Excerpted from the, "Progressive Response, " Foreign Policy In Focus weekly bulletins. http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/
Michael Pugliese
*** AROUND THE WORLD *** By Tom Barry
* Seattle Coalition has New "Friends"
The Seattle Coalition is expanding--and that should concern those who believe that rules and institutions that manage economic globalization need substantial reform. The loosely knit coalition of activists that took to the streets in Seattle signaled a coalescing of numerous sectors--from human rights advocates to environmentalists and fair traders to labor unions. The coalition--dubbed affectionately by some as the "Turtles to Teamsters" coalition--pointed the way toward a more cohesive progressive agenda in the face of corporate-driven globalization.
The coalition of citizens that came to Seattle to protest the WTO in November 1999 added new partners when the anti-PNTR campaign directed by Citizens Trade Campaign, a branch of Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, chose to rally the anti-globalization forces against PNTR status for China. These included such conservative groups as the Family Research Council. Straying from their focus on economic globalization into security issues and international relations, CTC sought to win allies by portraying China as a security threat both to the Asia-Pacific and the United States. This brought such America-first and decidedly militaristic groups as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
CTC Director Lori Wallach makes no apologies for this type of unprincipled coalition-building. Strategizing about the upcoming battles of the fair trade movement, Wallach is optimistic because of the movement's new allies. "The Seattle Coalition has new friends from the China PNTR fight. National veterans groups, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion, worked on Republican House Members, often in conjunction with local small business people. Indeed, the intense local organizing that was developed in an attempt to counter the corporate cash revealed a potentially powerful overlap between the memberships of VFW, American Legion, and other fraternal groups and main street business associations and union members."
Wallach is now calling for a "retribution" campaign against those who supported PNTR. In a sample letter that CTC recommends that coalition members send to congressional members who support normal trading relations with China, CTC again ventures beyond its globalization focus, saying that the pro-PNTR vote "rewarded Chinese dictators' saber rattling against Taiwan"--not mentioning that Taiwan supports WTO entry for China.
A common thread of the Seattle Coalition is, as Wallach notes, the belief in the need "to rewrite the rules of globalization to suit the public interest." CTC and leaders of the fair trade movement endanger this mission by blustering forays into international security issues and opportunistic alliances.