- Musings on a hemispheric war By Adam StrangeMay.2001
- A SMALL MIND FOR A SMALL WORLD By John Clarke
- Free Trade/Globalization – a simpler argument against it By Gary Morton

   Anyone who is not a corporate apologist will readily acknowledge that 'free trade' agreements have remarkably little to do with trade. Rather, they are all about Global Capital's basic social and political agenda of removing any and all barriers to the making of profit at the expense of workers, communities and the environment. No hard won standard that might limit the mobility or conduct of Capital can be left intact. Everything must be reduced to the lowest level regardless of what human misery is generated or what measures of repression prove necessary to contain discontent and resistance.

   If we accept this working definition of Globalization, then the Harris Government in Ontario is, surely, an impeccable specimen of that approach to plundering the world. Ontario, Harris has stated, is now 'Open for Business' and it must be granted that he has delivered on this to the full. Precisely because of a huge transfer of resources and political consideration to the wealthy, the impact on the rest of us has been appalling. The homeless sleep on the streets, children go to bed hungry, workers' legal protections have been gutted, vital public services have been wiped out and the very physical infrastructure of the Province is now threatened with a wave of privatization and the dismantling of systems of public scrutiny.

   The set of Tory thugs that are implementing these vile measures are an interesting political formation. While, of course, they are carrying out their attacks on behalf of powerful corporate interests, they are far from being the most patrician bunch to every occupy Queen's Park. To a huge degree, their ranks consist of crude and petty exploiters. Their outlook is narrow and grasping and summed up in the term they have promoted - 'common sense'. Their frame of reference is the immediately apparent or, at least, a selective interpretation of it. 'Common sense' dictates that the world will be a better place if their social layer can enrich itself. For years, they have grumbled about things like social programs, trade unions, Native rights and environmental protections. They have dreamed of law and order crackdowns and an education system that serves business needs and casts aside those who fail to make the grade. Now, to their initial amazement, they have been placed in political power. And what a time to be there! Across the whole hemisphere and even the planet, like minded regimes are busy carrying out wrecking operations like theirs.

   People like Mike Harris are of the right kind for the present time as far as the major corporations are concerned. Their brutality and dull witted intransigence are tailor made to carry out the attacks deemed necessary. Harris is an enforcer for Global Capital. This leads me to point out something that members of the Anti Globalization Movement sometimes fail to clarify properly. When, very correctly, it is stated that measures like the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement limit the ability of governments to take measures to protect their populations against corporate encroachment, it is often implied that they are, somehow, the hostages of this process. If Mike Harris were told that the free trade agreements will tie his hands and prevent him enacting measures of social provision or regulation, his only request would be to be tied up tighter. He and his Government are not the victims of globalization but soldiers fighting a war on its behalf.

   Many OCAP members were in Quebec City recently and the courage and determination that went into that struggle inspires us enormously. We do hope, however, that people will agree with us that the time has come to take some of the political energy that has fueled challenges to reprehensible gatherings like the Summit of the Americas and to direct it at governments who are implementing the agenda on the ground. If we have agreement on that then the selection of the Harris Regime as a target must be a given.

   Perhaps now might be the moment to ask why, given the hideous and unprecedented rampage of the Ontario Tories, are they still in power? For such a political goon squad to carry on they need three things. First of all, they must have the confidence and backing of the corporate elite and its media. This is something Harris has in bucketful's. Secondly, they must have a base of support in the population. It doesn't have to be anything close to an actual majority but it does have to be significant. With about 45% of the two thirds of eligible voters who see any reason to vote backing the Tories, they can retain power under a system that passes for democracy and justify any social crime they carry out as being in line with the 'will of the people of Ontario'. There are enough materially privileged and politically backward people around to give the Tories a couple of terms of office before they use up their shelf life given the lamentable state of both parliamentary and extra parliamentary opposition to them.

