Next on the M1 hit-list: the Commonwealth Business Council

BY SEAN HEALY

Melbourne's M1 Alliance, fresh from its successful May 1 blockade
of the Australian Stock Exchange, has set itself a new target for militant,
mass action: the Commonwealth Business Forum, which protest organisers
say is proof of how insidious corporate influence on government is.

The conference, scheduled for October 3-5, takes place immediately before
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane from October 6-8
and is organised by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), a body of
100 corporations which exists to allow big business “preferential access”
into the proceedings of CHOGM and the Commonwealth of Nations.

At its meeting on May 23, the M1 Alliance resolved to blockade the CBC
Forum on October 3, and possibly on the two days following. The conference
is taking place in the Hilton Hotel in East Melbourne, a venue organisers
believe can be successfully blockaded.

The CBC was established by the Commonwealth in 1997, as its official
literature puts it “to involve the private sector in the promotion of international
trade and investment”.

Meeting before each biennial CHOGM, and before the meeting of the Commonwealth
finance ministers each other year, the CBC is open about the forum's influence
on Commonwealth policy, saying “The forum provides a unique opportunity
for delegates to contribute to key policy recommendations to Commonwealth
Heads of Government which will be presented to their Meeting in Brisbane
immediately following the forum; conduct business with other international
partners; network with key government and business leaders and managers;
influence the debate on important trade and investment issues.”

The forum has the blessing of Victorian Labor Premier Steve Bracks,
the second major business conference he has played host to since his September
1999 election, and Prime Minister John Howard, who has said that he is
“delighted” to have the CBC Forum meeting in Australia to encourage “a
Commonwealth consensus backing multilateral trade liberalisation”.

It's the forum's likely “influence” on “important trade and investment
issues” that has organisers of the planned blockade most incensed.

“Without doubt, the business chiefs at the CBC Forum will use it to
spruik the benefits of a new round of World Trade Organisation talks”,
M1 Alliance spokesperson Sarah Peart told Green Left Weekly. “And
if their lectures don't work, they'll use the forum to twist arms.”

The forum, and CHOGM, happen a month before the WTO's ministerial meeting,
scheduled to occur in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, which industrialised
nations hope will launch a comprehensive set of “free trade” talks.

In the year and a half since the failure of the last ministerial meeting
in Seattle, rich country governments have sought to use all international
venues — from conferences of the club of rich countries, the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development, to those of the least developed
countries — to build an international “consensus” for such talks.

The new WTO round will be a topic for debate at the Brisbane CHOGM,
as it was at the 1999 CHOGM in Durban, South Africa. “Getting a Consensus
on a New Trade Round” is also an official agenda item at the CBC Forum.

Peoples' movements in both rich and poor countries are determined to
stop the launch of a new round, which they argue will only further subjugate
poor country economies to the rule of the Western transnational corporations
which dominate world markets.

“What a successful protest on October 3 will do”, Peart said, “is to
prick the bubble that there is any kind of 'consensus' for more 'free trade'
— there isn't. The global elite backs it, its political puppets back it,
but much of the rest of the world is up in arms about it, figuratively
and in some cases literally.”

Peart is also dismissive of claims by rich country negotiators, echoed
by the organisers of the CBC Forum, that they are working hard to address
poor countries' concerns about the WTO's trade agenda.

The CBC, for instance, has stated that “Responding to the need for greater
access for developing countries to the global market, the CBC will work
with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) towards the removal of barriers
to trade and fair access to markets and investments.”

“These are just words”, said Peart, pointing to ongoing WTO negotiations
on trade in services and on agriculture, in which “rich country negotiators
show no sign of changing their past approach: they push poor country governments
hard to open up their economies but make no concessions of any importance
themselves.”

“It will be no different, perhaps even worse, if there is a new WTO
round. Such negotiations will be legalised robbery of the Third World.”

Activists say their planned blockade is also intend to shine the spotlight
on how the world is really run.

“On the international stage, corporate 'advisory' bodies like the CBC
run as shadow governments”, Peart argued. “Globalisation is not some force
of nature, which operates without human involvement. It's a directed process
— worldwide privatisation is directed, opening up of capital markets is
directed, 'free trade' is directed — and it is directed by bodies like
these.”

“The CBC Forum will set the agenda and CHOGM will follow: you just watch.”

The CBC is one of a fleet of international corporate bodies which set
the agenda of “globalisation”.

Many of them are shadowy and attract little public scrutiny. Some, like
the International Chamber of Commerce, operate as international cross-issue
lobby groups seeking to ensure the best possible deal for their corporate
members. Others, like the Global Climate Coalition, have more limited aims:
in the GCC's case, to lobby against action on greenhouse gas emissions.
Others, like the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, actually draw up international
trade agreements, such as on biotechnology, for submission to, and adoption
by, the WTO.

But many activists believe that the international “dialogue” bodies,
which organise large public conferences and seek as much publicity as they
can get, are just as insidious.

Peart says there is an analogy between the CBC and the World Economic
Forum, the subject of massive protest in Melbourne last September: “They're
both 'consensus-builders' and 'agenda-setters'. The CBC's brief is narrower,
to influence the Commonwealth, but its purpose is the same: to create the
impression of unanimity behind the policies of corporate globalisation.”

The CBC itself makes no secret of its desire to promote the corporate
model of globalisation, stating “The CBC enables members to collectively
contribute to the worldwide debate on globalisation. Its objectives include
the integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading system;
enhancing the participation of the private sector in international negotiations;
and strengthening indigenous private sector capacity in developing countries
through working with national chambers of commerce and industry associations.”

Peart sees a successful blockade and large protest as a further crucial
test of strength for the anti-corporate movement.

“What will be on show in Melbourne in October is the two worlds on offer”,
Peart said, “and the people will have to choose.”

“Inside the Hilton, there will be the corporate globalisers, whose vision
is of a world in which they are free to rob, cheat and plunder. Outside,
on the streets, will be the new movement, and our vision is of a world
based on justice, equality, democracy and solidarity. A massive and successful
protest will show that it's our side which is winning, that the corporate
globalisers' time is up.”

From GLW issue 450