International Socialists

On 6 October many of the world's rulers will be attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Brisbane to discuss ways to further the agenda of privatisation and free trade. Just a few days earlier at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Melbourne some of the world's richest bosses will be meeting to try and launch a new round of trade negotiations ahead of the next World Trade Organisation (WTO) summit in Qatar.

 

The $20,000-a-head invited guest list includes the representatives of global corporations like BP and Rio Tinto (whose use of armed paramilitaries against villagers in the PNG highlands has been well documented), as well as right-wing scumbags like Roger Kerr, Executive Director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable. Their efforts will be directed towards getting the leaders of the Commonwealth countries to ratify the General Agreement on Trades and Services (GATS), which will lead to the privatisation of many essential services such as water, health and education.

 

In the developing world countries like Uganda and Papua New Guinea have been forced to undergo similar programmes by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to safeguard the interests of foreign investors. The introduction of GATS will make it illegal for governments to regulate against foreign and domestic competition in the provision of services - which have been described as "anything you can buy and sell but can't drop on your foot."

 

It is clear that much of the momentum for this programme of "trade liberalisation" is coming from the major corporations and other private sector lobby groups. "Without the enormous pressure generated by the American financial services sector," said a spokesperson for the WTO, "there would have been no services agreement." But business has also found willing allies among politicians like Tony Blair and John Howard. And our own Labour-Alliance Government has been only too happy to jump on the free trade bandwagon and proclaim that we stand to benefit substantially from welcoming these multinationals to our shores.

 

But at the same time as we are being bombarded with this propaganda, resistance is growing internationally. Over the last three years, hundreds of thousands of people in all parts of the world have taken to the streets in collective protest. Their energy and anger has been directed against the exploitative, corporate driven programme of globalisation.

 

Instead of letting a handful of nameless bureaucrats decide the shape of the future, people from all walks of life have argued for the right to participate in making the decisions that affect all of us. Visible democracy has been the catch-cry of the new movement. It hasn't been about single issues. Environmentalists and trade unionists, anti-GE activists and indigenous land rights fighters have come together under the same banner. They've stood and fought against the sale of the Earth and its inhabitants for the profit of a greedy few.

 

This hasn't been something just confined to North America, or Europe, either. Though the anti-corporate movement was sparked off by the Battle of Seattle in 1999, and most recently flared up with the violent repression of protests in Genoa, these have just been the most visible events to have occurred so far. Lots of other actions have taken place, in lots of different places - from Guatemala to Taiwan, from Sweden to Australia.

 

Last year the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne was effectively shut down by a mass demonstration made up of environmental activists, students, and workers angry at the anti-planet, pro-rich, policies of the conference.

 

In October further protests are planned to shut down the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane. The last time this lot got together around a table they did a fair bit of damage to humanity and the world - but what else would you expect from a group prepared to ignore repeated human rights abuses in member states like Nigeria? Mass blockades are also being planned in Melbourne to try and disrupt the Commonwealth Business Forum.

 

Here in Aotearoa the Employers' and Manufacturers' Association (EMA) and its political arm Business NZ has been behind much of the right wing policy agenda of the last 15 years. The EMA and Business NZ are a product of a recent merger of the Manufacturers' Federation and the New Zealand Employers' Federation. It is now the largest business association in New Zealand, and arguably the most influential.

 

The NZEF was at the forefront of pushing for the Employment Contracts Act and benefit cuts in 1991. It has also actively supported the other features of the post-1984 neoliberal agenda: tax cuts for the rich, user-pays and reduced public spending in health and education, privatisation, the fiscal envelope rip-off, market rents for state housing, and so forth. "We must be prepared to see some New Zealanders do very much better than others," was the comment from Murray Horn, a leading policy adviser under both Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson and now vice-chairperson of the Business Roundtable.

 

More recently, the Employers' Association opposed the tiny elements of the Employment Relations Act that were positive for unions, is actively opposing parental leave, and is continuing to pressure the Labour-Alliance Government to move in an even more pro-business direction. It opposes any environmental protection that undermines business profits.

 

By shutting them down on 5 October we can not only show our solidarity with the demonstrations in Brisbane and Melbourne - we can also begin to build such a movement on the ground here in Aotearoa. To do this however we need as many people and as many organisations to get involved as possible. Together we can send a powerful message that our world is not for sale!