BY SEAN HEALY
Melbourne's M1 Alliance, fresh from its successful May 1 blockade of the Australian Stock Exchange, has set itself a new target for militant, mass action: the Commonwealth Business Forum, which protest organisers say is proof of how insidious corporate influence on government is.
The conference, scheduled for October 3-5, takes place immediately before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane from October 6-8 and is organised by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), a body of 100 corporations which exists to allow big business “preferential access” into the proceedings of CHOGM and the Commonwealth of Nations.
At its meeting on May 23, the M1 Alliance resolved to blockade the CBC Forum on October 3, and possibly on the two days following. The conference is taking place in the Hilton Hotel in East Melbourne, a venue organisers believe can be successfully blockaded.
The CBC was established by the Commonwealth in 1997, as its official literature puts it “to involve the private sector in the promotion of international trade and investment”.
Meeting before each biennial CHOGM, and before the meeting of the Commonwealth finance ministers each other year, the CBC is open about the forum's influence on Commonwealth policy, saying “The forum provides a unique opportunity for delegates to contribute to key policy recommendations to Commonwealth Heads of Government which will be presented to their Meeting in Brisbane immediately following the forum; conduct business with other international partners; network with key government and business leaders and managers; influence the debate on important trade and investment issues.”
The forum has the blessing of Victorian Labor Premier Steve Bracks, the second major business conference he has played host to since his September 1999 election, and Prime Minister John Howard, who has said that he is “delighted” to have the CBC Forum meeting in Australia to encourage “a Commonwealth consensus backing multilateral trade liberalisation”.
It's the forum's likely “influence” on “important trade and investment issues” that has organisers of the planned blockade most incensed.
“Without doubt, the business chiefs at the CBC Forum will use it to spruik the benefits of a new round of World Trade Organisation talks”, M1 Alliance spokesperson Sarah Peart told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly. “And if their lectures don't work, they'll use the forum to twist arms.”
The forum, and CHOGM, happen a month before the WTO's ministerial meeting, scheduled to occur in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, which industrialised nations hope will launch a comprehensive set of “free trade” talks.
In the year and a half since the failure of the last ministerial meeting in Seattle, rich country governments have sought to use all international venues — from conferences of the club of rich countries, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, to those of the least developed countries — to build an international “consensus” for such talks.
The new WTO round will be a topic for debate at the Brisbane CHOGM, as it was at the 1999 CHOGM in Durban, South Africa. “Getting a Consensus on a New Trade Round” is also an official agenda item at the CBC Forum.
Peoples' movements in both rich and poor countries are determined to stop the launch of a new round, which they argue will only further subjugate poor country economies to the rule of the Western transnational corporations which dominate world markets.
“What a successful protest on October 3 will do”, Peart said, “is to prick the bubble that there is any kind of 'consensus' for more 'free trade' — there isn't. The global elite backs it, its political puppets back it, but much of the rest of the world is up in arms about it, figuratively and in some cases literally.”
Peart is also dismissive of claims by rich country negotiators, echoed by the organisers of the CBC Forum, that they are working hard to address poor countries' concerns about the WTO's trade agenda.
The CBC, for instance, has stated that “Responding to the need for greater access for developing countries to the global market, the CBC will work with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) towards the removal of barriers to trade and fair access to markets and investments.”
“These are just words”, said Peart, pointing to ongoing WTO negotiations on trade in services and on agriculture, in which “rich country negotiators show no sign of changing their past approach: they push poor country governments hard to open up their economies but make no concessions of any importance themselves.”
“It will be no different, perhaps even worse, if there is a new WTO round. Such negotiations will be legalised robbery of the Third World.”
Activists say their planned blockade is also intend to shine the spotlight on how the world is really run.
“On the international stage, corporate 'advisory' bodies like the CBC run as shadow governments”, Peart argued. “Globalisation is not some force of nature, which operates without human involvement. It's a directed process — worldwide privatisation is directed, opening up of capital markets is directed, 'free trade' is directed — and it is directed by bodies like these.”
“The CBC Forum will set the agenda and CHOGM will follow: you just watch.”
The CBC is one of a fleet of international corporate bodies which set the agenda of “globalisation”.
Many of them are shadowy and attract little public scrutiny. Some, like the International Chamber of Commerce, operate as international cross-issue lobby groups seeking to ensure the best possible deal for their corporate members. Others, like the Global Climate Coalition, have more limited aims: in the GCC's case, to lobby against action on greenhouse gas emissions. Others, like the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, actually draw up international trade agreements, such as on biotechnology, for submission to, and adoption by, the WTO.
But many activists believe that the international “dialogue” bodies, which organise large public conferences and seek as much publicity as they can get, are just as insidious.
Peart says there is an analogy between the CBC and the World Economic Forum, the subject of massive protest in Melbourne last September: “They're both 'consensus-builders' and 'agenda-setters'. The CBC's brief is narrower, to influence the Commonwealth, but its purpose is the same: to create the impression of unanimity behind the policies of corporate globalisation.”
The CBC itself makes no secret of its desire to promote the corporate model of globalisation, stating “The CBC enables members to collectively contribute to the worldwide debate on globalisation. Its objectives include the integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading system; enhancing the participation of the private sector in international negotiations; and strengthening indigenous private sector capacity in developing countries through working with national chambers of commerce and industry associations.”
Peart sees a successful blockade and large protest as a further crucial test of strength for the anti-corporate movement.
“What will be on show in Melbourne in October is the two worlds on offer”, Peart said, “and the people will have to choose.”
“Inside the Hilton, there will be the corporate globalisers, whose vision is of a world in which they are free to rob, cheat and plunder. Outside, on the streets, will be the new movement, and our vision is of a world based on justice, equality, democracy and solidarity. A massive and successful protest will show that it's our side which is winning, that the corporate globalisers' time is up.”