After Seattle, What should we do?
The WTO negotiations in Seattle have been collapsed. And There have been many
analyses about the results. Among them, there have been somewhat naive
reports about the results of the Seattle negotiations being due to the
actions and voices of the NGOs and the tens of thousands of activists on the
streets in Seattle. However, we must be
weary of being too self-complimenting about the results and analyze the
happenings in Seattle more closely and calmly, and based upon it, plan our
future action.
The U.S. steadfastly held to its demand that global labor standards be put in
place and be discussed at the WTO negotiations in relation to trade, despite
opposition from the 3rd world countries(global labor standards were also one
of the AFL-CIO's demands),
and stressed it even more after the November 30th's intense demonstrations.
The relationship between labor standards and trade is one of the key issues
which led to the negotiations breaking off without any results. It is a very
sensitive issue, with a long
history of clear differences between different parties, even among the
people's movement organizations. Positions on this subject also clashed at
the Seattle meetings. On the surface, it took the form of a standoff between
the U.S.'s position that 'countries which
do not abide by the labor standards should be penalized' and the 3rd world
countries' voice that 'labor standards are just another form of
protectionism.' However, it is not hard to figure out that the U.S.'s
position on the subject serves the American capitalist class in that it
allows for them to protect themselves from the cheap 3rd world's
products, and the American working class in that it protects their jobs. The
third world countries' voice also takes the position of their own local
capitalists since it enables local capitalists to continue the barbarous
exploitation of workers.
Neither one of the positions is valid in our search for the furthering of
workers' rights and the people's basic rights on global scale. The AFL-CIO
has demanded that labor standards be included as a topic at the WTO meetings.
However, when we look back upon similar efforts at the NAFTA negotiations, we
can see that committees and
clauses for such standards in the NAFTA were powerless. It ended up serving
the corporations in the end by giving the impression that such standards were
taken seriously by the NAFTA system. Such demands only serve to increase the
power and authority of the WTO. As such trends continue, treaties and
declarations, which are products of long-lasting international struggles by
the people, such as the Universal Human Rights Declaration and the ILO Labor
Standards can only lose their effectiveness and influence.
What is presently needed are struggles to reduce the authority and influences
of the WTO, and also to struggle for progressive standards and principles to
be accepted at the national level. We believe that this is the 'minimum'
strategy to resist the free trade order of the WTO. It is possible to draw
two principles in our future activities
from Seattle. The first is that the discussions on labor and environmental
standards must not go on inside the WTO system, in a way which strengthens
the WTO's power and authority, but in a form which increases the authority
and influence of other progressive international institutions or statements.
The second is that the environmental and labor standards must be considered
as a principle which should be ratified in each state, but along with these
struggles to expose the reasoning of the ruling class in demanding these
standards must also be included the struggles to prevent the products of
these struggles serving their own interests.
Workers in the North should remember that they have lost steadily their jobs
under the name of restructuring and workout, even in the industrial areas
which had not been faced the competition with the cheap 3rd world's products.
And workers in the South also should remember that local capitalists have
oppressed the workers' rights only for their higher profit.
Even though the Seattle talks collapsed, the negotiations on Agriculture and
Services will be started soon. And the capitalists and imperialist countries
will try again to launch the so-called 'New Round' next year. The Korean
government also continues to maintain its policy of 'liberalization and
market openness' after the collapse of the Seattle talks. During the last
negotiation for the Seattle talks, the government has made every endeavor to
get some results in the issues of 'customs valuation' of non-agricultural
products and 'anti-dumping' in which the Chae-bol, Korean big company, have
strong interests. However, the government have no concern over the issues of
agriculture, public services including education and healthcare,
environmental services including drinking water, and
patents on life in TRIPs which have affected and also will affect people's
livelihood directly. The government only serves Chaebol and has no
consideration for democracy, labor rights, ecology,
human rights, and cultural diversity process of WTO negotiation.
We, Korean people oppose strongly this kind of position of the government,
all WTO talk for 'more liberalization and openness' and every plan to
strengthen the WTO's power and authority. We support strongly the argument
that Agreements on essential sectors to the people including Agriculture,
Education, Health, Culture, and Drinking water must be taken out of the WTO.
Even though we don't think that this is an alternative to the WTO, we believe
that it can pave the way for our future struggles to dismantle the WTO and
build our own alternative world.
by KoPA(Jan. 2000)
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