[tml] SchNEWS 524, HONG KONG PHOOEY

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9th December 2005, Issue 524

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! ITS YER GIVE 'EM THE CHOP...

SchNEWS

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HONG KONG PHOOEY
WTO Ministerial Conference Circus Hits Hong Kong

"The rhetoric of the WTO may be free trade, but its key agreements
promote corporate monopoly." - Walden Bello, Focus on the Global
South

As another World Trade Organisation (WTO) shindig begins next week
in Hong Kong, where the fat-cats of the world will promise once
again to eradicate poverty, it can't be long before we are all
living in their neoliberal utopia. Armed with their new 'Doha
Development agenda' we can look forward to fairer trade and an
altogether more caring, compassionate and cuddlier kind of
capitalism for the new millennium. Or have we heard all this
bullshit before?

The argument goes that trade is the best way out of poverty. This
is how it worked for us, after all (if you leave aside the 500
year history of slavery and imperialism, of course). We even offer
the poorest nations loans to help them onto their feet. Oh, except
that the loans come with strings and are nothing more than the
thin end of a new colonial wedge. The poorest of the poor are
forced to sell what public-owned infrastructure they have to
Western corporates who then jack up the price and bleed them dry.

Western economists stress that countries will prosper by using
their 'comparative advantage' in world trade. In other words, each
country is encouraged to give up everything to Western Plcs and
concentrate on what it does best - provide cheap labour for
sweatshops producing the cheap goods to fuel the disposable
consumer orgy societies of the West.

Still, these are just the growing pains of a necessary transition
to neoliberalism, say corporate bosses and their G8 lapdogs. If
you wait, you'll get richer. It's an argument that's been spinning
around since the 1960s; only problem is the poorest countries have
only been getting poorer. After 20 years of structural adjustment
the gulf between rich and poor is greater than in 1985. In their
report 'The Economics of Failure: The Real Cost of Free Trade for
Poor Countries', Christian Aid estimate the damage done to African
countries by trade liberalisation since 1980 to be $272 billion.
"Had they not been forced to liberalise as the price of aid, loans
and debt relief, sub-Saharan African countries would have had
enough extra income to wipe out their debts and have sufficient
left over to pay for every child to be vaccinated and go to
school."

Number One Super Guys

And to top it all the rich countries got rich precisely because
they did the opposite to the laws they are now laying down through
the WTO! Take free trade, something all Western powers fought
vigorously against throughout most of the past 400 years. England
protected its textile industry by heavily taxing imports and
subsidising industry. This helped fuel an economic boom and shot
the country into the Industrial Revolution and a position of
global dominance. Today the West still keeps its protection
barriers up, with massive subsidies to the agricultural and
technological sectors, something which is made effectively illegal
for poor nations. Our farmers are paid not to grow food, so food
prices are kept artificially high and profits buoyant. With
'defence' spending tax payers give a boost to the IT and other
technology industries, just one of the many factors which helps
make war such a profitable venture.

Whilst the world economy grows at around 2% per year, the
transnational corporations expand by five times that amount. The
ten largest corporations are worth £400 billion, more than the one
hundred smallest countries. The assets of the 84 richest people in
the world exceed the Gross Domestic Product of China, which has
1.2 billion inhabitants. A tiny minority of super-wealthy people
are consistently acting against the interests of the majority of
the world's population and concentrating their wealth in fewer and
fewer hands. At Hong Kong there'll be some debt relief for Africa,
providing the countries in question play ball of course. A
reduction in barriers to trade for the West will be lauded as a
victory for the poor, but it'll just mean that more skint
countries will be laying themselves open to economic exploitation.

