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Greens in Cancun: " WTO is Falling Apart"by Annie Goeke and Jim Polk At the World Trade Organization ministerial
meeting in Cancún, USGP International Committee Co-Chair Annie Goeke,
and International Committee member Jim Polk (who is also Co-Chair of
the Green Party of Virginia), are representing the Green Party of the
United States. Annie and Jim have filed a report from Cancún,
reporting that security outside the official meetings is
extremely aggressive, while inside, the basic framework of world trade
appears to be falling apart. Here is their report.
Report From Cancun September 12th, 2003 CANCUN -- We are now halfway through the WTO conference. Security continues to be extremely and unbelievably tight. Literally, there are police and military every 50 yards for the entire 20 kilometer strip of hotels that is refered to as the Hotel Zone of Cancún. Mexican Navy ships and small boats patrol the beach. A RESORT UNDER MARTIAL LAW A total blockade is in place: any pleasurable use of the waters off of Cancún is strictly forbidden. No recreational boating is allowed, and security guards are posted at the docks of hotels to keep activists away. The entire strip of hotels, shops and area where the convention center is located, is under a state of virtual martial law. It is almost impossible for us to describe the number of steel fences and barricades that line the streets. Barricades are everywhere. Whenever a protest or activist group has gotten through, they have been swamped and surrounded by military police and restricted by moveable barriers. Because we have our WTO badges, we are able to come and go pretty much where we want, but we are inspected every step of the way. NO CONTACT BETWEEN NGOS AND OFFICIALS; PROTESTERS KEPT MILES AWAY At the official opening of the WTO meeting when the 148 ministers were introduced, 50 NGO representatives interrupted the ceremony by holding up signs and placing black electrical tape across their mouths, while some shouted. Strict restrictions are placed on the NGO representatives having any meaningful participation or interaction with the ministers. They are banned from even observing ministerial meetings. Outside of the official meeting zone, 20 kilometers away, over 10,000 protestors are being completely barred from entering. Tempers are flaring between the activists and military, mostly because the activists are not being allowed any chance, in any way, to make their concerns known to the officials. But for the most part the demonstrations have remained calm and peaceful. A sad exception to this occurred September 10th, 2003, during the Massive Peasant and Farmers March, when a South Korean farmer named Kyung Hae Lee committed ritual suicide by stabbing himself in the chest with a knife while standing atop of a barrier erected by the military. His suicide was a last act of desperation to bring to the attention of the world the urgent plight he and other small farmers face under the current rules being negotiated on agriculture at the WTO. WTO NEGOTIATIONS IN CRISIS From the inside, our Green experts say that the reality of what is going on in the negotiations is that the WTO is falling apart. There are four areas of primary discussions which are major sticking points for the group. Those are agriculture, non-agricultural products, development and the Singapore issues. For instance, under the agricultural agreements, the USA and the EU have a joint position that is being blocked by the G-21, made up of mostly developing countries. They have a position that is not compatible at all to the US/EU. The United States and the EU refuse to stop or reduce their subsidies on agricultural exports. An example of this is subsidies provided for cotton. Four western African nations: Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin, and Chad, have economies that are being destroyed by these subsidies, because local growers cannot compete with the low market prices US/EU countries can provide. This leads to tens of thousands of people losing their jobs, and facing severe poverty and starvation, which is contrary to one of the basic tenets of the negotiations of the WTO, which is supposedly very concerned with helping developing nations thrive, not destroy them, which is what is happening. These four African nations are demanding a resolution for this problem so that they can survive. Within the DOHA negotiations, there have been no resolutions, as most of the developing nations disagree with the more developed ones. WTO CONFERENCE CHAIR: DEVELOPING NATIONS ASKING FOR "TOO MUCH" There is no doubt that the WTO will try to falsely put a positive spin on how negotiations are going, implying that things are being worked out when in actual fact, the WTO is collapsing. In a press statement made by the chair of the conference, Mr. Fishler said that the developing nations were asking for too much help from the industrialized nations, being unrealistic as to how much they can actually do. This is a smoke screen on how the multinational corporations of the industrialized nations are destroying the national economies of the developing countries, and are continuing to spread a post-colonialization system, far superior to the days when battleships and troops invaded their lands. GREEN PARTIES IN THE FOREFRONT Our Green colleagues, especially the Green/EFA group have been very welcoming, hard at work, and pleased to have us here as representatives. They are happy to see the USGP in concerned and getting more involved in these issues. We attended one of the debate dinners hosted by the Boell Foundation and presented the views of the USGP. The primary topic of the evening was to address the Singapore issues. Not only Greens attended but also representatives from the IMF, World Bank, Oxfam, and the EU Commission. The Boell Foundation is also hosting a forum that is being held in downtown Cancún, and many of their programs and seminars have been extremely well attend by NGO's and activist groups. Yesterday's top issue was on resisting the WTO in their grab for water and pushing to privatize this publicly owned resource. The house for this issue was packed, as many here see this as one of the most important issues for the future of the planet. Each day, different interesting and important topics are being addressed, such as: NAFTA, GATS, TRIPS, biotechnology, social and gender impacts on trade. The list is endless. We did convene an informal Global Greens meeting, which was well attended, but did not have the representation from all of the Federations. Preliminary plans were discussed to attempt to have better communications between the different Federations. Report to follow. PROTESTS AND ANTI-GLOBALIZATION WORK TO CONTINUE We plan tomorrow to spend more time participating in more of the alternative Cancún events, such as the People's Forum, third world network events, and Our World Is Not Sale Forums. There is a huge anti-WTO march planned tomorrow to coincide with the Worldwide Day of Action Against Corporate Globalization and War, and we will be there bringing the spirit of the USGP to the event. We sincerely hope that if there is a march in your city or town, that you too will participate. Our next report will come out on Sunday.
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