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The World Social Forum of Porto Alegre Revisited:
Is this a Way to Fight Globalization?
By ALAN BENJAMIN
The World Social Forum (WSF) - held January 25-31, 2001, in Porto
Alegre, Brazil - drew 900 NGOs, 500 elected officials, and grassroots
and community activists from more than 140 countries. They came in
response to the WSF organizers' appeal to "democratize" and
render "more transparent" the institutions of globalization.
One of the main decisions of the WSF, according to its sponsors, was the
creation of a follow-up network whose principal mandate is to organize a
second World Social Forum early next year, also in Porto Alegre. In
keeping with this decision, the elected officials present in Porto
Alegre agreed to constitute an International Network of Members of
Parliament to advance the goals of the World Social Forum. Francis Wurtz,
chair of the United Left fraction in the European Parliament, disclosed
what was without a doubt one of the most telling features of this
Parliamentary Network - and that is its financing.
Wurtz told the Agence France Presse: "The principle was adopted
that the European Parliament would take responsibility for the
coordination of all technical aspects of the Parliamentary Network,
including its financing."
The European Parliament is a totally illegitimate and bogus institution.
It was established under the Maastricht Treaty with the purpose of
providing a democratic façade to the decisions made by the unelected
bureaucrats in Brussels - all of which aim at destroying the European
welfare states and imposing wholesale attacks on the working classes of
Europe. And as we all know, he who pays the piper calls the tune.
It was not surprising, therefore, to see the French government - which
just recently restored night work for women and lowered the legal
working age for children to 13 - send a high-level ministerial
delegation to participate in the World Social Forum. This delegation
included Messrs. Hascoët (Secretary of State for Economic Solidarity),
Huwar (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) and Charasse
(representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Present, as well, were prominent international businessmen, such as Oded
Grajew, president of the CIVES employers' association in Brazil. Also in
attendance was the mayor of the host city of Porto Alegre, Raul Pont,
who only a few months ago confronted a general strike of teachers
demanding payment of back wages and benefits - and who has been
attempting, unsuccessfully till now, to eliminate social security
payments to the city's municipal employees (in the name of the
"reform" of the social security system).
All came to "dialogue" about how to create a
"globalization with a human face." In the words of Jean-Marie
Messier, CEO of Vivendi Universal, an NGO conglomerate with a payroll of
71,000 employees, "[t]he World Social Forum was a unique phenomenon
in that it helped to establish the basis for dialogue between the
corporations and civil society, including the NGO-type social
organizations."
Video-conference "dialogue"
According to many of the WSF participants interviewed in the
mainstream media, the "high point" of the Porto Alegre forum
was a video-conference featuring a live dialogue/debate between
representatives of the WSF and leaders of the World Economic Summit, who
were meeting in Davos, Switzerland, at that very moment. The Davos
Summit, financed by the billionaire speculator George Soros, is the
think-tank of the leading financial institutions of global capitalism.
This video-conference "dialogue" was modeled after UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan's "Global Compact" - an
initiative launched last year for the purpose of "urging the
transnational corporations, which have been the first to benefit from
globalization, to now take their share of responsibility for coping with
its effects." (UN Millennium Summit Declaration, September 2000)
The video-conference was illuminating. The stage was set initially by
George Soros, who told the WSF participants: "Protesting and
marching is fine. The protests have attracted world attention. ... Now
it is time for us to get serious and discuss."
John Ruggie, another Davos Summit spokesperson, represented Kofi Annan.
He stated: "Mr. Annan came to Davos in January 1999, ten months
before Seattle. He warned the world's leaders of the boomerang effects
of globalization. He told them that the collapse of the free-market
economy would not be a good thing for the rich or for the poor. His
words are as relevant today as they were then."
Ruggie did not mince words: For the United Nations, the framework of the
dialogue with the spokespersons of "civil society" must be
acceptance of the cornerstone of globalization and "free
trade" - that is, the "free-market economy." Kofi Annan
has been explicit about this, stating time and again that unless the
multinationals and governments "extend the benefits of free
trade" through social clauses and the like, there will be such a
backlash from the worlds's toiling masses that the "free-market
economy" itself might be imperiled.
And what did the representatives of the Porto Alegre forum respond?
Rafael Alegria, a leader of Vida Campesina [Peasant Life] of Brazil,
said. "If things don't change, the social and political instability
will only deepen. This world has to change. The head of the United
Nations should not be there [i.e., Davos]; he should be here with us.
