By Kylie Moon and Chris Atkinson
Since the November 1999 siege of Seattle a new movement has come onto the world stage, the movement against corporate globalisation. This was sparked by the victory in Seattle of stopping a new round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting. The movement has united tens of thousands of people across the globe as they have mobilised on the streets to voice opposition to the pro-profit agenda of the ruling capitalist elites.
Resistance activists throughout the country are gearing up for the next major target in Australia, the October Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Brisbane and, just before it, the associated meeting of the Commonwealth Business Forum (CBF) in Melbourne.
Activists are planning mass protests in both cities. Resistance will be organising people to converge on Melbourne and Brisbane to protest at these meetings.
The CBF, run by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), is on October 3-5. Its literature boasts that it seeks to involve the private sector in the promotion of international trade and investment. The CBC makes no secret that it works with the World Trade Organisation towards the removal of barriers to trade and fair access to markets and investments.
CHOGM will be held in Brisbane immediately after the CBF meeting and will bring together the leaders of 54 countries from the former British Empire. CHOGM has always been dominated by four of its five imperialist powers: Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. (South Africa, which dominates southern Africa in much the same way as Australia and New Zealand economically and politically dominates the Pacific islands, has only rejoined the Commonwealth relatively recently.)
CHOGM is used by these powers to further their investment and business opportunities across the globe. When he was British foreign minister, Malcolm Rifkind described the Commonwealth as a priceless asset which provides a unique entry point for Britain across five continents.
One of the meeting's aims will be to gain support for the new WTO trade round. Around 40% of countries who are members of the WTO will be participating in the CHOGM meeting.
The future of the majority of people on the planet, and the sustainability of our environment, are determined by the decisions that bodies like the CBF and CHOGM make. They design the rules and they make the decisions to further the legalised robbery of wealth from the Third World by the First World.
No new trade round
The new trade round that the WTO meeting in November will seek to push through includes:- enforcing privatisation of essential services like water and electricity through the extension of the General Agreement on Trades in Services (GATS);
- further undermining basic workers' rights and environmental protection standards;
- creating a global free trade regime;
- extending the scope of corporations' ability to buy and sell intellectual property and patents; and
- tightening the chains of third world debt.
The First World governments and the corporate elite that call the shots in the World Trade Organisation will attempt to reverse the victory won in Seattle by relaunching a new round of free trade negotiations at its meeting in November in Qatar, a country where protests are illegal.
We need to defend the victory of Seattle. A new WTO round would have a disastrous impact on workers, the poor and the environment everywhere, particularly in the Third World. It will mean the further bleeding of wealth from the Third World to wealthy First World countries. We demand that the Australian government stop bullying poor countries into signing on to a new WTO round and instead call for it to be boycotted altogether.
The militant, mass actions at CHOGM will be an important test of strength for the anti-corporate movement. Resistance is organising to help ensure that the largest number of people mobilise for both the CBF and CHOGM. We want to demonstrate that there are two visions on offer: inside the CBF and CHOGM 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 anti-corporate movement, with a vision of social justice, equality, democracy and human solidarity.
Massive and successful protests in Australia in October will show that it's our side that is winning and time is running out for the corporate globalisers.
Protest CHOGM and CBF!
Activists from Melbourne have called for a mass, non-violent blockade of the CBF venue at the Hilton Hotel from October 3-5. In Brisbane, activists are planning a people's march to CHOGM along with other acts of civil disobedience on October 6.In its call to action, the Melbourne alliance declared:
We intend that this act of mass civil disobedience will strengthen the will and determination of all those around the world who are struggling for global justice. The whole world will be watching.
[Visit the Resistance web site at <http://www.resistance.org.au> to stay in touch with protest preparations.]