The Guardian (London) | By John Vidal | June 25, 2003
Five years ago, international debt was the single issue that most exercised British non-governmental groups, charities and churches and their millions of supporters. Led by Jubilee 2000 and backed by a coalition of major development groups, the campaign hoisted debt on to the international agenda and galvanised governments to take action.
For debt in the 1990s, read trade in 2003. Ever since the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organisation in Seattle unexpectedly rocked governments, the inequities of free trade, globalisation and the world trading system have risen sharply up the popular agenda. The ways that Europe and the US protect their farmers and industries, but insist on poor countries dismantling their trade barriers and liberalising their economies, have been exposed many times. A succession of authoritative studies has shown how the poor suffer most from unfair trade and how the rules are nakedly rigged in favour of the rich. On top of that, the Bush administration is intending to take Europe to the court of the World Trade Organisation over GM.
The only people who are consistently unaware of the injustices of international trade, indeed, seem to be British MPs, who are seldom, if ever, allowed to vote on or debate the issues.
But on Friday and Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to contact more than 500 MPs in the largest simultaneous lobby of parliamentarians ever held in Britain. Organised by the Trade Justice Movement (TJM), a small steering group drawn from a coalition of more than 40 British organisations, which range from giants such as Oxfam and Christian Aid to Banana Link, Tearfund, Baby Milk Action and the Women's Environment Network, the public will urge the government not to back a new free trade agree ment on foreign investment at the WTO's meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September. More generally, they will suggest that existing trade rules are keeping the poor poor.
Celebrities are being brought on board the campaign, much as Bono, Bob Geldof, Bianca Jagger, Blur and others were for debt. Groups such as Radiohead, REM and Asian Dub Foundation and individuals such as Julian Cope and Billy Bragg will be pumping out the popular "make trade fair" message at Glastonbury this weekend, and the public is being invited to lobby via the web.
It took several years for the Jubilee debt campaign to make waves and gather public support, but the TJM, which was set up only last year, is already making the government sit up. This week, trade secretary Patricia Hewitt attempted to get behind it, saying that Britain "fundamentally supports trade justice". But the TJM organisers responded scathingly, dismissing her statement as "naked spin". "There's a huge gulf between what they (the government) will sign up to and what we want," says a spokeswoman.
But the fact that cabinet members are even remotely aware of a barely formed movement suggests the government knows it is in for a rough ride on trade over the next few years, and that it may be mightily embarrassed at Cancun. It knows, too, that the opposition comes this time not from easily-dismissable protesters on the streets, but from authoritative groups back home with strong constituencies and a powerful global reach.
That trade should have got on to the agenda of so many British groups is surprising to many because trade rules are notoriously hard to understand and full of complex and arcane language and practices. Nor does trade have the simple, compelling moral message of debt or landmines, although it has rapidly linked disparate environment, development and consumer groups, churches and human rights organisations, farmers and unions.
"It's growing like a snowball," says Ronnie Hall, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth International, one of the many groups aboard the coalition. "This is one of the first truly global campaigns."
The TJM organisers say they are learning rapidly from the Jubilee debt campaign and from the successful co-ordinated opposition to Multilateral Agreement on Investment (Mai), which collapsed partly because a few well-organised groups such as the World Development Movement skilfully split countries seeking a new global investment deal in 1998.
Instead of the WTO and governments being allowed to work in semi-secrecy, without the knowledge of MPs, the public or the media, non- governmental groups are now disseminating information on trading positions and detailed negotiations before the ink is even dry, and are forcing the WTO and governments to engage in debate.
"Information is getting out of Geneva (the HQ of the WTO) very quickly now," says Hall. "We are giving an impetus to developing countries to stand their ground."
But the mass movement for trade justice will be most visible in Cancun. Already being called "Seattle in the sun", the meeting of trade ministers is expected to attract at least 50,000 international campaigners, as well as the same number or more of Mexicans, under the banner of the "Cancun Welcoming Committee".
Mexico is one of the countries that has been most affected by free trade policies over the past decade, and, as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), has seen extreme poverty increase.
It is also home of the Zapatistas, the revolutionary group in Chiapas state, which, it can be argued, began international opposition to trade nine years ago when its members occupied state offices in a revolution against Nafta.
"Opposition to trade rules as they stand is now truly global," says Barry Coates, director of the World Development Movement. "Every country now has its trade justice movement, and a coalition of groups are working in linked but different areas, such as agriculture or the role of corporations. Everyone is coming at it from a different direction, but the sum of the campaign is huge."
The protesters are not expecting to get close to the WTO meetings. The holiday resort is on a peninsula and entry can be easily controlled, but the debate that they propel on to the world stage is expected to reverberate round the international community.
Bay watch: the Mexican resort of Cancun (left) is host to the latest WTO meeting - and an expected 100,000 protesters opposed to unfair trading conditions; the movement has learnt much from the debt protests of recent years, such as Jubilee 2000 (below)The Guardian (London):
