PHA-Exchange> CANCUN TO DUBAI

[Claudio]

From: <pambazuka-news at pambazuka.org>

> CANCUN TO DUBAI: FROM DEGLOBALISATION BACK TO GLOBAL APARTHEID?
> Patrick Bond
(EXCERPTED)
> Well, that was a really great moment on the southeast corner of Mexico on
> Sunday, was it not?! A few Third World elites - led by Kenyan and Ugandan
> delegates - finally walked out of the World Trade Organisation summit,
> insulted to the bitter end by US and EU dictator-negotiators Robert
Zoellick
> and Pascal Lamy. Meanwhile, thousands of activists on the outside tore
away
> at the barricades, a few getting within meters of the Cancun conference
> centre. (As many predicted, South African officials talked left but acted
> centrist in Cancun, playing the subimperialist card as long as possible,
but
> saving a bit of face by joining the group of 20+ agricultural exporting
> countries. Trade minister Alec Erwin expressed 'concern and
disappointment',
> while South African progressives in the streets of Cancun were thrilled at
> the meeting's demise.)
>
> Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South director Walden Bello summed up:
> 'The WTO has been severely damaged. Two collapsed ministerials (Seattle
and
> Cancun) and one that barely made it (Doha) recommend the institution to no
> one. For the trade superpowers, it is no longer a viable instrument for
> imposing their will on others. For the developing countries, membership
has
> not brought protection from abuses by the powerful economies, much less
> serving as a mechanism of development.'
>
> Last week also bore two other gifts of 'deglobalisation,' that shorthand
> phrase Bello has been using to promote the roll-back of corporate power.
The
> Swedes voted decisively against adopting the Euro, and the Argentine
masses
> maintaining sufficient pressure on president Nestor Kirshner to prevent a
> sell-out to the IMF. Along with economists interviewed by the Financial
> Times, French water privatiser Suez is furious that the IMF failed to get
> the desired massive increase in utility price hikes as part of the new
loan
> deal, indicating an unprecedented degree of Argentine official resistance
to
> neoliberalism.
>
> Can anything comparable reoccur this weekend, in the midst of the annual
> meetings held by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank? It's
worth
> considering both the last summit on financing (back in 2002), and prior
> annual meetings. Once out of every three years, these are held away from
> Washington. In Berlin in 1988, 80,000 protesters came out to demand an end
> to structural adjustment and Third World debt. In Bangkok in 1991, the
urban
> movements of the Klong Toey ghetto fought displacement by a government
> intent on prettifying the meeting site and, in turn, they harangued and
> harassed the Thai regime and IMF/WB delegates. In Madrid in 1994, more
tens
> of thousands came out to say, 'Fifty years is enough!' (the institutions
> were founded in 1944). In 1997, the Hong Kong meeting hosted Asian elites
in
> their most angry, anti-Washington mode, in the midst of the regional
> economic crisis. In 2000, Prague became the birthplace of 21st century
> European anti-capitalism, as 15,000 people managed to force the
chairperson
> of the IMF/WB board of governors to close down the meeting a day early.
>
> One thing the A16 Washington and S29 Prague protests did was force the two
> institutions to look in the mirror and put on some makeup. Because of the
> grotesque hypocrisy identified with the bankers' hedonistic partying,
> subsequent annual meetings were cut back dramatically from eight days to
> three. Instead of the fanciest Washington hotels on Rock Creek Parkway,
the
> Bank and IMF retreated to their headquarters, in the staid (and more
readily
> defended) centre of town, two blocks west of the White House.
>
> Now, in the wake of their Cancun catastrophe, those responsible for global
> minority rule are reconvening in a favoured terrain: an undemocratic Arab
> state where protest is simply not tolerated. With Qatar's capital of Doha
> serving nicely as the WTO conference retreat in 2001 (and no protests to
> speak of), the question now is whether Dubai will allow global financiers
> the breathing space to reassert forward momentum for corporate
> globalisation.
>
....Policies promoted by the  IMF/WB are not only keeping the poor in
poverty, but are also impoverishing
> sectors of society generally relied upon for wealth creation, economic
development and civil society leadership.' Civil society meetings in Africa
> now regularly denounce PRSPs as a scam.
>
> Is better global governance the answer? The charge of 'global apartheid'
> certainly applies to the IMF/WB, where nearly fifty Sub-Saharan African
> countries are represented by just two directors, while eight rich
countries
> enjoyed a director each and the US maintains veto power by holding more
than
> 15% of the votes. (There is no transparency as to which board members take
> what positions on key votes.) The IMF/WB chief executives are chosen from,
> respectively, the EU and US, with the US treasury secretary holding the
> power of hiring/firing.
>
>
> In all of this, far more than mere intra-organisational positioning is at
> stake. The IMF/WB remain central to lubricating US imperialism, including
in
> Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bank, for example, is reinvigorating its push
> towards state services privatisation in the 2004 World Development Report,
> which will be released on Saturday. (The best preliminary english-language
> critique, by Uruguay-based Tim Kessler of Citizens' Network on Essential
> Services, is at http://www.servicesforall.org/
> html/tools/2004WDR_critique.shtml )
>
> According to London School of Economics professor Robert Wade, 'The World
> Bank has made no evaluation of its earlier efforts to support private
> participation in social sectors. Its new private sector development
thrust,
> especially in the social sectors, owes almost everything to intense US
> pressure.' As a result, the frustration over African impotence in
Washington
> occasionally boils over. In June, at a UN meeting in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopian
> president Miles Zenawi poignantly implored, 'While we will not be at the
> high table of the IMF, we should be at least in the room where decisions
are
> made.'
... More  and more investors are realising that profiting from poverty
through World
> Bank bonds is not only immoral, but will not make good financial sense as
> the market shrinks.' Have a look at http://www.worldbankboycott.org to
join
> this great movement - and then help prepare for a 60th anniversary
> ('retirement party') protest in Washington next year.
>