THE ANTI-GLOBALISATION MOVEMENT
Please Note: THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND VERY MUCH UNFINISHED. AS WITH OTHER SUCH ARTICLES THE DATE OF LAST UPDATE WILL BE HERE: 04.11.2011
I have for some time struggled to understand what the Anti-Globalisation Movement (will be AGM from here on) is about and what it stands for. If like me, you are in a similar position, then we need to take a closer look. We need to understand what underpins this movement, who represents it, whether we agree with it and whether we should support it. If we conclude it is worth supporting then we need to know how.
There are now regularly, massive demonstrations around the world, wherever the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade organisation (WTO), World Bank, Bilderberg and other globally influential bankers and world traders meet. It is a strange fact that these AGM demonstrations have now themselves gone global. Is there a dichotomy? Well to answer this we need to understand what the AGM are about, how they operate and what their goals are.
However, we find the AGM is a difficult beast to get to know, but why? It boils down to several things, first and foremost is that the AGM has no head, it has no boss or governing Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). It is unlike any other ‘organisation’ before in its organic, amoeba like, -all inclusive structure. There is no spokesperson, no website, no founding philosophy to refer to. There is no one to interview who could speak for the movement as a whole.
The second reason for the AGM being hard to fathom, is the media’s portrayal of it. The media are with very little disagreement very anti-AGM. They therefore distort the truth to show the AGM in the worst possible light. They use synonyms of hoodlums, anarchists, rioters, anti-freedom of world trade, hippies, terrorist, conspiracy theorists, lunatic fringe and dangerous youth organisation, without even trying to give any explanation as to what motivates 10,000 ordinary working people to join such a demonstration in the first place. In-depth reporting, investigative journalism and the like as with so much of today’s media, is totally absent. The media dance to the government and big businesses' line (and invented sensationalization of celebrities lives).
See Nick Davies' (Flat Earth News) The media hate the AGM, because they attack them indirectly through their movement (more on this further on). But the way the media report is not the main or only target of the AGM. The AGM is all about being against the way global capitalist organisations operate. Specifically, the multi-national companies and banks which have annual turnovers greater than all but the wealthiest countries’ GNP.
But let’s be very clear here the AGM are NOT against trade or even global trade. It is the way that global trade is currently conducted that they are against. If trade, all trade was Fair Trade (in the legal interpretation of commerce branding) and took full account of peoples basic needs, health and the environment, then there would be no AGM.
Why isn’t all (or virtually all) trade Fair Trade? Well it is basically because these global traders and bankers can make considerably more profit by not engaging in it and they are not forced to by law. But why if they are the richest and most-able-to-afford institutions in the world, do they not try to be more ethical? Well here we enter psychology, but only briefly! It is because the most ruthless people in the world are the ones most attracted to wealth and power, with very rare exceptions. People who seek power and wealth are invariably the ones who attain it, if you don’t seek it strongly you won’t attain the top position. No doubt Darwin would have loved to have noted this point in naturally selection!
The body responsible for squeezing every last drop of profit from the developing world for the West is the World Trad Organisation. The WTO is a body of the world’s most powerful companies backed by the world’s most powerful governments which seek to further their influence worldwide in a capitalist way to increase profits. This they do by writing rules of trade which other countries (usually the undeveloped or developing nations), if they want to continue to trade with us, have to abide by. These rules are written only for further profit, nothing else, they make no consideration whatsoever for bettering workers rights, wages, living conditions or protection of the environment. In fact they are specifically against giving in to any of these things at all. They seek to impose these rules regardless of ANY existing rules or laws to the contrary in signatory government’s countries (that is they overwrite any benefits to workers or the environment if they cost money) and this right of the WTO is a law none can oppose. In fact any and all attempts to do so end in strict heavy fines against the country concerned. Read more about this here.
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION VERSUS FAIR TRADE
“He must be able to glide over every moral restraint with almost childlike disregard and has, besides other positive qualities, no scruples whatsoever and be ready to kill thousands of victims – without a murmur.” (John D. Rockefeller). The same person, who through his company, Standard Oil, supplied both the Allied and Axis powers in WWII and was at the very highest levels of international Freemason organisation (Illuminati Sect). A total Nazi! As were many influential US citizens at the time (and still are!) (the Bush family for instance, the Ford Motor Company, Boeing, Federal Reserve and Disney and many, many more). It is no co-incidence that the US took so long to take part in the war; they were probably taking time to see who would be the most likely victors! When the war was over and all the Nazi scientist were in the US, all they had to do to get full citizenship was denounce their Nazi beliefs by signing an otherwise insignificant bit of paper. Most went on to work in top secret operations for the military and NASA etc. as Wernher von Braun and others did.
