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Anarchist Response to World Trade Organization
By Steve,
This article in not meant to be a history or theoretical discussion
of what the WTO is. In the coming weeks there will be plenty of
discussion about the World Trade Organization. This short article
is meant to put forth an anarchist understanding of what's wrong
with the WTO and how we want to move beyond it.
Firstly it is important that we understand that this international
body called the World Trade Organization is designed by capitalists
to help them make more money. The so-called "democracy's" so many
of us embrace are just a mechanism to make us feel like we're in
control. It is a tool for the manufacture of consent, which is much
more powerful form of control - than violence. So when we criticize
the WTO for not being democratic, we shouldn't be surprised - there
is very little that is democratic about capitalism. What we should
be surprised by is the lack of a "democratic charade". I guess they
have just gotten used to nobody paying much attention.
As we have argued before - we are engaged in a class war. The enemy
(bosses, politicians, etc.) has many tools in their arsenal to use
against working people and the poor (not that there is much of a
distinction between the two). The WTO is just another weapon in
the capitalist toolbox. Its job is to limit the "excesses of democracy".
What this means is that when some flaw in the "democracy" allows
people to make a law that interferes with business - it can be overturned.
This is being pushed by our "democratic" dictator Bill Clinton.
And because a few people pulled the lever for him three years ago
Americans are supposed to feel that he represents their democratic
will. What a joke!
Much of the debate around globalization and the WTO is wrongly
focused on propping up the nation-state system. We believe this
is a fatal flaw. As stated above, there is nothing democratic about
our "democratic" nation-states. The problem isn't that our national
sovereignty is being violated - the problem is corporations and
politicians run the world in their own benefit. They wage class
war against us and fool us into thinking it is for our own good.
As anarchists we believe in tearing down the borders, not for corporations,
but for people. Globalization has never been for us. The WTO will
continue to tear down borders for corporations, so they can continue
to exploit the land and the people. The WTO will never tear down
the borders for people. Why is it that if these global economy pushers
are really for free trade, why are they the same people who are
complaining about illegal immigrants? Because they are really only
for free-reign of exploitation. They strengthen the borders for
workers, while at the same time tearing them down for corporations.
This is the essence of class war.
While the politicians and corporate CEO's (as if there was a difference)
talk wildly about the benefits of globalizing the economy, the plan
at home has been to increase authority and control over workers
and poor people. The prison industry is the number 1 growth industry
in the U$A. Amerika currently houses 1.8 million people in correctional
facilities of one kind or another. Much of this is carried out in
a genocidal way toward Black and Chicano women and men. The US criminal
injustice system treats people of color differently (a.k.a. in a
racist way) at every step - from surveillance, arrest, trial, sentencing,
and while in prison. And now they are rebuilding the plantations.
The 13th Amendment does not abolish slavery for those imprisoned.
So African Americans have gone from slavery to segregation to a
modified form of prison slavery.
The US has also found for the first time in history the justification
for the mass imprisonment of women and children. The so-called "War
on Drugs" has been waged increasingly at women and children. Women
who defend themselves against abusive partners have also been a
target of the "New Justice". In Pontiac, MI we just saw the sentencing
of an 11-year-old as an adult in a murder case. The death penalty
is in full effect, while at the same time police are allowed to
rampage the community from LA to NYC, with no legal repercussions.
The U$A continues to ignore the existence of political prisoners
like Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier, as well as, more than
100 others. When are we going to say enough is enough? How about
the fact that fewer and fewer of us have adequate health care? What
about attacks on the right of women to reproductive health care?
Welfare cutbacks? Tuition increases? Failing schools? Attacks on
affirmative action? But aren't we in a period of economic boom?
I thought unemployment was at an all-time low? The reality is all
the new jobs hover right around minimum wage with absolutely no
fringe benefits. Real wages have continually dropped since the early
70's. Even the way they do unemployment stats skew the results.
They don't count the millions of people who have given up hope and
stopped trying to find a job at all. Sure there are plenty of jobs
as cops, prison guards, security guards, and in the army. What is
this world we are building?
The reality is we have weapons in our toolboxes too. We just have
failed to use most of them since the mid 1970's. Direct Action is
our most effective tool if we want to start to fight back in this
class war. We have to build solidarity among all those whose power
has been taken away. This means we need to build solidarity between
people of color and white people; between men and women, between
queer people and straight people. This solidarity has to built on
the basis of the more privileged people taking the lead from more
oppressed people - and engaging in a self-critical manner.
They key is we have to fight back. The legal channels have been
exhausted. We need to take our working people's movement to the
streets and be willing to express our anger. In Seattle we will
have this opportunity. But will we take it? Or will we allow ourselves
to be ignored once again? We believe we should take this opportunity
to express our outrage at our corporate dictators, at our corrupt
politicians, and at the passivity of our own movement. We need to
take things to a higher level.
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email: fighttowin@email.com
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Active Transformation
Email: activetrans@hotmail.com
Mail: POBox 6746, East Lansing MI 48826
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last updated: December 29, 2004
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