BY IGGY KIM & NICK EVERETT
An "informal" meeting of 25 trade ministers will be hosted by the World Trade Organisation in Sydney on November 14-15.
The meeting will be a caucus, involving the advanced capitalist countries plus a handful of the more industrialised Third World countries, to discuss how to push through the neo-liberal agenda of "free trade" and privatisation and cuts to public services at the full WTO meeting in Mexico City, September 2003.
The WTO's agenda has so far been stalled by a combination of opposition from many Third World countries and an anti-neoliberal movement in wealthy First World countries since the November 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle.
While neo-liberalism has been imposed on workers in advanced countries with cuts to public services and free-falling wages the main offensive has been on workers in the Third World. The gap between the wealthy and poor countries has widened as First World corporations and governments seek to plunder even more from the world's poor. Much of the opposition to the WTO in the First World is generated by workers' solidarity across the global poverty divide.
Unfettered market access by First World corporations will be devastating for Third World countries already ravaged by multinational profiteers. The November meeting represents an economic "war cabinet" of the exploiter countries. The kingpin of these is the US.
Over the last decade, Washington has used the collapse of the Soviet bloc — and the September 11 terror attacks — to make it easier for the US ruling class to enforce its interests through unilateral military action. This is the essence of the "Bush Doctrine" legitimising US military aggression (otherwise known as "pre-emptive strikes").
The US drive for world domination is directed primarily against the Third World. In this, its interests coincide with the interests of other imperialist countries, including Australia. Washington's global hegemony — military and economic — is the framework accepted by all imperialist countries for shared plunder of the Third World.
This necessitates "dealing with" non- cooperative Third World governments, whether through war on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, an attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela or stepped-up hostility towards revolutionary Cuba. It means the US wants a free hand in military operations abroad, hence Washington's rejection of the International Criminal Court.
The US-led military offensive is part of the same war on the Third World that is being carried out economically by institutions like the WTO. Activists standing in solidarity with the Third World need to oppose both, and point out that they serve the same purpose: exploitation of the poor by the rich.
The impending war on Iraq does not have overwhelming public support in Australia, most of Europe or across the Third World. Between now and November, campaigns against the war will grow all around the country.
A mass unity rally against the WTO on November 14 (N14) is being organised by a coalition of anti-corporate organisations, unions, non-government organisations, refugee-rights groups and individual activists. If that rally also opposed war on Iraq, it could attract even larger numbers of people and deepen mass opposition to the US ruling class's role of "globocop" and Australia's role as its Pacific deputy.
Since the September 11 terror attacks, anti- corporate activists in Australia have been reorienting to the increased importance of military attacks on the Third World, as well as economic attacks. Explicitly opposing the "war on terror" on N14 will help consolidate this.
During the last year, despite the September 11 attacks and aftermath, we have seen a growth in the movement demanding freedom for refugees. Like anti-corporate activists, many refugee- rights campaigners are acting in solidarity with those in the Third World. Plans are already underway for a refugee-rights demonstration on November 13.
Refugees have also suffered under the "war on terror". In the wake of September 11, opposing "terrorism" was used by then defence minister Peter Reith as an excuse to further demonise refugees. The racist ideological offensive accompanying the "war on terror" aims to drive a wedge into the growing solidarity between people of the rich and poor countries.
For the Bush Doctrine to succeed, domestic opposition to US oppression of the Third World must be eliminated. This is reflected in the long build-up of racist lies before each war — on Iraq and Afghanistan — is waged.
These lies can be fought through mass mobilisa tion against all forms of assault on the Third World, whether that be economically through the WTO or through war. By linking up today's three key movements acting in solidarity with the Third World the refugees' rights, anti-war and anti-corporate movements we can deepen opposition to corporate tyranny in all its forms.
We need the biggest possible protests on N14. Coalitions organising these protests should take up the anti-war demand and mobilise their extensive networks and memberships to come out en masse. Anti-war campaign committees should also see these protests as a major stepping stone in the building of the anti-war movement.
For these protests to be really successful to mobilise unions and other large organisations our main focus shouldn't be on civil disobedience and blockading. The form of action is secondary to the need to mobilise as broadly as possible for principled anti-imperialist demands against war and the WTO.
"Anti-terrorist" fearmongering will be at its peak for the November meeting, at which time a war on Iraq could also be beginning. This poses the danger of greater violence against protesters, as well as the possibility that the form of the protest will receive more attention and cause more debate than what we're protesting for.
The Australian anti-corporate movement still lacks a mass activist base: regular campaigning by significantly large numbers of people, who are organised into mass organisations. We have yet to go beyond sporadic protest actions organised by relatively small committees.
To a large extent, our mobilisations have depended on the attention of the mass media. Once a war on Iraq begins, media attention will be on the war and the war-driven "security" hype surrounding the WTO meeting.
If we fail to tackle the war head-on, we will fall victim to this climate.
The European anti-corporate movement has consistently opposed US-led war. This was clear in the huge mobilisations in Brussels last December, Barcelona in March, Madrid in May, and Italy last October and this May. It is also reflected in the official theme of the European Social Forum, to be held in Italy in November: "Against neoliberalism, war and racism".
The connection between neo-liberal economic attacks and war has been recognised by the World Social Forum. The 2002 WSF issued a "Call of social movements: resistance to neo-liberalism, war and militarism".
In the post-9/11 context, we would do well to learn from the example set by the anti-corporate globalisation activists overseas who have so successfully linked the issues to build and strengthen the movement against neo-liberalism.<|> From Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2002.
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