   The above point brings us to the most vital and yet the most preventable factor that keeps the Tories alive. In order to hurt so many people so badly and retain the confidence of Bay Street, they must operate in conditions of relative passivity. The corporate powerbrokers are not squeamish people. They know Harris's work isn't going to be pretty and that some significant confrontations are a given but they do insist that the political and economic disruption generated by these not reach levels of fundamental crisis. If such a movement of social resistance were to emerge, then Harris would be instantly transformed into a political liability about to be jettisoned.

   OCAP has participated in the general movement against Harris over the last six years. We organized some of the earliest demonstrations, joined the Days of Action and, then, spent a difficult period in the wake of their demobilization fighting the impact of the Government's attacks on the poor and homeless. Throughout all this time, we advanced the proposition that the misery could be challenged if a united movement would come together that set itself the goal of fundamentally disrupting the Tories and making their agenda unenforceable. Then, on June 15 of last year, we marched on Queen's Park under the slogan "Fight to Win". We wanted to make the case that the rituals of token protest needed to be replaced with a practice of real resistance. Following that landmark struggle, we have forged ahead with plans for a campaign of economic disruption against the Tories that will involve communities under attack right across Ontario. Preparations for this are forging ahead. On June 15 and 16, we will be holding a Provincial Assembly in Toronto to cement this movement and prepare for action in October. With this campaign we serve notice that the retreat before the Tories is over. They can be stopped and they can be driven out of office. Such a development would be viewed with horror by the forces of Globalization across this hemisphere and beyond.

   OCAP doesn't have delusions of grandeur. We can't win this fight alone but we have issued the call and we are initiating a fightback. In October, people will be moving against the flow of goods and services and the systems of production in Ontario. They will be hitting the cash registers and emptying the wallets of the very people who demand of Harris that he make them richer. Harris's claim that 'Ontario is Open for Business' will start to ring a little hollow. The forms that this disruption will take can be many and varied. The Anti Globalization Movement, with its affinity group method of action could play a huge and important role in creating a resistance too mobile and far flung for their riot squads to have an impact on. We hope that members of that Movement will join us in this struggle. We would welcome all support and would be happy to discuss the basis of co-operation with individuals or organizations. The starting point, as far as we are concerned, is to move beyond registering our opposition to an agenda we accept as inevitable and, instead, to fight to win.

May 4, 2001

* I usually do write-ups covering what other people say on the issues. Their arguments are often complex so I've done a simple one in this letter to a friend.
 

Free Trade, Globalization and the Social Order

* Article for a friend needing an explanation on the opposition to Free Trade, the FTAA, etc … that does not require the reader to have a degree in economics.

Hello again, Janice,

   I still remember the last time our paths crossed. We were on that side street near Kensington. You stepped out of dappled shadows with the summer sun rising in the boughs of a maple behind you. Your smile belonged to some inner world, not to me ...  and I wished similar streets of pleasant phantoms were in my thoughts. But as always, I failed, and knew that empty faces, trampled litter and a dusty day would settle like poverty in my soul.

   This year you write, wanting to know about Free Trade and why so many people protest in swirls of tear gas … and I hope that you haven't forgotten me again, like you did when you left me then.

   I will try to answer your question. So here we go. Let me title it "Free Trade, Globalization and the Social Order."

   Our Canadian politicians like to say that a majority supports free trade, but they never tell us that there isn't a majority of free thinkers making informed choices on the political future of our society. Majorities are a convenient illusion – it is a minority of voters that puts our government into power. Even in places where direct democracy has been instituted the majority is usually led to vote in certain ways by wealthy groups running PR and special interest campaigns. Often the wishes of the majority are phantoms that take various shapes, depending on how the corporate media asks the questions and defines the answers.

   If we conform to get by in society, and there are no true values of the majority, then whose values are we conforming to?

   I say that we are conforming to the social order of the day, and it is increasingly being redefined by global capitalists and corporations.