.... The United Nations has a great responsibility - and that is to
devise a new equilibrium for a better world; otherwise things will only
get worse and we will expose ourselves to the possibility of major
confrontations."
Alegria expressed the view of some of the main WSF organizers that if
the threats of "confrontation" and "instability" are
to be averted, it is necessary to place the fate of humanity in the
hands of the United Nations. But the United Nations is precisely one of
the main vehicles today for promoting the global "free trade"
agenda and for imposing the "new world order" of world
imperialism.
The UN is responsible for the deepening wars and destruction on the
African continent and beyond. Kofi Annan himself gave the green light to
the "humanitarian" invasion of Somalia, the U.S./NATO bombing
of Yugoslavia, and only a few weeks ago congratulated George Bush for
his recent bombing of Iraq. (Annan stated that Baghdad had provoked the
U.S. bombing attacks.)
Need for "social clauses"
When it was his turn to speak again in the video-conference, John
Ruggie rushed to respond to Rafael Alegria: "But the UN is present
in Porto Alegre in the form of a top-ranking UN delegation. ... The
initiative launched a few months ago by the Secretary General [i.e.,
Kofi Annan's Global Compact-ed.] is aimed at urging the heads of the
large multinational corporations to reflect upon the need for social
clauses within the 'free trade' treaties. ... And this issue [the
"social clause"-ed.] also concerns those of you who want
change. It concerns workers around the world and their trade union
federations. It concerns all the organizations of civil society."
The message was unequivocal: According to the UN, it is necessary for
the unions and activists around the world to drop their opposition to
"free trade" and globalization and buy into the process of
"roundtable agreements" and "social clauses."
But this is precisely the hitch. The global corporate "free
trade" agenda cannot be humanized or democratized. The "free
trade" pacts (NAFTA, European Union, FTAA, etc.) by their very
nature are designed to remove all "barriers" to "free
trade" - that is, labor rights and regulations, environmental laws,
public enterprises and services - and the list goes on.
If Kofi Annan and the United Nations genuinely wanted to roll back the
globalization juggernaut, they could demand the dismantling of the WTO.
They could push for the abrogation of the GATT, NAFTA and Maastricht
treaties. They could demand the ratification in every country of the 182
original ILO Conventions protecting labor rights. They could demand the
cancellation of the crushing debt of the "Third World"
countries. They could demand an immediate halt to U.S. military
escalation and an end to all U.S./NATO interventions anywhere in the
world.
But the UN will not do this because its aim is not to challenge the
global corporate "free trade" agenda. Its aim is to bring
together all members of "civil society" - beginning with those
participating in the Porto Alegre forum - into a common framework to
promote more "democratic" and "participatory" free
trade pacts and other anti-worker policies.
The aim of the UN is to get the unions to cease functioning as
instruments to defend the workers in order to become adjuncts of the
policies of the international financial institutions and governments in
their service. Only in this manner, they say, will it be possible to
"avoid a social explosion."
"I just might be there next year."
The final moments of this video-conference "debate" were
equally revealing.
Bjorg Edlung, a businessman present in Davos, summoned the Porto Alegre
participants to create joint Davos-Porto Alegre task forces on specific
issues to "breach the gap." Responding to this proposal, Njoki
Njehu, director of 50 Years is Enough, a U.S. NGO, stated: "If the
purpose is to discuss economics and alternatives, there are plenty of
economists here in Porto Alegre. I invite you to come to Porto Alegre
for our next Summit and to work as hard as us for solutions."
George Soros said he appreciated the invitation. "I just might be
in Porto Alegre next year," he said. "For the time being I
have not made up my mind."
There you have it in a nutshell. George Soros - the personification of
"globalization" - is open to attending the next World Social
Forum. Clearly he and global capitalism's top financial institutions are
beginning to heed the admonitions of Kofi Annan that they need to
promote a "social dimension" - a Global Compact - to attempt
to win acceptance for their plans of plunder, speculation and
super-exploitation. In particular, they are realizing that they need to
be able to co-opt the trade unions into participating directly in the
implementation of this destructive process.
For Soros and company, the Porto Alegre forum may just be what's needed
to move this process forward.
The danger of co-optation is very real. More than ever, it is necessary
for the workers' movement, beginning with the trade unions, to refuse to
be wooed by the siren song of "globalization with a human
face!"
(This article was based on extensive reports from Brazil published in O
Trabalho newspaper.)
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