DIRECT ACTION ANTI-GLOBALIZATION BACKLASH REACHES THE OAS AND FTAA
 

Almost 18 months ago, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned the 1999 Davos Conference of an impending backlash against globalization. Since then, we have witnessed the Seattle and Washington, D.C. protests against the WTO and international financial institutions and the bruising battle over trade relations with China. The OAS and the FTAA were the latest target of the rejectionists. In a small industrial town on the Canadian border near Detroit, protesters demonstrated against the OAS General Assembly meeting held in Windsor, Ontario during the first week of June. Among the issues on the protesters' agenda was the OAS's role in furthering hemispheric trade integration.

An idea of the breadth of participation in the protests becomes clear if one consults the website of the main protest organization, the Windsor OAS Action Network (http://www.mnsi.net/~woasan/WOASANAct.htm). Its list of activities and sponsors is a road map of the delicate balance between conflicting strategies of rejection and reform currently being debated by trade unions and social movements. A link to the site was provided through the web page of the International Center for Human Rights and Development (ICHRDD), the organization contracted by the OAS to hold a three-day encounter of civil society activists and NGOs as a peaceful prelude to the General Assembly. And yet, the ICHRDD offered a link to an alternative program that included a program on civil disobedience training by the OAS Shutdown Coalition and "Days of Direct Action."

Groups reflecting both tendencies-reformist and rejectionist-were in contact with each other with a clear desire to coordinate their activities whenever possible. However, tension was evident between the more extreme and mainstream groups. When Luis Anderson, general secretary of the regional organization of trade unions ORIT/ICFTU, was asked to comment on the position of the OAS Shutdown Coalition his response was emphatic. "The position of the ORIT is that we must dialogue," he insisted. "With determination, with energy, seeking concrete results-but in the end it is dialogue."

In many cases, however, unions and NGOs related to the more engaged unions and civil society organizations are endorsing and/or joining the rejectionist activities. This trend seems strongest in Latin America, where important union organizations in Argentina and Nicaragua formally endorsed the Shutdown Coalition. Examples can also be found close to home; although the Canadian labor movement kept its protest events separate from People's Global Action, the rejectionist movement's Canadian contact was the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. A similar trend can be observed in the growing disparities among US unions and NGOs in the aftermath of their defeat on the China issue. While the AFL-CIO continues to seek dialogue and political support for Democratic candidates, many powerful US union activists are toying with the idea of supporting Ralph Nader.

Windsor did not mark the end of "direct action" protests against globalization. Activists are preparing next for the World Economic Forum Asian Conference in Australia on September 11 and the IMF/World Bank meetings in Prague on September 26. For more information, see the web sites already posted: www.x21.org/s26/ and www.s11.org/s11.html . Anyone tempted to dismiss these efforts as "fringe" need only turn to opinion polls, which show the general population rejecting free trade in ever growing numbers. When politicians ignore these tendencies, they are praised for exercising leadership. When unions and NGOs echo widely accepted positions, they are called extremists or worse.