   If our world ever had a human face, it never did fully emerge. Over the course of history it began to appear when talented individuals, progressive institutions and revolutionary movements of the people brought about enlightenment and the belief that a civil society could be created. In the 1960s we were starting to move forward. Maybe we almost made it, and could have created a world without war, racism, starvation….

   But we didn't make it and now the forces of greed and the warmongers have been reorganized and reborn. Never in the past did people accept the power of corporations like they do today … and that acceptance ensures that more of the world gets cast into the abyss each year.

   Free Trade is their flag, globalization is their religion, mass conformity is their guiding light, and extorted profits are their food.

    They prosper through raping the environment and poisoning our bodies and minds. And they gain control by using their accumulated financial powers to remake the entire world in their image.

   Philosophers, artists and anarchists, free thinkers, educators, organizations representing movements of the public good … these used to be the leading edge keeping the social order in transformation, moving our world toward higher ideals.

    The think tanks representing the global capitalists understood that, and they also knew that a better world would not be friendly to ever increasing corporate profits. Free Trade deals were their response, and the purpose of them is not free trade. The hidden agenda is to completely destroy all of the progressive forces of humanity and lock in a corporate social order.

   Every day more of our public realm disappears, being replaced with fake copies of former institutions, and these copies are designed to bring profit and control to corporations. The most recent example here in Ontario is Mike Harris moving to kill public education and health care and replace both with poor quality private sector services.

   Soon our schools will spew forth young minds filled with corporate propaganda. Youths out of touch with history, lacking freedom of thought and the ability to bring about positive societal transformation. Everything will have a price, and out of control capitalist genetic engineering will rise like Armageddon, threatening us with a world of bizarre mutation and new forms of mass death.

    Yes, people go into the tear gas to challenge this regime … and there are many more people opposing it. Everyone fighting for education, art, free expression, public services … and the list goes on and on … is fighting free trade and globalization. Though they may not know it.

    People charged the fence at the Summit of the Americas because the global capitalists and governments are trying keep us out of the social dialogue as they build a larger mechanism to contain and control our entire world.

   The corporate media likes to show anarchists battling riot cops, and to convince us that dangerous rebels are threatening society. That image is not true, and if globalization is not stopped, the day will probably come when people shouting in the smoke are the last voices, trying to awaken us from a corporate induced slumber.

   So I think that should answer your question, Janice. And I hope you'll always smile at pleasant memories and other inner phantoms … I hope we all do.

   But it may not happen.

Gary

   Defenders of capitalism show no restraint in oppressing the masses. April 20 -22 was a significant day in Canadian history when 34 international leaders in the western hemisphere (except Cuba) signed the initial approval for a hemispheric free trade zone, which is essentially a treaty for the transfer of power from governments to multi-national investors in the form of  international trade organizations and financial institutions, for the control of economic and social policy. Government's function will be to implement the policies and protect investor's interests from threat (citizen dissent).

   What we are now witnessing is the beginnings of the next international conflict where opponents of capitalism rise up and stand with incendiary strength, against the continual plundering of the earth's resources, the attack on the dignity of humans and the conquest of the ideological reign of American Imperialism.

   Since WWII, North America has continued its attack on the socialist tendencies of the world identifying it as a threat to national security. We are now in the post communist era with only small pockets of communism left.

   The Free Trade Area of the Americas is a legally binding contract between the corporate business investors and the governments of the western world to set in law the legal eradication of ANY socialist tendencies in western society.

