During this next period of time, we will be subject to a sophisticated and full-scale propaganda effort targeted at diminishing our impact on WTO in Seattle. If you have been involved in union organizing campaigns, you have gotten a taste of the same kind of tactics that we will see on a much bigger scale. Efforts to discredit leadership, split workers from allies, divide workers into factions are all typical tactics employed when the bosses are determined to defeat our efforts. In this situation, one of the things the opposition fears the most is the helicopter shot of Fourth Avenue from Seattle Center to the Convention Center filled with people peacefully marching and protesting the WTO.
So, did you read about the anti-biological warfare preparations recently in the Seattle papers with its scary headlines? We got immediate questions from union members about safety and if it was a good idea to bring their kids to attend the massive Rally and March on Nov 30. Funny, these preparations are standard at every major event these days from the Democratic National Convention to the Olympics but you don't see headlines or TV shots of firemen wearing moonsuits prior to those events - the kind of stuff that makes people question if they should attend. I should imagine that we'll see more stories about riot preparation, etc.
Another example, there have been several recent stories (e.g. AP 10/27) developed in large part by the work of the National Chamber of Commerce that wildly mis-report a letter from the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) to President Clinton. The news reports really take the wind out the sails don't they? The real story should have been "the business community breaks ranks and finally supports workers' rights in international trade agreements." While this is at best a tiny installment on our long-range goals, it is a sharp departure from previous business arguments that workers' rights have no place in the international trading system.
The ACTPN letter clearly states that "all our members are not in agreement on every element of the [U.S. trade] agenda." The AFL-CIO supports some elements of the U.S. agenda in Seattle: seeking to establish a working group on trade and labor, taking steps to make the WTO more transparent and accountable and rejecting any efforts by other WTO members to reopen the Antidumping Agreement. The AFL-CIO does not support the launching of major new negotiations before reviewing and assessing the impact of trade liberalization on income distribution, economic development, financial instability and the environment. The AFL-CIO does not support the Administration's drive to open service sectors to international trade.
The AFL-CIO develops its policy positions through work at its Executive Council and National Convention. The AFL-CIO's position on the WTO is the one that is expressed forcefully and in some detail in Convention Resolution # 6, "New Rules for the Global Economy," which was passed unanimously by the delegates in Los Angeles this October. http://www.aflcio.org/convention99/res1_6.htm
Nothing has changed in the AFL-CIO's position on the WTO. We want the WTO to incorporate enforceable rules protecting workers' rights and the environment, to open up its operations to give workers and other civil society representatives a meaningful voice, and to significantly overhaul its rules to safeguard consumer protections and prevent the overturning of legitimate national regulations on public health and the environment. We have been very clear that we do not want the WTO to initiate any new negotiations on investment, competition policy, or government procurement (other than transparency-enhancing measures).
We are in full swing to organize a massive mobilization in Seattle on November 30. We now have 25 full time organizers on the ground in the Northwest from Vancouver, Canada to N. California with a concentration in the Puget Sound area to assure a strong labor turnout and to educate our members. A couple of reports from our mobilization efforts as of mid-October:
- Every central labor council in Washington had a goal to fill three to 10 buses with ralliers-and every one has met or exceeded that goal. - A special train carrying 350+ travel from Portland to Seattle is full. - SEIU has stationed "Big MAC" (Mobilization Action Center), a purple semi-trailer equipped with 25 computer/phone stations in front of the Seattle Labor Temple. A MAC phone bank effort can generate hundreds of calls an hour with its automated dialing technology. After using it to call 150,000 union members on Initiative165, it will be used for WTO turnout. - 45 local unions in King County have designated a mobilization coordinator and are well on the way meet and exceed their turnout goals. - Nine hundred members of Machinists Local 751, who work at Boeing, will work as peacekeepers for the march through downtown Seattle.
Recently, John Sweeney in a communication to AFL-CIO affiliates wrote, "We are working closely with union leaders from around the world, as well as allies in the religious, environmental, and development communities to ensure a broad-based, internationalist presence in Seattle, one that will signal to the WTO, assorted trade ministers, and our own government that our issues are not going away, that they are shared by people all over the world, and that the current set of global rules is simply unacceptable. We are confident that we will have a great labor and community turnout on November 30th."
See you at the Seattle Center, Memorial Stadium Tuesday November 30. Facilities open at 8:00 am, rally starts at 10:00 am, march to Convention Center at 12:30 pm. More details to come.
Questions about mobilizing for November 30: call Bob Gorman at 206-448-4888 or email 104525.2422 at compuserve.com
In Solidarity,
Rich Feldman Worker Center - King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO Seattle, WA