These global institutions are so rich and powerful they can write their own rules with little or no regard to individual countries laws and regulations. Bribery of politicians is the most common practice, as seen most obviously in the USA. But they also just completely ignore laws (as with oil companies in Nigeria, Ecuador, Peru) how they operate at home, all clean and tidy, is not how they operate anywhere the media eye is not on them!
They own and control the media to portray a mythical good image, and this media propoganda machine is used against anyone who tries to uncover the truth, such as the AGM.
“We don’t fear regulations what we fear is consumer revolt.” (Shell)
Strangely, you would think if someone was rich enough, they would pay something to reduce or eliminate pollution and enhance the environment just for their own personal health and well being. Who wants to live in a grand mansion above a polluted ghetto with no surrounding beautiful countryside and wildlife (they would for instance still breath the same polluted air, and take drives/walks in the same disgusting countryside) if they could easily afford not to? Isn’t wealth supposed to improve your quality of life in every aspect and not be an end in itself?
They occasionally get found out (Gulf oil spill, Ecuador oil pollution case and many other places if you follow global environmental news). But the jobs and industry they create for countries is valuable. Sometimes they even pay some taxes, but most global companies and banks actually pay NO TAX AT ALL.
This Art School Dropout Pays More Tax Than the Bank of America
These global institutions are into maximum exploitation and slavery. And don’t just make the mistake this only happens in the less developed countries: Briefly as a short aside for instance, in the developed world: Who bailed out the bankers in the latest ORCHESTRATED market crash (banks benefit hugely from orchestrated market crashes, they can buy and sell shares and foreign currency with unimagined profits (one independent banker who was willing to say how much profit he made IN ONE DAY earned $1,000,000,000 IN ONE DAY, and he was small fry!) as well as other things, it helps in keeping pay rises down; there’s a recession you know!) (see BUSH’S NEW WORLD ORDER: THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES or CONSERVATION & POLITICS: WHY EFFORTS ARE GETTING NOWHERE).
Why should the tax payer EVER bail a bank out (even if there really was a crisis?), especially since they have not altered their operation one iota since? They pay you no interest on savings and charge criminal amounts of interests on credit. Why is there always a large pool of unemployed in developed countries when it could easily be eliminated (god that’s a hard one!). Why are there so many ‘free trade agreements’? Do you think this was done to benefit you? Or possibly to make it easier to get cheap labour and commodities?! Oh yes, and to enable money laundering! Isn't it odd that the amount of people on minimum wage keeps increasing while at the same time bonuses for bosses get larger and larger. The rich have never had it so good, but they don't want you to know this, they have to convince you there really is a recession on, so they can keep your wages low and their profits high. If you look how increasingly well off the rich are though, it is easy to see there is not and never has been any real recession.
I could go on and do in my other write-ups here on Birding Site Guide (check them out in Other Items: Environmental Issues). It just AMAZES ME that these things are not so blatantly obvious to everyone over say 25, but I think all should know that’s why I write these articles.
Right, back to the issue in question! Which was?
Well, I think we were looking at AGMs and why they exist. So what is their drift? To promote fair trade world wide, something the present crop of most profitable companies and banks seem unwilling or unable to do. But we can 'help' them make decisions in that direction through consumer choices and demonstrations.
“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” (Voltaire)
“Those who make peaceful revolutions impossible will make violent revolutions inevitable.” (JF Kennedy)
Get ANGRY but stay FOCUSSED!!
Mobilization for Global Justice
The Campaign Against Arms Trade
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Ethical Investment Research Service
Ethical Investment Co-operative
Council for Responsible Genetics
International Forum on Globalization
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
International Institute for Environment & Development
International Labour Organisation
Institute for Local Self Reliance
The International Movement for a Just World
The Foundation for Ethics and Meaning
Prevailing Winds Research Catalogue
Progressive Letter Writing Cooperative
Best Environmental Directories
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
“The test of morality of a society is what it does for its children.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
“6,000,000” (UN figure of children killed in armed combat in 1990s)
Much inspiration for this article has come from Anita Roddick's book ‘Take It Personally’, the late founder of the Body Shop. However, most of the content quoted is empirical not copyrightable. Here are links for The Body Shop.
ANITA RODDICK
Author: BSG
www.birdingsiteguide.com
