Greenspan Urges Constructive Responses to Anti-globalization Protests

 
Increasingly, the debate over globalization has evolved from a cause espoused by a few radical opposition groups to a topic of discussion in the mainstream media. "Too much corporate power?" asks the cover of the September 11th edition of Business Week. The magazine quotes pollster Ruy Texeira of the Century Foundation, who points to "a widespread sense of unfairness and distrust today, where people think companies are not quite playing by the rules." An example provided of the challenge to corporate power is the recent hero worship of the French farmer who took on McDonalds.

In response to such incidents, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned the annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming recently that "unease about the way markets distribute wealth" could cause the "latent forces of protectionism and state intervention" to reassert themselves, both in the US and abroad. He added that policy makers must "understand and, if possible, address the concerns that give rise to the desire to roll back globalization." Greenspan was joined by Stanley Fischer, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who urged developed countries to adopt more liberal agricultural trade policies so as not to shut out developing countries from global markets. He also urged officials to listen to critics in leading industrialized countries about the potential damage to labor rights and the environment due to globalization.

Meanwhile, as promised, protesters worldwide continue to take to the streets. In Melbourne, Australia the attempt to shut down the World Economic Forum's Asia-Pacific Summit has shown surprising strength, with an estimated 10,000 protesters blocking the entrances to the conference center where the event is to be held. Australian opposition leader Denis Napthine admitted that the "protestors won the first round," but the conference organizers were confident that the event would proceed as planned. Nevertheless, the protesters' success in disrupting the WEF conference will fuel the even larger protests scheduled for the Prague meetings of the World Bank and IMF on September 26. Local groups in south Florida and throughout the US are planning activities for that day in solidarity with the Prague protests.

The next stop for the anti-globalization protesters will be Quebec City and the 2001 Summit of the Americas. Already, "creative" protests have been announced, including this sample on the Internet:

"Next April in Quebec City, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (La convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes, or CLAC, in French) will participate in a large-scale grassroots mobilization against the FTAA. The CLAC, which is based in Montreal, is organizing a Carnival Against Capitalism (which will include teach-ins, conferences, workshops, concerts, cabarets, street theatre, direct actions, protests and more) as well as helping to convene a North American conference in conjunction with Peoples' Global Action against 'Free' Trade (PGA). We are hoping to facilitate a convergence in Quebec City of a vast array of people who aim to create a world free of oppression."

Many other groups, including the Continental Social Alliance (ASC) continue to seek engagement and a dialogue on alternatives to the current structure of the FTAA negotiations. As reported earlier, the ASC is campaigning for the release of the FTAA's negotiated texts. Without access to information or constructive dialogue, however, these groups do not have much strength. For them, the attraction of the protests is not only their circus-like atmosphere, but also the lack of any real alternatives. Concern for a social dimension to trade may be reaching new levels in the US establishment, but it has little echo in Latin America. All the developing nations perceive in the US and FTAA rhetoric is protectionism.