[lbo-talk] Anti-Globalization and Anti-War Movements in the USA

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 2/13/07, Daniel Davies <d_squared_2002 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Doug wrote, in reply to Chuck:
>
> > > the anti-globalization movement was successful because it mostly
> > > relied
> > > on anarchist organizational methods and practice.
> >
> > How was it successful? Seattle was loads of fun, one of the most
> > exciting weeks of my life, but I don't see how it or its spawn
> > changed much in the real world. Have capital or trade flows been
> > altered? Have property relations changed? Is the working class any
> > better off or more secure? Is the climate's future any brighter?
>
> Worth remembering that Seattle was where the first TRIPS
> agreements were meant to be signed - and this was a really
> vile version of TRIPS, with the strongest possible
> international patent protection and no get-outs for AIDS drugs in
> Africa.  It might have collapsed anyway if the riots hadn't happened,
> but nobody was betting this way.  As it was, the collapse of
> the Seattle talks allowed Brazil and South Africa the breathing
> space they needed to reopen the whole issue, resulting in
> a much less harmful version of TRIPS being signed at
> a later date.

That's a good point.  We could say that the Battle of Seattle helped
throw the ball back into the court of the governments of the South.
Since then, the USG has been trying to use bilateral and regional
negotiations to impose stricter standards than TRIPS, and the peoples
of the South get as good -- or as bad -- deals as their governments
are capable of or willing to make.  That, however, gets to the
question of state power that many anti-globalization activists in the
North did not want to think too much about, which also has a lot to do
with one of Chuck's perennial complaints: after 9/11, former and
current members of central committees took over, to the detriment of
militancy, creativity, etc. of protests, so we don't have two, three,
many battles like that of Seattle just when we could use them the
most, like now (instead, we have groups of people walking empty
streets and waving signs on a weekend once in a while, without
inconveniencing anyone, between campaigns for Democrats).
-- 
Yoshie
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