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Greens Celebrate Victory at WTO Meeting.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. Here is their report on the final day of protests, and
rich countries' failure to force an unfair trade agreement on the
developing world. Greens in Cancún Celebrate WTO victory September 14, 2003 "BRING DOWN THE WALL!" CANCUN -- Yesterday (9/13), we joined the Day of Action Against Globalization and War protest early in the morning. We marched with our European Green friends, and members of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation to the 0 KM, demarking the entrance to the Hotel Zone. Thousands of activists converged on this spot, where a ten foot barbed-wire barricade stood, and tore it to the ground, in an effort to express their frustration about not being allowed to voice opposition to the WTO negotiations. The effort to "bring down the wall" was led by a delegation of South Korean Farmers, allied with the Mexican farmers. We were there and took part in this action. Once the wall was destroyed, the protesters sat and contemplated the earlier suicide of their fellow activist, Mr. Lee Kyang-hae. This was followed by the representatives of many global civil society groups expressing their reasoning for wanting the current WTO structure to be abandoned, seeing it as a way to enslave developing nations. Organizers managed to quell any violence between activists and the military. This morning, many of the U.S. NGOs and civil society groups, declared that the U.S. had been bullying and threatening other nations into signing off on the agreements. This tarnished the previously held message the Bush Administration was putting forth to the American public that they had the best interests of the developing nations at heart. THE COLLAPSE OF NEGOTIATIONS This afternoon, as predicted by our Green expert Steve Emmott, the WTO negotiations completely collapsed! As we mentioned earlier, many of the developing nations felt that there is nothing to gain from the deal offered by the developed countries in Cancún. Rejecting this deal has also been a way of expressing long-term frustration about how the current structure and proposed rules of the WTO were meant to take advantage of poor countries, and to bring their nations under the control of multinational corporations. During the final stages in the negotiations, after the Chairman's revised draft text was presented on Saturday, the US and EU stubbornly rejected the demands of the majority of the developing nations. Word has it that not only pressure from the alliance of the developing countries led by Brazil, India and Malaysia gave support to the breakdown, but when the US and EU refused to throw out the Singapore Issues, the Kenyan delegation took the initiative to walk out completely and this led to the total collapse of the Ministerial. We managed to interview briefly one of the member's of the Kenyan delegation and he said their primary concern was that they would not go along with the Singapore Issues and they were now tasked to return home to discuss with their leaders what to do next. WHY THE TALKS FAILED It has become obvious that the structure of the WTO cannot work in its present form, as the Trade Ministers are controlled by mandates from their political leaders. What the Cancún Ministerial really seems to have broken down upon is the broader problems underlying the current international political game -- injustice, double standards and the lack of democracy. The lesson taught today in Mexico should be for the Americans and Europeans (and the corporate power behind them) that they can no longer be the only ones to benefit from these types of international institutions. We believe that the influence of Greens around the world, especially the Greens/EFA group, and global justice movements (and their growing cooperation with the developing countries) have been instrumental in bringing these negotiations to a halt. Our delight in hearing about the Kenyan delegation standing up to intense US/EU pressure to cave into their demands, made us realize and appreciate the decades of effort of Kenyan Green Party Deputy Minister of Environment Wangari Maathai. She led the movement to inform Africans and other developing nations about the destructiveness of economic globalization and corporate control over people and land. BLAMING THE VICTIMS We fully expect that the popular media will frame their reports to blame the Developing Nations for being inflexible and expecting too much from the United States and EU. When we "know" that in reality, the same corporations that stood to benefit from their proposed WTO rules, literally own the U.S. media. We as Greens, need to find a way to spread the true message of the reality of corporate domination and control over the world's people. GREEN PARTIES AND THE FUTURE OF TRADE NEGOTIATIONS Now, the fight goes home to the WTO's Geneva headquarters and to the capitals of the member nations. Many questions will be asked about what they intend to do and whether it is possible to transform the failed WTO rules into something that will truly benefit those who have so far benefited from it the least. "I feel that the Cancún experience only highlighted the role Greens all over the world can play in further bridging the interests of the global civil society and the developing countries and the responsibility they have in bringing them into the political mainstream," says Petr Lebeda from the Green Party of the Czech Republic.
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