Editorial controllers of 'The West Australian' monopoly tabloid daily are working as hard as any of their pro-business counterparts to present police-provoked crowd violence as the most significant face of anti-globalist protest. However, its most experienced and accomplished writer Andre Malan can see a good deal further and has already wisely positioned himself for due recognition of the inevitable triumph of international civil society over the corporate forces which Chris Patten recently styled as the 'dark side of globalisation'. Brian Jenkins StopMAI Coalition, Western Australia [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/fair.html * * * * The West Australian, 3 May 01 New style of protest gets to its feet By Andre Malan THE klutz in the Nikes is probably not very popular today among the dreadlocked, tattooed and body-pierced eccentrics with whom he went to the barricades in the May Day anti-global capitalism protests on Tuesday. Picked out for an interview by a sharp-eyed television reporter, the guileless demonstrator used his 15 seconds of fame to rail against the exploitation of Third World workers by multinational corporations such as Nike who, he said, paid them a pittance for working long hours in appalling conditions. But then the camera panned down to the would-be revolutionary's feet and, yes, he was wearing a pair of smart-looking Nikes, which had probably been made by the hands of some of those allegedly exploited workers. Once exposed, the only defence he could offer was the unconvincing one that there were no other shoes to buy. The story is destined to be repeated a thousand times. It will be heartily scoffed over by suited executives in corporate boardrooms and used by conservative commentators to ridicule the motives and commitment of the new generation of protesters who have appeared on streets around the developed world over the past 18 months. The stocks of the anti-globalism movement will probably also suffer from the confrontational and occasionally violent tactics that were adopted by some people in the May Day protests in Perth and elsewhere. Television coverage of the events predictably concentrated on the wildest scenes and the most unconventional-looking people, so the impression that the movement is being dominated by violent weirdos and anarchists will gain ground. It is probably still too early to say whether or not the movement that emerged on the streets of Seattle during violent protests against the World Trade Organisation in December 1999 is, as its members claim, the vanguard of an international cultural revolution. But nobody can deny that the anti-globalisation coalition has already been responsible for a new questioning of the benefits of global capitalism and rampant materialism. It would be a mistake to dismiss them lightly or to underestimate the significance of their cause. It is drawing its support from a widespread belief that international capitalism is ultimately responsible for things such as deregulation, down-sizing, privatisation and economic rationalism, which are thought responsible for the decline in job security and conditions, longer working hours and the widening gap between poor and rich. The people who have embraced anti-globalism are drawn heavily from the marginal and non-conformist elements of society, but as the movement to save WA's old-growth forests demonstrated, people like that are sometimes the first to embrace a cause that later attracts popular support. The anti-Vietnam War movement provided an earlier example of non-conformists leading the way. Although many people disagreed with the violence that often arose from those protests in the United States, Europe and Australia, the dissenters gradually won the day and the public pressure they generated forced the US to withdraw from Vietnam. The issues over which people were protesting in Perth on Tuesday are not as clear cut as war or over-exploitation of forests. The questions involved defy simple answers. Even worse, from the protesters' point of view, the source of their discontent - globalism - has many positive aspects to it and is, in any case, unstoppable. But what they can and must continue to resist is the way that global capitalism is forcing popularly elected governments to surrender power to profit-driven multinational corporations with little interest in or responsibility for the social and environmental consequences of their actions. [EMAIL PROTECTED] May 03, 2001 � 2000 West Australian Newspapers Limited All Rights Reserved. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
