WTO: Motley crue contingent, very little glamour

…I’m still reeling from this experience and my thoughts are past due…





























































In this line of work, I have to accept the bogus line that trade liberalization is mandatory for human development, for reducing poverty, for promoting democracy. Yet it is estimated that the damage done to African countries by trade liberalization in the past 25 years, amounts to $272 billion USD (Christian Aid). Clearly, there are better alternatives for world trade, like keeping some protection and market regulations, (was not every US President on each bill a bloody market protectionist?), or getting rid of capitalism altogether? In addition, to bite the hand that feeds me, the organization for which I work tries to play by WTO rules and promotes liberalization in order to become a substantial contender with the other Chicago Boys. But I think it becomes just as soulless, misguided and disconnected from the world’s poor majority. Given that many of my political tendencies conflict with colleagues and people in hierarchies of power towards whom I must smile, I fear that all commentary and protest actions could cost me the job. (Hm, I’ll have to let you know if I need a couch to crash on…)

Indeed, the madness of the 6th WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong is indescribable and may contrast with mainstream media stories. For me, the whole process was very rushed, overwhelming and a strange convergence of activists of all kinds (whether it be dogmatic trade ministers, well-off activist tourists [i.e. Tallahassee’s Dubravko], or people who’ve fallen through the ‘cracks’ in the public eye and world trade sphere). I learned the Sunday before the talks hat I was to accompany the organisation, to which I am affiliated, to the flame-throwing debauch of the trade ministerial/circus Although I arrived too late in the week to sort out my security pass, and had to attend laborious, never ending delegation meetings with the development posse, I got a very good idea of how such negotiations take place. ‡US/EU shows up with their agenda and trade interests, does not budge and brings the rest of the world to groveling, due to their threats of sanctions and falling out of favor with ‘the only show in town’, the WTO. The talks leading up to 12-18 Dec meetings clearly demonstrated this. So none of us are surprised, but I’m more vitriolic about WTO’s farcical attempts towards ‘compromise’ –er, coercion in the green room-, civil society ‘consultation’ and NGO accreditation process, and all bloody presented offers.

It’s clear that within the talks, industrialized Northern reps ‘forged consensus’ with up-and-comers India, Brasil, and China, precluding ‘less developed’ or least developed countries (LDCs) from the talks. {Whose bloody terms of development are we using here? Developing to whose standards?}. I had the good fortune to attend several International Centre on Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) panel discussions, which taught me more than I could learn from any book. I was able to observe my colleagues’ politics, how one manipulates themselves in this ‘talking head’, ‘fridge buzz’ arena, and how I will most likely fail out of this spectacle as I cannot play this deceitful, conniving game.

anonymous excerpts

A few anonymous excerpts, some from people I know, indicating how fukt we are in building global democracy, fairer trade rules and eradicating poverty:

Concerning water privatization:
“water is god-given, but not the pipes”













“slums are a public embarrassment, so by denying them sanitation services there is the hope that slum dwellers will just leave”

Concerning aid:
“There is nothing wrong with the current global trading system, it’s all a supply-side problem…aid that has been ‘given’ has been squandered…so if the Integrated Framework [liberalizing your market and integrating deeper into the global trade regime] improves, it will be better than ‘Aid for Trade.’
“Integrated Framework is optimal, because it’s not just about trade integration, but trade development”
“Aid for Trade is an anti-market approach and LDCs are bought off buy this idea.”
“Aid for Trade will fail because most money will be spent for conferences/seminars/flying business class.”

Concerning international development organizations:
“[The one I work for] is not good at managing trust funds; funds should be given to Chicago Boy bankers, instead.”
“[In this organization] you can afford to be childish.”
“Constructive ambiguity is a good tool of diplomacy.”

Concerning trade:
“In trade we trust; trade for all.”
From G.W. Bush’s speech writer: “…Duty free/quota free [market access] should not be given to LDCs.” –aha! It shows how much US really does consider LDC interests, ha!
“The current GATS architecture is development friendly.”
From US ministers: “nothing came up [concerning agricultural subsidies] so there is nothing to discuss.”

...same neo-liberal extremism...

While I listened to more of the same neo-liberal extremism, in the guise of being ‘moderate’, a global collective (simply against the current unfair, unsustainable trading system) merged, grew and exploded in the streets. I am in love with all these people! Plural perspectives, divergent yet in simpatico opinions, and a bit of craziness filled the entire city of Hong Kong. Thick divisions: you had aristo-technocrats hammering out draft texts inside Convention Centre, NGOs clamouring for a bit of action (potential funding/recognition/accreditation) inside official WTO NGO arena, academic policy makers losing touch with masses inside ICTSD, and throngs of everybody elses cast out in the left field of Victoria Park.

(anti-WTO baby)

For the first couple days...

For the first couple days I sat politely, crossed legged, and tried to tune out the drone of technical jargon, acronyms and W.A.S.P.s. Strangely, delegation meetings were held at a hotel right across from Victoria Park, but participants were completely oblivious to the color, sounds, art and positive vibes right outside the meeting window. I couldn’t bring up to colleagues how I roamed the park during breaks, as the anti-WTO movement was seen as an incoherent, inarticulate joke. I doubt that most Korean or Indonesian farmers, who held copious educational forums about rejecting fisheries in Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) talks and objecting to patents on life, would see their movement in the same way. Who knows better, speaks better about trade policies than those people who directly experience them?

The S. Korean farmers were the strong face of much of the protests; their chants poignant and street blockades contagious. Most days during the week-long WTO meeting were punctuated by evening protests. Hong Kong shut down after 6pm on several days. Police were accommodating at first, until Saturday (clear that there still was no movement), when protestors prevented trade ministers from attending their dinner engagements. Protestors swelled in the streets, sweeping up bystanders, shopkeepers, elderly folks, creating a massive, uh, demonstration, in response to the stagnation around agricultural subsidies, aid for trade, NAMA formulas…The previous Friday night, trade ministers hemmed and hawed until 4am, and still, no movement. Hence, people on the outside, in the very periphery, including Heather Johnson’s ‘crack people’, took to the streets.

(Richard Gere...

thinks Asian children are ideal for the textile and garment industry cos they have small, nimble fingers...)

I was lucky...

I was lucky to have met with an old FSU chum, living in west China, who shared the protest experience with me. We tried to stay away from people who were on missions to get arrested (Chinese prisons aren’t in the cards for me just yet). But the surging collective engulfed you; you couldn’t really avoid the demo. The police were so supportive the first few days because they divided the crowd into factions, according to organization affiliation. Indeed, Empire has mastered crowd control…with its (‘less lethal’) rubber bullets, vile pepper spray, retractable batons, water hoses shooting out poisonous chemicals, tazer-shocking riot shields, helicopters and weapons earned from the arms trade…almost. Despite sectioning off the tens of thousands, a group of about 900 managed to hold strong against the riot pigs. Some may have been Korean farmers (or did they assume that role?), who set small fires and desperately tried to get into the convention centre. Trade ministers were locked in until wee hours; 900 or so protestors refused to give up, until all were arrested by 6am. Those detained are calling for urgent legal assistance!

Unfortunately all this did little good. Global Justice Movement folks ARE on the inside, do know the issues, do have alternatives, but obstinate US/EU continue to serve their steaming bullshite. Not to let the disillusionment about the policy and activist worlds deter me from my own path in finding justice, in some form, but it does seem hopeless, at least at this close range. I can only hope that likeminded people continue to work in these circles, perhaps towards dismantling these institutions of uneven power. Still, the divisions between movement members remain.