   This new war is now being pursued by an economic invasion with the military poised to lend "support" whenever the economic plan doesn't suffice. The plan for the economic take-over of Canada has been in place since the 50's by the U.S.. Since then "multi-national" corporations have proliferated and citizenship is no longer a barrier to dominance but only economic power. We have witnessed the economic, military and covert operations by the U.S. in countless Central and South American countries (and around the world) as well as monetary and political support for Canadian politicians sympathizing with this agenda. The double speak of these invasions are now guised under the banner of the "War on Drugs", "Free Trade", "defending democracy", and more locally, "deficit and tax reduction", and governments propagating the myth that the private sector is the efficient provider of social programs that governments can't afford to run, despite continual failures of private companies to maintain services practically and affordably.  This "war on drugs" and provisions for maintaining "democracy" (neo-liberalism) is stipulated in the draft text of the FTAA which provides a scapegoat for military use and economic penalties against countries which lax on its oppression and/or eradication of any critical voice of opposition, socialist, truly democratic or other tendencies (e.g. government reforming drug laws to stop increased militarization) the people of those countries may have. They will be deemed a "threat" to democracy or national security and any action governments use will be justified. For example the political actions of governments against   -  the Zapatistas in Mexico, leftist guerrillas in Columbia and obviously Cuba or Iraq are dealt with by similar tactical methodology to name just a current few.

 As there are numerous examples of the Imperialist agenda using tactics similarly employed by Hitler, I will convey a few my father recognized in regards to American sympathizer Mike Harris, Premier of Ontario, CAN, during Harris' first term in office.

 "...both leaders write a document defining their ambitions, and actions on gaining power, but, more importantly both espoused political philosophies that are ideologically driven, arrogantly certain of their particular rightness, intolerant of dissent, with followers characterized by almost religious zealotry.

   Having achieved power by legal means, both political leaders consolidated their positions by firstly, abrogating the laws by which former governments had secured certain rights of the people, then secondly, passing new laws giving themselves dictatorial powers, limiting the rights of the people, enthusiastically supported by the corporate sectors of the two jurisdictions, who - in Germany's one saw the opportunity to profit by military re-armament, in Ontario's case, saw the opportunity to profit by the privatization of government services and the crushing of the power of the Labour Unions, and depression of wage costs by increasing unemployment.

   Of course, we have not yet seen the bullying tactics of the Brown shirts on the streets of Ontario's cities, (unless the use of the OPP riot squads qualifies?) But we are watching the beginnings of the more subtle propaganda warfare e.g. the constant myth making of financial crisis in debt and deficit, education, and health care, lack of corporate investment in Ontario's industries (constantly blamed on high taxes and regulation) – the constant interviewing and promoting of conservative economists and right-wing think tanks in the media.

   Perhaps the greatest myth being propagated is that there is no money available in the economy to maintain the present level of government services, (in spite of billion dollar profits and million dollar salaries in the financial industry). Of course we are told that by some miracle CEOs of large and small corporations will instantly be converted from their present business philosophy of down-sizing to create greater profitability, to an enthusiastic expansion of production and employment because - they see the government itself downsizing and throwing more people out of work!?

   Of course the most important propaganda triumph of the Nazis was the identification and demonization of enemies inside and outside of the nation - namely the Jews and communists inside Germany, and the degenerate European democracies and Russia outside. In Conservative Ontario, the enemies within are the Labour Unions, welfare recipients and the public interest itself, and externally the Federal Government. Like the Nazis, who pointed to the humiliating Versailles Peace Treaty of World War I as something to be avenged, so too the Conservatives point to the spending of previous governments (Liberal and New Democratic Party) as their cause for vengeance. The treatment of the most vulnerable - seniors, the sick, disabled, unemployables, single mothers, students, etc... shows the true face of their social ideology.

