Linking war and globalisation

BY LUKE FOMIATTI & MELANIE SJOBERG

SYDNEY — “This meeting to discuss war and globalisation occurs against
the backdrop of US President George Bush's 'state of the nation' speech”,
anti-war activist Tara Povey told 60 people at Trades Hall on January 31.
She described Bush's speech as another attempt by the right wing to justify
their war on the Third World.

The meeting, called by Network Opposing War and Racism (NOWAR), aimed
to develop public discussion about the links between the military war on
Afghanistan and the neo-liberal global order.

Turkish refugee from Women Against War and Racism, Nurcan Kiyak, urged
activists to see the struggle against the imperialists' “new world order”
as one and the same as the struggle for refugees' rights and the rights
of workers in the First World. She pointed out that when you ask the questions
“Who are the terrorists?” or “What are the threats?”, the warmongers can't
give any answers.

Khaldoun Hajaj, an Arab-Australian activist, described how the media
uphold the unjust global order. The big business media, especially the
US media, are “zealous about protecting their own interests”, he said.

Hajaj argued that the so-called clash of civilisations put forward by
commentators is “really a clash between the beneficiaries of globalisation,
the power elite, and the downtrodden ... the rest of the world”.

Hajaj pointed out, “The US Congress is debating the new defence appropriation
bill, which will allow $900 billion to be spent on a new military budget”
to repress the people of the Third World. This compares to the total Australian
federal budget of some $150 billion, he noted.

The concept of “globalisation” needs to be interrogated, said Max Lane
from Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific. “Globalisation is
the elites of the First World deciding they need to squeeze the people
of the Third World like they never have before.

“This is not just because they want to, but because they have to”, Lane
explained. The capitalist economic system, he said, is on the verge of
a major crisis due to the lack of opportunities for profitable investment.

The war has to be understood in this framework, Lane argued. “The September
11 attack gave the ruling forces an enormous opening for a propaganda offensive
... it offered the possibility of depicting the people of the Third World
as barbarians and undeserving, thus legitimising the capitalists' squeeze.

“The capitalist class realises that the people's resistance is growing,
and that they will have to directly recolonise as much of the world as
possible”, Lane explained, noting that this is what is behind Bush's proposal
for “full spectrum dominance”.

Lane encouraged those present to see the struggle for freedom for the
refugees in Australia as essential to building lasting solidarity with
the people of the Third World and the anti-corporate movement.

The connection between Bush's war speech and the global attack on Third
World peoples was explored further in discussion. Many argued that the
“war on terrorism” is a disguise for xenophobia.

The discussion will continue at the first M1 2002 organising meeting
on February 14 (see page 23 for details).

From Green Left Weekly, February 6, 2002.

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From GLW issue 479