FYI: >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: The Battle In Seattle: From the Frontline >Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 14:48:11 -0500 > >The Battle In Seattle > From the Frontline >December 3, 1999 > >It will take some time to tally up the results of the "Battle of Seattle" >but there is no doubt the globalists are running scared. Before Seattle >they were smug: the op-ed columnists in the Times and Wall Street Journal >talked about WTO and NAFTA foes with the patronizing tones reserved for >folks trying to use hand looms long after it was established cotton could >be spun with electric power. "Luddites", members of a left-right >"Halloween coalition," -- so the epithets ran. > >Americans understand, so the globalists claimed, that consumer choice is >king; that the China market is huge. The unspoken corollary was that one >day the United States would import ALL its manufactured goods from the >likes of China and El Salvador. Only fools, those who refused to >listen, couldn't understand that. > >But a couple of days of trade bureaucrats needing squads of cops in full >riot gear to escort them to and from their hotels, and the globalist >nation-breakers are a little less arrogant. President Clinton, nothing if >not attuned to the political breezes of the moment, arrived in Seattle and >suddenly began talking how the WTO should put labor standards on the >agenda. > >Labor standards. Imagine that. A two-term Democrat who has always >received the major union endorsements, who has made very effective use of >union soft money political advertising, just now claims to have discovered >that one his core constituencies might have legitimate interests at stake >in the trade negotiations > > But as soon as talk of labor rights and standards crossed his lips, >Clinton's buddies at the WTO rebuffed him. No question of it. Clinton, >they sniffed, was trying to appease a domestic constituency. But the WTO >wouldn't have it. Speaking out against child labor in the global trade >talks was a definite no-no. Labor standards would "discriminate" against >the "developing" countries. > >Happily the WTO doesn't - yet - have the last word here. > >A formidable coalition against it is now forming; nay, it already exists. >It has passion on its side as well as reason. It includes >environmentalists, important groups like Friends of the Earth, and the >thousands of folks who marched on Monday in sea turtle outfits. (The WTO >had declared American laws against fishing techniques that killed sea >turtles illegal.) Its backbone is union members, who want keep decent jobs >that provide decent benefits for themselves and hope their kids can have >them too. It includes folks like Ralph Nader, a veteran activist, a >fertile political mind. And of course it includes economic nationalists, >people like Pat Buchanan who put America first without apology. Buchanan >is the sole presidential candidate who opposes the WTO and probably the >only one who had given the organization more than passing thought before >this week. > >The globalists fear this coalition, and now so much more than they did >last Monday. Washington is so thick with lobbyists, politicians could >delude themselves that only the folks who can fund campaigns with big soft >money really count. But in a democracy, the soft money folks can be >overwhelmed -- and that may be what's beginning. Millions of American >recognize - even if they aren't union members or working class that >America is a better place because workers can earn good wages, have access >to health insurance, hold jobs on which they can support their families. >You don't need a personal connection with Teamsters or steelworkers to >realize this, just some common sense. > >After Seattle, the nation's politics seem pregnant with possibility. The >elite consensus which wants Americans to buy and consume and not think too >much about important questions looks suddenly shaky. Other issues may >emerge as well. Perhaps immigration - where most Americans want a >slowdown, and the Congress doesn't listen to them. Perhaps an hyper >active foreign interventions supported by both Republican and Democratic >elites, the folks who think American can solve every problem with force, >or those who yearn for a new Cold War. Here, the elite hold on public >opinion is even more tenuous than it is on trade. > > After Seattle, it looks like real democracy may be starting up again. > >Scott McConnell Respectfully, Jay Fenello, New Media Relations ------------------------------------ http://www.fenello.com 770-392-9480 "We are creating the most significant new jurisdiction we've known since the Louisiana purchase, yet we are building it just outside the constitution's review." -- Larry Lessig, Harvard Law School, on ICANN
