> >Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 13:22:07 -0500 >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Armine Yalnizyan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: hitting the mark > >Personally speaking, this is the most intelligent take I've >seen about the whole Seattle thing yet. > > >from NY Times > > Rebels in Search of Rules > By NAOMI KLEIN > > > TORONTO -- It is all too easy to dismiss the protesters at the World > Trade Organization meeting in Seattle as radicals with 60's envy. A > seemingly more trenchant criticism is that they are simply behind the > curve, fighting against a tide of globalization that has already > swamped them. Mike Moore, the director of the W.T.O., describes his > opponents as nothing more than protectionists launching an assault on > internationalism. > > The truth, however, is that the protesters in Seattle have been bitten > by the globalization bug as surely as the trade lawyers inside the > Seattle hotels -- though by globalization of a different sort -- and > they know it. The confusion about the protesters' political goals is > understandable: this is the first movement born of the anarchic > pathways of the Internet. There is no top-down hierarchy, no > universally recognized leaders, and nobody knows what is going to > happen next. > > This protest movement is really anti-corporate rather than > anti-globalist, and its roots are in the anti-sweatshop campaigns > taking aim at Nike, the human rights campaign focusing on Royal > Dutch/Shell in Nigeria and the backlash against Monsanto's genetically > engineered foods in Europe. > > At any time, one huge multinational company may be involved in several > disputes -- on labor, human rights and environmental issues, for > example. Activists learn of one another as they aim at the same > corporate target. Inadvertently, individual corporations have become > symbols of the global economy in miniature, ultimately providing > activists with name-brand entry points to the arcane world of the W.T.O. > > This is the most internationally minded, globally linked movement the > world has ever seen. There are no more faceless Mexicans or Chinese > workers stealing our jobs, in part because those workers' > representatives are now on the same e-mail lists and at the same > conferences as the Western activists. When protesters shout about the > evils of globalization, most are not calling for a return to narrow > nationalism, but for the borders of globalization to be expanded, for > trade to be linked to democratic reform, higher wages, labor rights > and environmental protections. > > This is what sets the young protesters in Seattle apart from their > 60's predecessors. > > In the age of Woodstock, refusing to play by state and school rules was > regarded as a political act in itself. Now, opponents of the W.T.O. -- > even those who call themselves anarchists -- are outraged about a lack > of rules and authority. They are demanding that national governments be > free to exercise their authority without interference from the W.T.O. > and asking for stricter international rules governing labor standards, > environmental protection and scientific research. > > Everyone, of course, claims to be all for rules, from President Clinton > to Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates. In an odd turn of events, the need > for "rules-based trade" has become the mantra of the era of deregulation. > But deregulation is by definition about the removal of rules. The W.T.O., > charged with defining and enforcing deregulation, is only concerned with > rules that regulate the removal of rules. > > The W.T.O. has consistently sought to sever trade, quite unnaturally, > from everything and everyone affected by it: workers, the environment, > culture. This is why President Clinton's suggestion yesterday that the > rift between the protesters and the delegates can be smoothed over with > small compromises and consultation is so misguided. > > The face-off is not between globalizers and protectionists, but between > two radically different visions of globalization. > > One has had a monopoly for the last 10 years. Then other just had its > coming-out party. > > > > > ............................................. > Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ............................................. >
