Anti-War/Anti-Corporativist Movements and the Trade Debates

 
In the months before the 9/11 attacks, groups on both sides of the trade debate were revving up their campaigns to focus attention on the upcoming World Trade Organization meetings in Qatar and the US Congressional vote on Trade Promotion Authority, or fast track. The "Spirit of Seattle" was alive and well in the preparations for massive protests at the Washington, D.C. meetings of the World Bank and IMF on September 29-30. The protesters planned to embrace a new series of issues that included questions of militarism (Colombia) and a growing anti-imperialist backlash to the unipolar world of US hegemony. Even before the collapse of the Twin Towers, other issues were overshadowing trade.

Although the massive Washington protests were cancelled (as were the IMF/WB meetings) in deference to the victims of the attacks, the network of anti-corporativist/anti-imperialist/anti-militarist groups has continued to solidify. This is the group most closely identified with the rejectionists - those who oppose any integration agreements in the hemisphere that involve the United States or a new WTO round.

In reality, many groups straddle a rejectionist and an engaged approach. Such groups are reluctant to abandon the possibility to influence the world and regional trade negotiations, but seek to expand their contacts with rejectionist movements.

A key event in determining the extent of rejectionist sentiment will be the second meeting of the World Social Forum (WSF) early next year in Porto Alegre, Brazil. A recent conference entitled, "Globalize Resistance, Globalize Hope" in Mexico this summer described the WSF as a space in which, "based on even greater participation of organizations from around the planet, we can advance in this process of building an international social movement." Social movements and organizations from 39 countries attended the Mexico conference, which was convened by an interesting mix of organizations; CUT (a left-wing Brazilian trade union federation), ATTAC-France (the Tobin Tax organization), Focus on the Global South (a policy NGO based in Bangkok), and Via Campesina (an international peasant federation now headquartered in Honduras). The meeting had three basic goals:

1. To develop shared analysis of the current balance of power between those promoting and those opposing corporate globalization;
    

2. To evaluate efforts over the past three years to build an international anti-globalization movement;
    

3. To consider next steps in the construction of a global justice alliance with a strong alternative vision.

After three long days, the meeting closed, not with the customary declaration, but with a call to all social movements and organizations to take their places in this emerging global alliance for an alternative to the current forms of globalization. The document called for both continued resistance and reflection on alternatives to the economic restructuring now under way. The September mobilizations in Washington and the World Conference Against Racism were included in a list of a dozen activities that all organizations were called upon to support.

The next major forum for the rejectionist forces is "A Hemispheric Encounter for the Struggle Against FTAA," in Havana, Cuba on November 13-16. A large group of Cuban organizations is hosting the event, with an agenda described as "an ample set of themes aimed at evaluating the threat of the FTAA for the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and North America," with the goal of raising "other integration models based on democracy, humanism, social justice and environmental defense."

The coordinating body of the Hemispheric Social Alliance has presented the Cuban invitation to the HSA's participating members for their support and has nominated a three-member committee to liaison with the Cubans, including CUT Secretary of International Affairs Kjeld Jakobsen. He is one of the architects not only of the HSA, but also of the strong involvement of the union movement in the push to demand effective involvement in the current trade negotiations. The final relationship between the Cuban-sponsored event, the anti-corporativism movements and the Hemispheric Social Alliance will be discussed at the HSA's Hemispheric Council meeting in Florianopolis, Brazil on October 26-28. Specifically, is the HSA's special treatment of the Cuban invitation indicative of a change in attitude? It could be another sign of a strengthening of rejectionist tendencies in an organization that has consistently sought engagement in the Summit of the Americas and FTAA processes.

It remains to be seen how the trade rejectionist tendency will gel with the anti-war/anti-imperialist momentum being generated. The key question here will be the role of mainstream trade union movements, human rights activists and environmentalists. How long will they continue to call for transparency, participation and change when they are themselves rejected by the official governmental and political leadership of the Summit and the FTAA? How will the North American organizations react if strong links emerge between opposition to the FTAA and critics of the US anti-terror campaign? And what will happen to the north-south alliance if Congress approves Trade Promotion Authority that considers labor rights on the level of the US/Jordan FTA?