GENEVA, May 7 (IPS) - Peoples' Global Action against 'Free' Trade and the World Trade Organisation (PGA), an international network of workers, small farmers and indigenous groups, is preparing an inter-continental caravan to protest this year's meeting of trade ministers in the U.S. city of Seattle.
The protests, to be held during the Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to take place Nov 30 to Dec 3 in Seattle, will be a repeat of the demonstrations staged on the occasion of last year's meeting of trade ministers in Geneva, Switzerland.
During the last WTO conference, in June 1998, demonstrations in Geneva gave rise to violent actions by participants, which even outshined the crackdown by police.
The violent protests in the streets of Geneva and actions by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in various countries served as a rude awakening for the WTO regarding the extent of opposition to economic liberalisation policies.
But Juan Tortosa, one of the alliance's leaders in Geneva, explained that the PGA professes a philosophy of non-violence.
The network eschews hierarchical structures and takes a confrontational attitude, practicing non-violent civil disobedience and direct action - as opposed to lobbying - in its struggle for political change, he said.
Latin American organisations affiliated with the PGA have already begun to work on preparations for an Inter-Continental Caravan that will cross the United States and end up in Seattle, said Tortosa.
Since its public appearance last year, the PGA's chosen target has been the WTO, the global body created four years ago to regulate and monitor enforcement of and compliance with multilateral accords aimed at the liberalisation of trade.
According to the PGA's agenda of events for 1999, governments of the industrialised North and transnational corporations worldwide want to further expand the regime of the WTO, which sets the rules of exploitation and destruction of global capitalism and guarantees its continuity.
"They expect the Third Ministerial Conference to serve their interests by...launching a new round of negotiations within the WTO to further 'liberalise' trade and investment, incorporating into the WTO regime an agreement similar to the defeated Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)."
An even broader network of international civic organisations, which included the PGA, mounted heavy opposition to the MAI, which led to the failure of the initiative discussed by the industrialised countries grouped in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The PGA statement added that the Seattle conference would attempt to expand the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, "one of the main reasons for the misery of small farmers on all continents."
A renewal of the agricultural accord would bring in its wake "the elimination of food security policies, the increasing cocentration of productive resources in the hands of agribusiness, and the introduction of genetic engineering in fields and kitchens all over the world," according to the PGA.
The WTO conference will also seek to broaden the Trade Rights on Intellectual Property (TRIPs) agreement, which forces WTO member countries to grant private property rights "over life forms in the form of patents," the PGA statement added. "Only a massive worldwide outcry against these policies can stop this onslaught on the lives of millions of people and on the future of the planet," the network warned.
The PGA, created at a February 1998 conference in Geneva, has scheduled a second international meeting for Bangalore, India in August.
The second PGA conference will provide an excellent opportunity to raise awareness among grassroots movements on the issues to be negotiated in Seattle, said Tortosa.
A global campaign against the WTO regime, including the mobilisations to be held worldwide parallel to the Seattle ministerial conference, will be discussed and planned in Bangalore, he explained.