In the spring issue of YES!, I suggested that those eager to join the
momentum for change so evident at the World Trade Organization protests
in Seattle might want to come to Washington, DC, in April. The occasion
was the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
A lot of you came! I was delighted to encounter so many YES! readers at
the Jubilee 2000 rally on the mall, at the teach-in of the
International Forum on Globalization (IFG), at the rally on the Ellipse
near the White House, and at the protest march on the streets of our
capital. The events were another important step on the journey of
rethinking our economic system and creating a world that works for all.
I was struck by both the similarities and the differences in the
protests on the two coasts. In DC, as in Seattle, people streamed in
from a wide range of movements — religious congregations, labor,
indigenous peoples, environment, human rights, and many others.
But while in Seattle it was labor that turned out the really big
numbers, in DC it was youth. They poured in from campuses and youth
organizations up and down the East Coast and beyond, many of them
willing — as in Seattle — to lay their bodies on the streets and face
unflinchingly the likelihood of abuse at the hands of the police.
Focus on Poor Countries
In Seattle, the focus was on the WTO's challenge to democracy
everywhere, while in DC, the focus was on poor countries. Tens of
thousands of Americans (as well as many people from other countries)
demanded change in the policies of institutions that, on the surface,
relate only to the Third World. The size of this protest marks a major
change from years past, when only a few hundred demonstrators would
turn out to critique World Bank-IMF policies.
We could see this new-found solidarity in the DC protesters' response
to Oscar Olivera, a Bolivian factory worker. Olivera was one of the
leaders of a revolt against a hike in the price of water in his native
province of Cochabamba.
Bolivia is staggering under a massive debt load, much of it created by
loans from the World Bank and the IMF. As the country struggles to
repay a debt that is ultimately un-repayable, those institutions impose
their favored recipe for economic reform: opening markets, encouraging
unfettered investment by foreign corporations, reducing
government-sponsored health and educational programs, and privatizing
government assets.
In compliance with these demands, Bolivia sold Cochabamba's water
system to a consortium of private foreign corporations — among them,
the San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation, Olivera explained.
Villagers suddenly found their wells were owned by foreign corporations
that immediately raised the price of water, apparently oblivious to the
fact that the price increase put this life-essential substance beyond
the reach of the poor.
Olivera and thousands of others took to the streets of Bolivia to demand a stop to the sale of the water system.
On the surface, their plight would seem to have little to do with
Americans. But those on the Ellipse, at the teach-in, and in the
streets of DC gave Olivera standing ovations because in his story they
could see the resistance to widening corporate control — accelerated by
the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO. They are seeing the damage caused
by what many are calling corporate globalization" — the process by
which multi-billion-dollar global corporations gain ever more control
over the money, the natural resources, and the very laws we live by to
benefit the few at the expense of the many. And they could sense that
his story is intimately connected to their own lives and the future of
this planet.
A Time of Transformation
People around the globe are seeing the interconnections of a dangerous and ultimately unsustainable system.
The worldwide nature of corporate globalization means that whether its
forces are playing out in a Midwest town in the US or in the province
of Cochabamba in Bolivia, they have the same character. The impacts of
this system on the living planet, job opportunities, human rights, and
democracy worldwide give the protest movement a quality of global
solidarity possibly unique in all of history.
A time of transformation lies before us. The willingness of distinct
movements to work together, the incredible commitment of ever more
young people, the increasing consensus on the analysis of what is
wrong, the growing sense of global solidarity – these are the
tributaries flowing into a mighty river of change. Our challenge will
be to navigate these waters with wisdom and compassion.
Fran Korten is Executive Director of the Positive Futures Network.
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