   Are we going to see an analogy to the Nazi forced labour camps for citizens of the occupied nations of Europe in the forced labourers of "Workfare" for welfare recipients? I don't mean to imply that the policies of the Harris government are identical with those of the Nazis but when you recognize the similarities in the attitudes and practices it certainly is food for thought."#

   Within these words written in the mid-nineties, we can now see the results of this continued "war" and the parallels to this and other federal government's attitudes toward resistance to the FTAA, and the attitude of the Progressive Conservative Party. We have heard the demonizing of protesters as hooligans, anarchists (like it's a bad word), even as terrorists! This spread of language provides those in power to treat resistance to dictatorial decisions made by governments like the signing of NAFTA and eventually the FTAA a backdrop upon which actions to suspend constitutional rights, use of extreme force by police and military, to imprisoning innocent people, to continue to identify and systematically harass people of certain political persuasions as we saw in the McCarthy Era and the FLQ crisis in the late 60's, will be justified. The other function of this continued game of semantics is to influence public opinion, distract the citizens from the real issues and to perpetuate the mode of thinking to a them - or - us attitude.

   Quebec saw the tactics of the Nazi brown shirts as well as fear mongering by politicians supported by the corporate media during the lead up and during the Summit of the Americas which led to peaceful protesters accused of being a threat, mass arrests, kidnappings, police inciting violence, harassment of medics and injured people as well as the direct violation of human rights by the use of excessive amounts of tear gas, shooting rubber bullets into crowds. Watching squads of riot police march past the windows of my comrade's house brought to mind Nazi occupation forces in foreign countries. Stepping just outside the door of my temporary residence I was immediately overwhelmed by clouds tear gas lingering in the neighbourhood air. The potential connection to these experiences led tens of thousands of protesters to direct their protest away from any conflict zone, to a safe haven kilometres away. These police violations are now being justified as unfortunate but acceptable by politicians, ministers of parliament, police chiefs since they have created just cause for their actions.

   Upon returning from Quebec I have been met with people's perceptions being mis-informed, un-informed, or dwelling upon violent acts as the main interest. Even my local newspaper seemed to have no public discussion in the editorial page, and no follow up reporting until the next Friday when a whole page was devoted to 6 photos and about 200 words on a Christian man who prayed for souls at the fence for 3 days by a reporter and photographer who covered the Summit of the Americas. We see the mainstream media focus upon and sensationalize the violent acts of a few protesters but ignore police brutality, property damage or conflicts within the "anti-globalization" movement as a way to divide and conquer the solidarity of the movement.

The Propaganda War

   The media which is now in the hands of but a few individuals with interests in commercial ventures ranging from alcohol and tobacco, agribusiness, biotechnology, entertainment and clothing have been able to propagate a culture through mass communication. A culture which supports the ideological tendencies of a capitalist state and manipulates the public perception of government, corporations, social programs, privatization, taxes, mass demonstrations, police brutality, even self image, through TV news, sit-coms, big budget movies, newspapers, magazines and radio. Every area of popular culture and governmental debate sees the corporate attitude perpetuated, with over-simplification, distortion or evasion of facts, one sided debates, devaluation of political organizations or movements, as well as the simple name-calling of intellectuals, writers, and scientists as 'extremists', 'radicals', 'fringe groups', etc...

   "The deriving of profit from this demand [entertainment] is the main object of the producers and distributors of 'mass art' in the capitalist world. The immense possibilities of mechanical reproduction allow good books to be distributed on a mass scale, good pictures to be printed in large quantities, good works of music to be 'canned', and good films to be shown to millions of people. But on the other hand, the capitalist world has discovered rich possibilities of profit through the production of artistic opiates. The producer of these opiates starts with the assumption that most
consumers are troglodytes whose barbarian instincts he must satisfy. And on this assumption he actually arouses those instincts, keeps them awake, and systematically stimulates them. The dream-image is commercialized: the poor girl marries the millionaire; the simple boy overcomes, through sheer brute strength, all obstacles and opponents of a hostile, sophisticated world. The fairy-tale motif is brought up to date and mass-manufactured."*

   What is even more disturbing than the fairy-tale motif is the use of children in advertising by the corporate financial companies selling mutual funds, financial portfolios, etc... These companies are now targeting children under the age of ten, so they may start to develop the language of saying to their younger brother "equity, mortgage, leverage, stock options, savings plan, bank names, etc..." Marketing companies profiting from continued advertising campaigns paid for by banks have now entered into the unspoiled child market to nurture the capitalist tendencies latent in the brains of their piggy-banks. This gross exploitation, is nothing less than the program developed for Hitler Youth by Dr. Goebbels!

