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WTO-CANCUN: Dissonance Among Dissenters

Diego Cevallos

CANCUN, Mexico, Sep 11 2003 (IPS) - The violent actions of a few have created divisions in the movement that seeks an alternative to the prevailing model of neoliberal economic globalisation, manifest in the civil society forums parallel to the WTO ministerial conference here this week.

Moderate voices are emerging in favour of closer ties to governments that share some of the movement’s aspirations.

”The confrontational attitudes generated by the instigators, and the senseless suicide of the Korean farmer, are not contributing to the goals of the anti-globalisation movement,” Francesco Martone, secretary of the Italian Senate’s human rights commission and a close collaborator of civil society groups, told IPS.

Lee Kyang-Hae, former leader of the South Korean farmers’ federation, stabbed himself to death Wednesday as a group of demonstrators tried to break through the metal fences surrounding the convention centre where the World Trade Organisation’s Fifth Ministerial Conference is taking place through Sunday.

Immediately after the suicide, groups of protesters took after the police with sticks and clubs, shouting insults. The clash left at least 20 people injured.

Several of the approximately 3,000 activists participating in the alternative forums in Cancun told IPS in interviews that there are deep disagreements within the movement, and opinion has turned against those who use violence to express their dissent.

”We do not agree at all with the violence,” said Marcela Ríos, member of a Guatemalan women’s network. ”The main objective should be to present alternative proposals and to seek common footing,” she said.

Before violent incidents began occurring – several were reported Tuesday as well – the social activists compared the diversity of their meetings and initiatives to the performance of jazz, in which improvisation enriches the music.

But now many of the activists, known as ‘altermundistas’ in Spanish, and whose slogan ”Another world is possible” emerged out of the World Social Forum movement, are regrouping, conscious of the image being projected.

”These divisions are going to occur because we cannot allow the instigators of violence to be the face of our movement,” said José Navarro, of the Mexico Solidarity Network.

Young Lee, a participant in the Indigenous and Peasant Forum, lamented the death of the South Korean activist, and blamed it on the ”overwhelming police operations”, that impede individuals’ free circulation and freedom of expression in Cancun.

Martone, meanwhile, noted that some within the ”alternative globalisation” movement were debating Thursday forging closer ties with the Group of 20 developing countries (G-20), led by Brazil, that are pushing hard against farm subsidies at the trade ministers meeting.

The G-20 presented the WTO ministers with its demands for the industrialised countries to dismantle the protectionist policies related to their agricultural sectors.

But the G-20 was not even mentioned in the communiqué released Wednesday by Vía Campesina, an international organisation of small farmers and organiser of the Indigenous and Peasant Forum in Cancun.

The farmers gathered in the Mexican resort city want to keep the WTO out of agriculture and food, to eliminate the use of genetically modified products, and to support policies that guarantee food sovereignty, says Vía Campesina.

Italian lawmaker Martone believes the civil society movement should take into account the fact that, ”for the first time, we have a small front of developing countries within the WTO, which provides the opportunity to carry out effective changes in that organisation and in global trade.”

The countries of the G-20, with notables like Argentina, Brazil, China, India and South Africa, are home to 51 percent of the global population and 63 percent of the world’s farmers.

The purpose of the trade ministers’ meeting in Cancun is to advance the agreements made at the last WTO ministerial, held in November 2001 in Doha, Qatar.

At that conference, the ministers signed a declaration expressing their intention to: ”establish a fair and market-oriented trading system through a programme of fundamental reform encompassing strengthened rules and specific commitments on support and protection in order to correct and prevent restrictions and distortions in world agricultural markets.”

The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in the parallel forums should concentrate on what is happening within the WTO ”and not on the violence and the rhetoric that leads nowhere,” commented Martone.

The senator and other members of an international parliamentary network are taking part in the alternative events to the WTO ministerial conference and in the marches organised by activists in this Caribbean coast city.

NGO delegates and activists from more than 30 countries have been gathering for issue-specific sessions at Cancun’s parks, cultural centres and sports arenas.

Some of the participants are staying in the luxurious hotels, but many are sleeping in tents, or under the stars on the grass in the parks.

The movement against neoliberal economic globalisation is made up of a broad range of civil society groups representing women, farmers, students, environmentalists, human rights defenders, and others.

Some of these groups have sufficient funds to travel to conferences and events around the world, but others, like the Mexican Farmers’ Union, have to pass the hat, collecting what money they can, so that their members can attend meetings like Cancun.

Massive protests by hundreds of anti-globalisation groups shut down the WTO’s Third Ministerial Conference, held in the U.S. city of Seattle in December 1999.

That meeting, which sent the trade ministers home without any agreements on launching negotiations, is considered the origin of the ongoing and powerful movement against neoliberal globalisation, and in favour of ”another possible world”.