Re: <nettime> drafts on WTO

[molly hankwitz <mollybh@netspace.net.au>]

>Dear Molly,
>Very many thanks for your comments on my draft WTO article.
>You say:
>I feel that the WTO draft posted on this list de-politicizes
>> the excellent work of the dissenters.  It objectifies and denegrates the
>> motivations of enormously dedicated people who have organized to interrupt
>> unquestioned authority of private decisionmaking by elitists and to spread
>> a different kind of global message. The protests havesucceeded in shedding
>> light on the issue of corrupt transnational power. They indicate another
>> angle on globalization, one that is not conveniently discussed or even
>> described.
>
>My comment:
>I did not in any way wish to denigrate the valuable achievements that
>protesters have achieved in Seattle and elsewhere in bringing the evils of
>corporate-led globalization to public attention.

It's much much more than getting media attention.
They closed down and interrupted their meetings.

What I was attempting to
>point out was that protest alone is unlikely to achieve the desired result.

What is the desired result?



>Stopping a trade round here or there is great; but it won't stop the forces
>of free-market competition which underpin corporate globalization.

Why not? Maybe its the beginning of the end of capitalism altogether?
Maybe these skirmishes will go on, and not stop. Maybe the voices of
the oppressed will get so irritating to the elite that orders will be given
to just fire at the lot of them....or maybe all the corporate-machines will
shut down...or maybe things will get a lot crazier, a lot more chaotic or
maybe there will be more and more class war.


>protesters need, in addition to their current valid and necessary direct
>actions therefore, is a political framework through which pressure can be
>applied on politicians through the ballot box - i.e. where it really counts.

they have this framework and know how to use it.


>Because, at the end of the day, protest can always be contained or supressed
>if sufficient force is applied.

Yup. If that's the idea.


>If, on the other hand, protesters can also articulate their demands in a way
>which makes politicians' electoral success dependent upon their adoption of
>those demands, the protesters will then have the democratic, political power
>they currently lack.


This is not lacked in some parts of the world. I think you should give the
protesters
more credit for being informed and right on the money in what they are
bitching about.



Such a political framework is proposed by the
>Simultaneous Policy campaign at www.simpol.org. You might like to check it
>out.

Okay.


>best wishes
>John Bunzl


Molly Hankwitz
Archimedia/Leonardo
Queensland University of Technology
Lecturer/Studio Instructor
School of Visual Arts and School of Architecture
0438 050759 (mobile)
3864 3250 (office at QUT, Tuesdays only)
3846 5457 (office at home)
mailing:
2/60 Brighton Road
Highgate Hill 4101 QLD
Australia

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