But at least the leaders of poor countries know now that it's all
a con. At another WTO meet up back in Cancun in 2003 (see SchNEWS
423), the conference ended in stalemate as poorer nations refused
to accept to the G8 spin. The WTO had murmured some crap about
being nicer to the poor after the UN set up their Millennium
Development Goals back in 2000, which included a promise to half
world hunger by 2015. Responding to pressure, the WTO organised a
'Development' round of talks in Doha in 2001 and agreed to take
some positive action. But as South East trade union organiser
Hidayat Greenfield puts it "It's fitting that the Sixth WTO
Ministerial should arrive in Hong Kong only a couple of months
after the opening of Disneyland. In both cases reality is
abandoned at the door, while fiction and fantasy take over. The
magical Doha 'Development' Round promises an end to global poverty
and a new prosperity for all -- based on an agenda that boosts
transnational corporate power and demolishes the remnants of
political and social barriers to corporate profit. Like a
rollercoaster ride through a fictional world, we set off to
alleviate global poverty and arrive at greater impoverishment as
the destination. At least in Disneyland the fiction and fantasy
ends when you leave." Waldon Bello sees the fantasy this way: "The
WTO is like a Dracula... we really need to drive a stake through
the heart of this vampire and finish it off. Permanently."

See also

* The Hong Kong People's Alliance on the WTO
http://daga.dhs.org/hkpa

* Action Aid 'Trade Invaders: the WTO and Developing Countries'
01460 238000 www.actionaid.org.uk

* Recommended reading:
www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=9164

SOME "BARRIERS TO TRADE"

Governments are increasingly using the WTO to challenge the
national laws of other countries which they reckon are 'barriers
to trade.' Some of these 'barriers' include:

* Energy efficiency labelling on appliances such as washing
machines, fridges and irons (challenged by Korea, USA and China).

* A European Union scheme that ensures imports comply with health,
safety and environmental protection laws (challenged by China).

* Labels which show whether a product is recyclable or from
sustainable sourcing.

* Safety testing on imported foods, like compulsory testing for
lethal toxins in shellfish.

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CRAP ARREST OF THE WEEK

For campanology...

In October, tone deaf plod from the Met ungroovily nicked two
bellringers outside Downing St. This Wednesday, Maya Evans was the
first person to be found guilty of taking part in an "unauthorised
protest" under the Serious Organised Crime Act (SOCA). Maya and
Milan Rai were both taking part in a bellringing ceremony where
they read out the names of those killed in the Iraq war. Talk
about dropping a clanger. Weirdly, although Maya's been found
guilty, and charged £100 costs, the CPS still haven't decided
whether to charge Milan. Under SOCA it's an offence to take part
in any demonstration within one square kilometre of parliament
without written police approval seven days in advance. Twenty more
people face trial in the New Year for other unauthorised protests
within the Big Ben pig pen. Ask not for whom the bell tolls... it
tolls for thee.

* SchNEWS Vocabwatch: No, campanology is not about tent erection
but the practice and study of Quasimodo's hobby.

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THE BOOK WORM HAS TURNED

One of the many things under threat from planned liberalisation
and expansion of international trade in services as negotiated
behind closed doors in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is
libraries. 'Globalisation, Information and Libraries', a new book
by Ruth Rikowski, examines the implications for the world's
state-funded libraries of the WTO's most infamous treaties - GATS
(General Agreement on Trade in Services - see SchNEWS 378) and
TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights - see
SchNEWS 420).

GATS is a set of trade rules whereby WTO member countries must
open up their service sectors to the global market. Assurances
made by the UK government, the European Commission and the WTO,
that all public services such as health, education, water,
housing, and libraries are exempt from GATS are in fact bogus.
There has been a steady process of commercialisation and private
sector involvement in all the above listed public services over
the last decade.

So, state-funded libraries in the UK and across the world will be
forced, in time, to turn into profit-making enterprises that will
open the door to long-term privatisation. Brighton already has its
multi million pound PFI library. (See www.roughmusic.org.uk/#four)
Although the UK (under the EU) has not so far committed its
Library Service to the GATS, this could easily change in future
negotiations, succumbing to private companies searching for ripe
opportunities.

