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World Trade Organization |
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The WTO in Seattle:
What went wrong?
Condensed from a thorough analysis by Gene TeSelle.
Click
here for his full essay.
As representatives from around the world converged in
Seattle for the World Trade Organization meeting, November 29 to December
3, they discovered that President Bill Clinton and Trade
Representative Charlene Barshevsky had set up the
negotiations so that the US and the European Union dominated the
conversation. Developing nations were merely "consulted," and were under
some pressure to fit in with the plans being prepared by the
industrialized nations.
Then on the first day of the conference, Monday,
November 29, over 50,000 activists from labor, environmental, farmer,
consumer, and other groups--an unusual mix--essentially shut down the
opening of the event by blocking entrances to one of the main conference
hotels and to the Paramount Theater, where the opening ceremony was to
take place.
On Tuesday more demonstrators were involved and the
commitment of labor unionists became increasingly clear. Once again, few
delegates were able to get to the Paramount Theater for the official
opening session. It was not until Tuesday afternoon that violence began;
the demonstrators until then had been "aggressively non-violent [and]
self-policing." According to many reports, it was pressure and provocation
from the police that pushed the crowds into some actions of vandalism and
violence. Some 50 people were arrested on Tuesday. On Wednesday, even
though the protests were smaller and more peaceful, some 500 protesters
were hauled away in buses for processing. There were many reports of
excessive use of force, before and after arrest.
President Clinton was scheduled to fly in on Wednesday to give a brief
talk, and to offer some concessions to the poorest countries by granting
them duty-free access to US markets. Instead, he apparently gave in to
pressure from labor. In an interview he seemed to support the imposition
of trade sanctions on states that violate basic labor standards, and on
Thursday he signed a treaty outlawing many forms of child labor. The
poorer nations of the world, seeking greater autonomy in setting their own
standards and wanting to attract foreign investment, were united in
opposing international labor standards.
In the end, the WTO conference, which had be expected to
ratify Clinton's free-trade agenda, ended with no actions, no statement,
and not even a date for another meeting.
Many reasons are being put forth to explain the failure
of the conference, including these:
 | The WTO and the USA mismanaged the whole affair and
alienated most of the delegates by their "arrogance." |
| Little progress had been made in the months leading
up to the conference toward setting an agreed agenda and developing
points for a ministerial declaration. Some parties may have been hoping
that delaying progress -- a kind of economic brinkmanship -- would give
them an advantage in the final negotiations. |
| The European nations and Japan rejected the
insistence of the US and other agricultural exporters on the application
of "free trade" to agricultural commodities. |
| When the US, the European Union, and other developed
countries ("the North") wanted to include some basic labor standards in
the WTO negotiations, developing countries (the world's "South") were
united in their opposition to this "outside interference" in their
sovereignty. |
| The surprising coalescence of grass-roots movements
-- labor, environmentalists, farmers, consumers, religious groups --
pressed demands that the emerging world economic structures be made
accountable to the people, not simply serve the desires of the political
and corporate elites of the industrialized nations. It may well be that
the demonstrators gave backbone to many delegates who were already
uneasy about many of the concessions they were being pushed into.
|
Whatever else happened, the drama in
Seattle has shifted the ground for any future negotiations on the world
economy, and new constituencies will have to be "included at the table."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Presbyterians and
others call for economic justice at WTO meeting
in Seattle
Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, Associate for Mission
Responsibility Through Investment, and for
Environmental Concerns, sent this report on Monday, November 29, 1999.
Greetings from Seattle where the World Trade Organization
is meeting this week. The religious community is quite involved in public
witness around economic and social justice issues, and preservation of
God's Creation. Last night, St. James Cathedral was packed for a Christian
Call to Jubilee service of prayer to break the chains of debt of the
world's poorest countries.
The featured speaker on the scripture reading of Lev. 25 was Jim Wallis.
He gave a stirring presentation urging those gathered to build the
networks needed for a movement for economic justice to take off. He
implored religious people to put our concerns on the public agenda for
discussion and action. Mr. Wallis noted that globalization and world trade
need rules, to be sure, but the present rules are made by a wealthy few
for their own benefit. In contrast, he said the religious community has a
different set of rules: the Jubilee and our compelling concern for the
poor and powerless.
Presbyterians were quite present last night. Rev. Angela Ying, Associate
Executive for the Seattle Presbytery, was one of the Litany leaders. Rev.
Gary Schwaab and Ms. Joan Merritt of Newport Presbyterian Church, Rev.
James Christensen of Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, Rev. David Brown
of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tacoma and Mr. Richard Leon of First
Presbyterian Church in Bellevue participated as prayer partners. They have
committed to praying for Jubilee throughout the following year. I
represented the World Council of Churches' Climate Change and
Biotechnology Program as well as the PCUSA.
This afternoon the Washington Association of Churches will host a rally
and service at the First United Methodist Church followed by a march.
Participants will form a human chain surrounding the opening reception of
the WTO to symbolize the chains of debt which shackle much of the world's
poor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Bill Somplatsky Jarman, Wednesday, December 1 Monday was a busy day in Seattle with marches and meetings related to the World Trade Organization
ministerial meeting. 3,100 people crowded into the First United Methodist Church for a rally and inspirational
service calling for the cancellation of the poorest nations' debt-- a Jubilee!
More waited outside while Sweet Honey and the Rock led the gathered in "We Shall Not Be Moved."
Invocations from multiple faith traditions included the blowing of the ram's horn by Rabbi James Mirel and
the conch shell by the Hindu representative. Rev. Angela Ying, Associate Executive of the Seattle Presbytery,
delivered the Christian invocation, and urged us to choose life for ourselves and the world's poor. An inspirational dance honored the indigenous women struggling to protect seeds, medicinal plants and other
forms of traditional knowledge from corporate exploitation. Flute and guitar music plus singing the stirring
hymn "Canticle of the Turning" prepared the crowd for motivational speeches by Vandana Shiva from India,
John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO and Congresswoman Maxine Waters. The throng marched from the church in a procession of thousands through the rain to circle the civic auditorium
with a human chain, and deliver a petition for debt cancellation. We were stopped short by the police, but ten
representatives (pre-cleared by the police) were permitted to enter with the petition. A gold ribbon was strung
to symbolically close the gap. I still do not know whether the petition ever was actually delivered (the afternoon
paper says no). The crowd was disappointed, but cooperative and peaceful. The police were restrained and
cooperative as well. There was little news coverage in comparison with the other events, but the "Seattle Times" carried a good
editorial. It concluded: "Jubilee 2000's potential rose on the smoke of burning incense and found its grace in
the flicker of a solitary sanctuary candle proclaiming the presence of God.
All of these expressions resonated in one bold--and just-- idea: Cancel the debt." The Washington Association of Churches sponsored the event with cooperation from the Church Council of
Greater Seattle. Hats off to John Boonstra, WAC Executive Director, and Michael Ramos of the WAC staff.
This page was last edited on
03/10/10
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