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SHOWDOWN IN SEATTLE

By HUBERT BEYER

VICTORIA - With all due respect to the forces of law and order, it was the
police, not the protesters whose images on my TV screen scared the hell out
of me as I watched the proceedings of the World Trade Organization meeting
in Seattle unfold.

As with all mass protests, there were some hooligans. They smashed shop
windows. Actually, I only watched one window smashed, over and over again,
in endless reruns. But I'm sure there were more.

In contrast to the violent interludes there were tens of thousands of
protesters who went about voicing and showing their grievances and fears in
an orderly and peaceful manner. But judging from the television coverage,
violence was the order of the day.

To me, however, and I'm sure many others around the world, the hundreds of
police in riot gear, charging the crowd like an army of robo cops, looked
far more menacing and sinister than the minority of protesters who got out
of hand. There was an eerie Tiananmen Square quality to the images, minus,
of course, the live ammo.

Completely lost in all the mayhem was the reason why some 50,000 protesters
had converged on Seattle. They represented millions around the world who are
befuddled and frightened by the breathless pace at which globalization is
unfolding around them.

Is globalization the demon its opponents claim it is? I don't know; neither
do many of the critics. And the reason for that is simple: nobody with any
credibility has ever been able to satisfactorily explain its supposed
benefits.

The politicians chanting the mantra of free trade and a globalized economy
have lied to us too often to be believed. The tycoons of big business are
too partisan to be taken at their word of a brave new world with riches or
at least comfort for everyone.

And the few unbiased people with the necessary credentials of understanding
the possible ramifications of this huge economic engineering project called
globalization, are relegated to the sidelines, mere voices in the
wilderness.

One of these voices is that of Paul Hellyer, leader of the Canadian Action
Party, former Liberal cabinet minister, businessman and, to a lesser degree,
economist.

In an "open letter" to the world leaders, Hellyer urges removal of all
references to "national treatment" as a fundamental tenet of international
trade and investment.

The "national treatment" clause, he says, is the lever by which the
transnational corporations and international banks of the five big powers
are colonizing the world to an extent previously considered impossible.

"As soon as your country has a company with good prospects to expand
globally, it will be bought by one of the transnationals which will shut the
company down, make it part of the transnational's empire or move production
to another country, Hellyer says

"In the event that the choice is either to shut down the company or move
production elsewhere, trade agreements require countries to allow products
previously made within their borders to be imported from abroad without
penalty.

"My country, Canada, has already suffered in this way when foreign investors
bought our companies and curtailed or ended production with the inevitable
loss of jobs."

And that's just one aspect of the implications of freer and freer trade. The
lack of any reference to environmental or labor standards are two more.

Workers of the industrialized nations are seeing their jobs exported to
third-world countries where labor is cheap and industrial activity isn't
hampered by bothersome environmental legislation.

In Germany, one of the world's biggest corporations, Mannesmann, is about to
be swallowed by a British company for $240 billion, the highest price ever
offered in a takeover.

Power and money are being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The rich
get richer, soup kitchens proliferate and robo cops keep law and order in
Seattle.

Small wonder I'm scared.


Mr. Beyer's columns on BC Politics can be found at
www.hubertbeyer.com