of each country to make its own >laws--especially when those laws might conflict with trade. > > >Dolan is working on behalf of the Citizens' Trade Campaign (CTC)--a >broad-based national coalition including Public Citizen; labor groups like >the United Auto Workers; consumer groups; environmental groups like >Friends of the Earth and Clean Water Action; farm groups like National >Farmers Union and National Family and Farm Coalition; church >organizations; and many more. Over 700 international groups have signed >on to the CTC's demand to oppose the Multilateral Agreement on Investments >(MAI), a controversial free trade proposal that will probably be on the >WTO's Seattle agenda. Instead of donating money to the cause of organizing >against the trade meetings, the CTC has donated Dolan, who has spent much >of the spring and summer meeting with community activists and lining up >logistical support. > >This month, the CTC opened a storefront operation downtown that will work >until December to help coordinate protests. And that's only one of the >anti-WTO organizing efforts under way. The AFL-CIO has dispatched two >full-time field organizers to coordinate a massive march and rally set for >November 30, days after labor union heads from around the world will >convene in Seattle for their own conference. The teamsters, longshoremen, >and other industrial unions are each conducting their own mobilizations; >the steelworkers' union has reserved 1,000 hotel rooms in Tacoma and >Bellevue. There will be teach-ins and alternative conferences and press >conferences and rallies and marches and blockades galore. Farm groups like >the Northern Plains Resource Council, Western Sustainable Agriculture, the >Institute for Agricultural and Trade Policy, and the Campaign to Reclaim >Rural America will be bringing outrage. There is talk of a procession of >tractors. Scores of nongovernmental organizations will come to try to make >their voices heard. The Zapatista-originated Peoples' Global Action is >bringing caravans across North America to descend on Seattle. The Sierra >Club is mobilizing its membership. > >Even peace groups like the War Resisters League are involved--free trade, >by specifically exempting military spending from its agreements, acts to >encourage the arms trade and military buildups by Third World governments. >Art and Revolution is bringing its giant puppets and public spectacle from >the streets of San Francisco. And the Evergreen State College, well, they >might as well close the campus--they'll all be in Seattle, as will >students from around the country, led by the Boston-based Center for >Campus Organizing. > >Steven Staples, British Columbia field organizer for the Council of >Canadians, estimates that "hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands" will be >coming down from Canada, where activists are concerned about the WTO's >threat to their country's education and health care systems. After >Vancouver's experience with heavy-handed riot police at the 1996 APEC >meetings (pepper spray, preemptive arrests), Staples says, "people got a >very clear idea of whose interests were being served." All in all, Seattle >will see traffic snarled and resources stretched to their limits by a week >of international protests mingling with trade ministers, heads of state, >and both President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. Republican >King County Council member Brian Derdowski, who is working with the >protesters, calls the scenario "a security nightmare," and "the greatest >security risk this region has ever known." > >Seattle organizers of the WTO meetings--operating under the well-financed >umbrella of the Seattle Host Organization (SHO)--are fond of calling the >Seattle meetings the largest trade gathering ever held on US soil. >Opposition to it will almost certainly be the largest anti-free trade >protests ever held on US soil. > >Dolan is one of the early speakers to the Saturday morning gathering at >the Labor Temple, and he speaks with the fervor of an evangelist. The >crowd, with doughnuts, coffee, handouts, and reprints in hand, responds >with enthusiasm. Dolan talks of a political opening, with the defeat last >year of Clinton's desired fast-track authority for negotiating free trade >agreements and the subsequent derailing of MAI negotiations. He calls them >"kicks in the groin of the ruling class." Dolan recounts with glee a >recent front-page Wall Street Journal article on the protests--"The bosses >are scared!"--and reminds the assembled that there's only 16 weeks to go, >a short time for a logistical juggernaut that--unlike the meetings >themselves--must be organized on a shoestring. Motel rooms and meeting >spaces for the period are already gone; available flights into Seattle >have all but disappeared. One of the greatest challenges for groups from >around the country that want to come to Seattle will simply be getting >here and having a place to stay. It's not a good time of year for camping. > >A flyer for the Saturday meeting calls the upcoming protests of the WTO >meetings the "Protest of the Century." It may not equal, say, Seattle's >1919 General Strike, but organizers are thinking in terms of that kind of >scale; they bandy about hopes of bringing 100,000 people into the >streets. The stakes are extremely high; for any one of the contemplated >eight or nine subagreements on the possible agenda of the trade ministers, >a lasting regime of corporate dominance could ensure human misery, >environmental catastrophe, and short-term profit affecting billions of >people on a scale barely imaginable even a decade ago. The surprise is not >that protesters by the thousands will be drawn from all over the world. >The surprise is that more people aren't up in arms. > >What's that giant