<nettime> Re: Gary Chapman, brilliant on WTO (guderian, rc-am)

["nettime's_digestive_system" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

Re: <nettime> Gary Chapman, brilliant on WTO
          Carl Guderian <carlg@vermilion-sands.com>
Re: <nettime> Re: Gary Chapman, brilliant on WTO (henwood byfield kessi brace) 
          "rc-am" <rcollins@netlink.com.au>

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Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 18:03:29 +0100
From: Carl Guderian <carlg@vermilion-sands.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Gary Chapman, brilliant on WTO

If free trade brings a better life, fine, but somehow I doubt the
version--the direct equation of capitalism and freedom--offered by a
secretive organization like the WTO will do so.

A big reason for the protests was that ordinary people were condescendingly
nudged out of the discussion, from NAFTA to the MAI to the WTO, though they
are most affected by the results. Policy wonks like Charlene Barshefsky,
her boss Bill Clinton, and the Davos crowd were baffled by the commoners'
sudden interest in trade. They should have known better. Information is
more available now than it used to be, and citizens have had to become
semi-experts in the process of answering disturbing questions such as:

* (In the U.S.) If the company for which I work is a model of efficiency,
why is it being closed down and reopened in Mexico?
* (In Nigeria or southern Mexico) Why would Shell or Chase Manhattan Bank
rather have my government kill me than work with me?
* (In the U.K.) If genetically-modified beans are as good as Monsanto say
they are, why can't they trust us to test them ourselves and then decide
whether we want to eat them?

Secrecy and exclusion is harder to justify than it used to be, especially
when the experts are shown not be so disinterested as they pretend to be.

The WTO's scope shouldn't extend much beyond world trade, but nor should it
pretend that world trade exists in a vacuum, not when ills like
dictatorship, poverty and pollution have accompanied "free trade" in the
past. The record of the free traders is poor in this regard; they supported
whichever kleptocrat could deliver the bananas or Air Jordans most cheaply
and reliably. When leaders steal everything, how can the workers afford the
TVs and big Macs that northern protesters are supposedly denying them?
"Constructive engagement" led to big fortunes for Suharto and the rest of
his litter and jack squat for everyone else. Popular disgust at home and
abroad, not trickle-down economics, pushed him out the door. If the people
of the developing countries are to depend on a top-down structure like the
WTO to lead to a better life, they'll be waiting a long time. If they know
someone else cares enough to raise a ruckus, they'll take heart in the
knowledge they're not alone.

The issue of global trade is important--the U.S. protectionism in the 1930s
probably worsened Europe's depression--but not urgent enough to justify an
Emergency Committee-type body like the WTO. There's no Jihad declared
against the world's chambers of commerce. The WTO members themselves
realize this. Even the U.S. government is ambivalent, since it has its own
producers to protect. We have the time and the duty to be sure everyone,
not just the bosses, gets a voice. I'd rather work out for myself that
strong copyright protection and Big Macs are a global good than have it
said for me.

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From: "rc-am" <rcollins@netlink.com.au>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Re: Gary Chapman, brilliant on WTO 
         (henwood byfield kessi brace) 
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 14:55:49 +1100

Sad to see people peddling Australian nationalism as if, by virtue of its
not being US nationalism, is somehow better.  This refrain -- that the
collapse of the WTO talks in Seattle indicate a loss for the poor -- is one
of the more laughable commentaries I've seen.  But, it's just downright
ridiculous coming from Australia, which has one of the highest levels of
agribusiness concentrations anywhere, both vertically and horizontally,
with approx four companies controlling inputs, outputs, land sales,
bio-tech, distribution...  This, of course, coming hot on the heels of the
second biggest land grab in Australian history, where both Labor and
Liberal-National governments effectively legislated to retrospectively
legalise colonisation -- specifically to protect the pastoral and mining
industries from indigeneous land claims.

Not surprisingly perhaps, both the Australian Labor Party and the
Liberal-National Coalition concur in their attempt to present the collapse
of the WTO ministerial in terms which can -- at best -- be called a lie.
No doubt, this is part of a bi-partisan attempt to shift toward regional
trade agreements; as well as an attempt to present Australian imperial
interests in the region in the fading light of an 'anti-US imperialism'
register.  Well, it seems to work for many capitalists in the region, so
why not for Australian ones as well.  (Anyways, with legislation on the
table to extend Australian mineral exploration rights over a wider area of
Antarctica, as well as legislation to extend the ability of the Australian
military to board and seize ships outside Australian waters (you know, all
those darned illegal migrants taking 'our' jobs and greedy Indonesians
taking 'our' fish) -- with the ALP wanting to present itself as even
tougher on these questions than the present Government are--, they have to
do something.)

Thanks to McKenzie Wark, i now know what the particular spin from the ALP
is going to be: APEC, friend of Australian workers.   And, it shouldn't
come as much of a surprise though that the discourse is remarkably close to
that of Mike Moore's, who after all comes from the New Zealand Labor Party.

Angela Mitropoulos
Melbourne, Australia
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