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The 2000 election must not be forgotten.
Democracy Now
The world needs more ballots, not more bullets.
Cracks in the Coalition
The rest of the world begins to sour on the war.
Abortion Under Attack
Chipping away at the right to choose.
But Venezuela's "revolution" faces many obstacles.
Selling the War.
Kamikaze Capitalists.
The IRA moves forward with decommissioning—but some
loyalists don't want peace.
New Yorkers elect Bloomberg as their next mayor.
There's a Police Riot Goin' On
Anti-war marchers feel the chill in Connecticut.
Climate of Fear
Long Island activist is charged as a "terrorist."
In Person
Fred Korematsu made a federal case out of it.
MUSIC: No joy for New Order.
The Vagina that Roared
BOOKS: Susanna Kaysen's "sore spot."
Fille, Interrupted
FILM: Fat Girl and French Feminism.
Mind out of Time
The seven ages of Bob.
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November 9, 2001
Kamikaze Capitalists
 
hat
do you call someone who believes so firmly in the promise of salvation through
a set of rigid rules that he is willing to risk his own life to spread those
rules? A religious fanatic? A holy warrior? How about a U.S. trade negotiator. On November 5, the World Trade Organization began its meeting in Doha, Qatar.
According to U.S. security briefings, there is reason to believe that al-Qaeda,
which has plenty of supporters in the Gulf state, has managed to get some of
its operatives into the country, including an explosives specialist. Some terrorists
may even have managed to infiltrate the Qatari military. Given these threats, you might expect the United States and WTO to have canceled
their meetings. But not these true believers. Instead, U.S. delegates have been
kitted out with gas masks, two-way radios and drugs to combat bioterrorism.
As negotiators wrangle over agricultural subsidies, softwood lumber and pharmaceutical
patents, helicopters will be waiting to whisk U.S. delegates onto aircraft carriers
parked in the Persian Gulf, ready for a Batman-style getaway. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has praised his delegation for being
willing to “sacrifice” in the face of such “undoubted risks.”
Why are they doing it? Probably for the same reason people have always put their
lives on the line for a cause: They believe in a set of rules that promises
transcendence. Call it Kamikaze Capitalism. In this case, the god is economic growth, and it promises to save us from global
recession. New markets to access, new sectors to privatize, new regulations
to slash—these will get those arrows in the corner of our television screens
pointing heavenward once again. Of course, growth cannot be created at a meeting, but Doha can accomplish something
else, something more religious than economic. It can send “a sign”
to the market, a sign that growth is on the way and expansion is just around
the corner. An ambitious new round of WTO negotiations is the sign they are
praying for. In rich countries like ours, the desire for this sign is desperate.
It is more pressing than any possible problems with current WTO rules, problems
mostly raised by poor countries, fed up with a system that has pushed them to
drop their trade barriers while rich countries kept theirs up. So it’s no surprise that poor countries are this round’s strongest
opponents. Before they agree to drastically expand the reach of the WTO, many
are asking rich countries to make good on their promises from the last round.
There are major disputes swirling around tariffs on garments and the patenting
of life forms. The most contentious issue is drug patents: India, Brazil, Thailand and a coalition
of African countries want clear language stating that patents can be overridden
to protect public health. The United States and Canada are not just resisting—they
are resisting even as their own delegates head for Qatar popping discount Cipro,
muscled out of Bayer using exactly the kind of pressure tactics they are calling
unfair trade practices. These concerns are not reflected in the draft ministerial declaration, which
is why Nigeria has blasted the WTO for being “one-sided” and “disregarding
the concerns of the developing and least developed countries.” India’s
WTO ambassador says that the draft “gives the uncomfortable impression
that there is no serious attempt to bring issues of importance to developing
countries into the mainstream.” These protests have made little impression in Geneva. Growth is the only god
at these negotiations, and any measures that could slow profits even slightly—of
drug companies, of water companies, of oil companies—are being treated
by believers as if they are on the side of the infidels and evildoers. We are witnessing trade being “bundled” (Microsoft-style) inside
the with-us-or-against-us logic of the war on terrorism. “By promoting
the WTO’s agenda,” Zoellick explains, “these 142 nations can
counter the revulsive destructionism of terrorism.” Open markets, he says,
are “an antidote” to the terrorists’ “violent rejectionism.”
(Fittingly, these are non-arguments glued together with made-up words.) Zoellick has called on WTO member states to set aside their petty concerns
about mass poverty and AIDS and to join the economic front of America’s
war. “We hope the representatives who meet in Doha will perceive the larger
stakes,” he says. Naomi Klein, whose new column will be appearing in the magazine regularly, can be reached at www.nologo.org. |
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