flushing sound? > >The WTO was created in 1994 as the successor organization to the General >Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The idea is to execute a series of >treaties among member nations that would reduce and eventually eliminate >tariffs and other restrictions on trade in various sectors of the world >economy. The negotiations for those different sectors have been named >after the locations where the first meetings of the particular "Round" >take place. The next several years will be known as the "Seattle Round." > > >One hundred and thirty-five countries--including all the major ones except >China--are members; some 30 others have observer status. The United States >dominates the proceedings, and the evolution of the WTO is one of the >major reasons transnational corporations love Clinton. The WTO is >exceptionally good news for transnationals. As with the North American >Free Trade Agreement, on which it's modeled, removing barriers to free >trade generally means weakening, preventing, or striking down >environmental, wage, worker safety, public health, and consumer laws. It's >a whirlpool effect--what Dolan calls a "downward harmonization," or a race >to the bottom as countries find all but the lowest standards eliminated as >unfair trade competition. Or think of it as public interest laws simply >being flushed down the toilet. > >In Seattle, ministers will consider both new and old business. Left over >from the previous Uruguay Round are agriculture, services, and government >procurement; new to the Seattle Round will be many Northwest-appropriate >topics, including the Forest Products Agreement, the Multilateral >Agreement on Investments (banking and finance), biotechnology, >intellectual property rights, and electronic commerce. The "talks" will be >largely for photo ops and political posturing; much of the real >negotiating is taking place behind the scenes, in various meetings on >different subagreements leading up to the event. > >The global movement to challenge free trade is part of a larger movement >challenging neoliberalism--the usurpation of public policy by the >marketplace and the needs of transnational corporations. These >corporations have steadily increased their grip over the policies of >nation-states since the fall of the Berlin Wall and, previously, the era >of Reagan-Thatcher. At stake is democracy itself, as corporations, through >instruments like the MAI, gain the power to overrule the laws of elected >officials at the national, state, or local level. Currently, governments, >often at the behest of corporations, can challenge the laws of other >countries as "unfair" to trade, with the issue decided secretly by a >Geneva-based tribunal of corporate lawyers. > >The initial trickle of rulings by the tribunal is starting to accelerate: >overturning a European ban on US hormone-fed beef; ending a law designed >to assist Caribbean banana exports to Europe; a ban on EPA-mandated safety >devices for shrimping nets, designed by the US to protect endangered sea >turtles; a challenge to US environmental laws prohibiting a Canadian >gasoline additive; and, most recently, overturning a subsidy for Brazil's >fledgling aerospace industry. Ominously, on July 9, US Secretary of >Agriculture Dan Glickman, responding to a new EU ban on genetically >modified organisms, promised to go to the WTO to prevent it. So far, the >secret tribunals of the WTO have not once ruled to preserve a challenged >law. > >It's little wonder critics see the WTO, in one author's words, as a >"secret world government"; one U.N. official infamously referred to the >proposed MAI agreement in 1996 as "writing a constitution." King County >Council's Derdowski sees concern with free trade and the WTO's course as >transcending traditional conservative/liberal labels. "The issue for >conservatives is the sovereignty of America, the constitution. State and >local authority is in danger of being eroded through international >treaties, ceding authority to foreign regulatory bodies . . . those are >issues that resonate very much with conservatives." > >Wild in the streets? > >During the WTO's last consultations, last summer in Geneva, Switzerland, >there were riots in the streets. In June's meeting of the G-7 nations in >Cologne, Germany, there were street demonstrations in Cologne and in >dozens of other cities around the world, with extensive property damage in >London and New York and so-called "riots" in, of all places, Eugene, >Oregon. (Eugene's anarchist rioters say they'll be in Seattle for the >WTO.) Slowly but surely, opposition to unfettered trade is coming to >America. Its first major stage will be the streets of Seattle. This has >certainly not gone unnoticed by Seattle police. The Seattle Police >Department is heading a multiagency planning commission to deal with the >WTO's security headaches, involving the King County Sheriff, the US Secret >Service, the FBI, the State Department, the Federal Emergency Management >Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and many others. In >The Wall Street Journal , a spokeswoman for the SPD noted pointedly that >"we have access to pepper spray." Many area activists also participated in >planning for protests at Vancouver's APEC meetings and remember the >heavy-handed tactics of the Mounties there. All are hoping for an orderly >week, but with so many different groups and ideologies descending on the >city, there will almost certainly be civil disobedience of some sort at >some point. A July 28 King County Council memo estimates the county's >share of security costs--including itemized expenditures for things like >bomb suits, "NATO Ballistic Shields," and riot boots and helmets as well >as the usual escort services for dignitaries at well over $1.1 million. >That will be