TRIPS, meanwhile, is about the trading of intellectual rights,
including copyright, trade marks, geographical indications,
patents, industrial designs and trade secrets. Rikowski shows that
TRIPS is not concerned with moral and humane issues in regard to
intellectual property, but instead allows corporations to
appropriate, patent and then profit from the traditional knowledge
of indigenous populations in the poorest developing countries
without giving due recompense.

So GATS and TRIPS will continue transforming services and
intellectual property rights into internationally tradable
commodities, to be sold in the market-place for profit. As
Rikowski says, "In Britain today we already have examples of
private companies running public library services (e.g. in the
London Borough of Haringey), and many examples of public-private
partnerships building new libraries. Coupled with the growing
pressures on libraries to generate income and operate more like
private companies rather than public good providers, the
'commercialisation by stealth' of British libraries and
information is an everyday reality. When a country signs up its
Library Service to GATS it means that foreign corporations must be
allowed the right to compete with local authorities and domestic
firms for the provision of public library services. This will open
up the way for privatisation which could threaten the British
public library free at the point of use."

* The book's full snappy title is: Globalisation, Information and
Libraries: the Implications of the World Trade Organisation's GATS
and TRIPS Agreements (Chandos) or check out
www.libr.org/ISC/articles/19-R.Rikowski-1.html

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BURMESE SHORTS

Thinking you haven't heard much about Burma lately? Don't worry,
it's still a brutal military regime supported in part by Western
corporations, and Aung Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for
Democracy who won a landslide victory in a 1992 election, is still
safely under house arrest. In fact, despite UN and other
international pressure, you'll be glad to hear that Suu Kyi's term
has just been extended another six months.

In case you worried that those in power weren't continuing to
stamp on any resistant locals, take heart that in late November,
two thousand villagers from five villages in Northern Karen State
were forced to flee from their homes as their settlements were all
burned to the ground by Burmese army mortar attacks. The mainly
black former residents - and by black we mean 'insurgents' as the
government call them, are now living in the jungle with little
food and no shelter, according to the Karen National Union
secretary general Mahn Sha.

It's not any easier for any pro-democracy rebels in the southern
state of Arakan either. Groups including the Democratic Party of
Arakan (DPA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Arakan Liberation Party
are hiding in the deep forests along the border, presumably to
avoid facing the friendly Burmese troops. Some who crossed the
border did not get a warm welcome from neighbouring Bangladesh, as
on November 24th the army launched an operation with 900 soldiers
and destroyed three of their camps. Of course, this probably had
nothing to do with the fact that the Bangladeshi army chief is
visiting Burma in the moment. Accompanied by his wife, he is
visiting at the invitation of Burmese army chief senior general
Than Shwe - no doubt for some 5-star hospitality, chats about
border controls, chummy military relations and thanks for being so
co-operative.

Meanwhile French oil company Total have reached a US$6 million
out-of-court settlement in the case of human rights abuses in
relation to the Yadana Gas pipeline Project (see SchNEWS 488). Of
course that doesn't mean they were guilty of anything - that's not
the corporate way. Jean Francois Lassalle, Total's vice president
for exploration and production, claimed the payments were only
agreed to promote 'social responsibility' and nothing to do with
facing a trial over using forced labour, or supporting a regime
which represses and tortures its own citizens. Right, we like
totally believe you...

* To keep up with news from Burma, see www.burmanet.org and
www.burmawatch.org

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HARD TIMES TO FOLLOW?

A new report from the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation
Campaigns (www.ncadc.org) describes Yarl's Wood Removal Centre as
"a Bleak House of our times." It details the failures of the "fast
but fair" asylum system and how most detainees never had the
chance to present their case. The report is based on the
experiences of over 130 women detained in Yarl's Wood. It showed
that the women who were fleeing from abuse in their own countries
were facing abuse and intimidation by security staff and that 57%
of the women had no legal representation. By detaining traumatised
women, the Home Office is ignoring its own and other official
guidelines, advising against the detention of "those suffering
from serious medical conditions or the mentally ill; those where
there is independent evidence that they have been tortured..."