Alternatives

   It is no longer acceptable to drop-out of this social problem of corporate culture but instead necessary to confront it head-on. The creation of alternative and independent news sources deals with the problem of state propaganda and bias in the corporate news effectively through the Internet, independent newspapers, magazines and to a lesser degree radio. The corporate control over the majority of television networks allows the economics of accessibility to generally keep out any point of view which does not support corporate interests. There are a small amount of venues for opposition through public television, documentaries, "un- commercials" to be voiced. Although public television is under constant attack like all publicly funded institutions through the reduction of funding, creation of artificial crises, discreditment,  for eventual public acceptance for privatization.

   "In a world in which the concentration of power is so great and the workings of that power so obscure, many people are inclined to think that their personal decision does not matter and, therefore, they surrender to 'fate'.

   In such a situation, the central problem of socialist art is to portray the men behind the nameless objects and to present the possibility of man's victory over them - without grand phrases or over-insistent optimism."*

   The seizure of responsibility of individuals to inform and educate
themselves and others with an alternative point of view has required people to develop skills in a diversity of areas from journalism, self publishing, art and design, to computers and technology, literature, politics, history, to be politically and media literate. It is with this self determination that the anti-capitalist movement draws its strength for a better world to be envisaged, designed and implemented. A system which is organic in structure, fluid in its evolution, inclusive in action, egalitarian in
nature, sustainable in practice. On a more practical level, the first number of responsibilities for the revolutionary forces to implement within the social/economic forum would be to replace the hierarchal power structure by de-centralizing and equalizing all positions within society with everyone sharing responsibility for everyone's future. This structure would take the form of non-parasitic relationships aiming towards balance, harmony and sustainability with nature and people. Also, full employment, price freezes, redistribution of wealth, a controlled distribution of natural and human resources, and a controlled consumption of resources based on need, not desire.  There seems to be a possible philosophical conflict between comfort and freedom under the capitalist sky. Freedom seems to be in proportional opposition to comfort which requires a necessary amount of conformity with
the ruling class to enjoy. Freedom not being based on the level of acquired wealth as the 649 Lotto commercials would suggest but the right to self-determination. What I have proposed as a fundamental level of structure where everyone works for the same goal would suggest a certain amount of conformity for receiving basic needs. This leads me to the question of absolute freedom within society and whether freedom alone can be the sole purpose for any meaningful revolution. I see a fine line in the pursuit of
equality or freedom in which a compromise must be found in order to insure that the basic character of  humans change to a non-parasitic relationship to nature and still have the freedom of self-determination within evolving human behaviour. Therefore a social structure fluid enough for the ebb and flow of human activity must be the aim within the sustainable structure and the provision for full employment. Full employment cannot be understood within the capitalist model, therefore our relationship to work must change to complement the sustainable, balanced and especially non-parasitic philosophy/activity. Work itself must be pursued through self-determination so that the worker has the freedom to contribute to society with their individual skills and talents and not coerced into robotic functioning for basic survival/comfort or coerced by wealth or power, but for self-fulfillment and personal development. A coexistence between work and education must be fluid enough to allow for the pursuit of self-determination and participation for social contribution.

(In)conclusion

   The effects of this war like any are similar, beginning with identifying, targeting of national and international threats, suspension of civil liberties (oppression of free speech, expression, association, congregation, etc...), displacement of peoples, to the already seen abductions, mass arrests, violence, and deaths of people who act out of their beliefs against a coercive and oppressive government. This will escalate into daily death tolls until the current world social model has significantly changed.

Adam Strange
May 1, 2001

*Ernst Fischer, The Necessity of Art (Penguin Books Ltd. 1959)
#Letter by Donald Strange