picked up by the taxpayers, and Derdowski thinks it's >underestimated: "We've got to do everything we can to make sure things >happen peacefully and safely." > >Not all WTO opponents will be in the streets. Some nongovernmental >organizations are coming for teach-ins or conferences such as one being >sponsored by the International Forum on Globalization. While some groups, >such as the Third World-based Peoples' Global Action (a movement >especially popular among peasant farmers in countries like India), wish >flatly to destroy the WTO, others want simply to fix it. The Seattle Host >Organization is attempting to create space for public dialogue with a >series of "public sector programs" during the ministerials, including >programs on labor issues, electronic commerce, agriculture and food >products, environmental issues, and trade in services. These aren't >exactly all anti-free trade--the electronic commerce forum, for example, >is being organized by Microsoft. But two are being organized by >individuals who have publicly challenged the course of the WTO: Patti >Goldman of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund is coordinating the >environmental program, while labor is being handled by the King County >Labor Council's Ron Judd. > >Tinkering with trade > >"We are not going to be denouncing the WTO, asking that it be killed or go >away," says Judd, who will also help oversee the November 30 labor rally >that will probably be the largest and most visible protest of the week. >"We don't believe the rules as presently written are working very well for >workers . . . we want to make WTO make as part of their mandate sanctions >against [countries that violate] workers' rights: child labor, slave >labor, the right to organize, the right to bargain collectively, ending >discrimination in the workplace." Goldman, in describing the usefulness of >working with the Seattle Host Organization rather than outside the doors, >says, "I think there is some advantage to having some powerful speakers >who can describe [the WTO's] effects on the environment." > >The biggest challenge for WTO opponents will be deciding what they want >and speaking with a unified voice. Public Citizen's Dolan and the >Citizens' Trade Campaign are attempting to unify protest organizers around >a demand that, rather than hammering out yet more agreements, trade >ministers use the Seattle Round to take stock and analyze the effects of >the trade agreements already in place. They are convinced, of course, that >any objective analysis of the last four years will find enormous harm to >the economies and resources of the developing world as well as democracy >worldwide. Free trade proponents see no need for such introspection. In >the state of Washington, it's hard to find an elected official who doesn't >crow the praises of trade: Patty Murray, Slade Gorton, Gary Locke, and >Jim McDermott are all on board. They tout free trade as beneficial for >the state's Pacific Rim-based economy (and, of course, for Boeing). The >Seattle Host Organization claims that, as a hosting group, it takes no >position on the WTO's actions, but both privately and publicly a lot of >time and money are being spent promoting the glories of free trade. The >SHO is doing extensive public outreach in the coming months, including >town hall meetings, business outreach events, a school curriculum >extolling the virtues of free trade, and regional events concerning trade >in different continents (the Africa forum will be convened by McDermott, >busy promoting his Africa free trade bill in Congress). > >"Remember Seattle?" > >Can protests in the streets of Seattle challenge the dominance of free >trade policies? In the short term, no. Free trade enjoys solid bipartisan >support, led by the Clinton/ Gore Administration and the >ever-accommodating Republican wing of America's one-party state. Among >both Democrats and Republicans, those who question the wisdom of >unfettered trade are relegated to the fringes of the party. The coalition >of labor, environmental, agricultural, consumer, human rights, and >constitutionalist groups that hope to slow, if not stop, the momentum of >an ever-increasing number of free trade agreements anticipates using >Seattle as a springboard. By filling the streets for several days, >snarling traffic, worrying the cops, and tapping out what few meeting >places and motel rooms remain, they may just possibly galvanize a >movement. > >Seattle's protests aren't likely to change the outcome of the momentous >trade talks that will be held here. But the first step in changing a >policy is letting the public know that the political terrain is even >contested. The hope of the tens of thousands of protesters descending on >Seattle this fall is that it will be the start of something big. The goal, >according to Dolan, is "to create something that later will cause >politicians to say, 'Remember Seattle?'--and it gives them pause before >they advance the corporate agenda." As Derdowski drily notes: "To give >away your fundamental liberties for the sake of trade dollars is a very >poor choice."* >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >For a schedule of planned anti-WTO events in Seattle or to help with >preparations, contact People for Fair Trade at 1-877-STOP-WTO. Volunteers >are welcomed at the Public Citizen storefront: 1914 4th Ave in downtown >Seattle. For help or information on the November 30 march/rally, contact the >King County Labor Council at 206-441-8510. More information on the WTO is >available through the following Web sites: www.tradewatch.org; >www.peopleforfairtrade.org; www.seattlewto.org > > > > ............................................. > Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ............................................. >