The launch of this report is in London at 11am, 15th December at
the Trinity United Reformed Church, Buck Street, Camden, followed
by a protest outside Communications House Enforcement Unit, 210
Old Street at 3.00pm.

There's also a Christmas carols & picket at noon, 17th December,
outside Yarl's Wood Removal Centre, Twinwoods Road, Clapham,
Bedfordshire. Transport from London and for further information
about the report contact Legal Action for Women: 020 7482 2496,
07958 152171, law@crossroadswomen.net

* Recently Brighton resident Amir Hassan was snatched from his
home and taken to Colnbrook detention centre and would have been
illegally deported if it hadn't been for a campaign by his friends
and supporters (see last week's SchNEWS).

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Smash EDO MASS DEMO

Stop The Arms Trade - Defend The Right To Protest - THIS SATURDAY
10th December 12pm Churchill Square, Brighton. www.smashedo.org.uk

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Inside SchNEWS

Jose Fernandez Delgado is an anarchist who spent more than 20
years in Spanish prisons, 14 of them in the infamous
FIES-isolation regime, known for its brutality and systematic
torture. He escaped and was arrested with three others in Aachen
(Germany) in June 2004, and condemned to another 14 years. Shortly
after the verdict, he was transferred to the prison of Köln. He
did not get any of his personal stuff and was immediately put in
complete isolation, without even being able to go for daily
exercise. As a protest he refused to put on prison clothes. He
then went on to hunger strike, which lasted 13 days, without any
liquid for the last four. None of his demands were responded to
and pressure is needed on the judge and on the director of the
prison. A model letter, with post/email addresses is available at
www.brightonabc.org.uk and of course write to Jose himself and his
comrades Gabriel Pombo de Silva and Bart de Geeter at at
Staatsnwaltschaft Aachen, AZ 401JS284/04, Stifstrasse 39-43, 52062
Aachen, Germany.

Diane Wilson, who had refused to serve a four month prison
sentence for criminal trespass in a protest related to Dow
Chemicals and the 1984 Bhopal disaster (see last week's SchNEWS)
was arrested on Monday (5th) at a $4200-per-head fundraiser for
Tom DeLay, the former Majority Leader of the US House who was
indicted on charges of conspiracy and money laundering. The
highlight of the evening was a speech by Vice President Dick
Cheney, which Diane interrupted by unfurling a banner saying
"Corrupt greed kills from Bhopal to Baghdad".

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MONKEY BUSINESS

Work has resumed on the Oxford Primate Vivisection lab, which got
half-built and then abandoned after repeated campaigning and ALF
attacks on the building company (SchNEWS 439). Secrecy now
surrounds the project; in a bizarre "Battle of the Balaclava,"
it's the workers on site who are taking a leaf from the ALF book
and masking up to avoid identification.

A weekly demo at the site every Thursday at 1pm has been
organised. A major march through Oxford city will happen on
January 14th next year. www.speakcampaigns.org.uk

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..and finally...

Frogger: Game Over

Frog news roundup: Norwich City Council have agreed to put in a
number of measures to help its local amphibian friends. Traffic on
Chapel Break Road in Bowthorpe has killed off 80% of the frogs as
it cuts through their migratory path. The Council will make the
road easier for frogs to cross by lowering the pavement and will
put up "Frog X-ing" signs (for the motorists not the frogs).

Meanwhile, in County Meath, Ireland, a frog breeder has been
forced out of business by the Animal Liberation Front. Acid was
thrown on the businessman's car and slogans daubed on buildings
around his farm. He's since publicly declared his intentions to
quit with "immediate effect". He has also pledged to give the
survivors to an animal welfare group. The frogs had originally
been destined to end up staring down the wrong end of a
vivisector's blade somewhere and showed their joy by hopping off
to start a campaign against the forced wearing of flying hats and
goggles whilst dancing to Axel F...

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