The world's new tyranny (II)
Acceptance of an idea always comes before imposition of a tyranny. Slavery could exist because the idea of inequality between men was considered valid. Empire could be established because the idea of racial or religious supremacy was taken for granted. Based on Marx's idea of man as economic animal communism took over half the world. When such ideas are perceived to have no foundation the tyrannies they support disappear. Now the world seems bent on accepting another flawed idea and therefore another tyranny looms. The idea is summed up in the word "globalisation" and it presupposes the triumph of "free trade" and "market forces" everywhere. The tyranny to be imposed will be that of the new empire of multinationals answerable only to themselves. [For Another View Click Here] I have never understood why this idea seems so easily to be taking control of men's minds. Last week, this week and in the following two weeks I give columns I have written which plead for our own leaders at least to question what seems set to become the accepted wisdom of the age. ******************************************** Free trade Chiquita style I cannot understand why those who govern poor countries like ours, and those who are influential in them, seem to accept so easily the free trade cult. Why do we attend conferences, meetings and assemblies of all kinds and happily affix our signatures to agreements, protocols, treaties, declarations and proclamations which, if and when implemented, will do us serious harm? Why have we allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into accepting economic suicide as if we were so many residents of Jonestown or Heaven's Gate? Is it not clear that in conditions of free trade between the powerful and the weak, the developed and the undeveloped, the rich and the poor there can be only one winner? Why should it be otherwise? If a free-for-all in blows and cutlass lashes was to be the order of the day, would not the strong man and the bully and the man with the blade sharpened to technological perfection be delighted and would they not prevail? Why should a free-for-all in trade be any different? We should be saying with all the force and clarity we can muster that unbridled free trade is not the answer for a world in which humanity is striving, as it surely should be, to progress beyond the law of the jungle. We should cease making speech after speech accepting that our fate, and the fate of the world, will inevitably be decided by the operation of impersonal, uncontrolled market forces and the sooner we accept this the better off we will be. Instead we should be denying most strongly in every forum available to us that such a fate is inevitable and objecting as loudly as we are able that this is not the way we should be going and that the world deserves a better future than the one on offer from the ruthless moneymen and sleaze-ridden free trade marketeers who are making this strong and terrible bid to dominate the world. Do we really believe for one moment that those who preach free trade and the inevitable triumph of market forces have anything other than their own increased wealth and aggrandisement in mind? Do we honestly believe they think the system they espouse is fundamentally a good one for all concerned? Are we so na ve as to think if, by any chance, the system were to operate against their interests that they would not make sure it was changed or abridged to suit them? Are we so innocent and trusting that we cannot recognise bullying and crude self-interest when our noses are being rubbed in it constantly? If anybody had any lingering doubts about what really rules in the world of international trade and economic relations between powerful and poor countries then his or her eyes would have been opened wide by recent revelations regarding the American action to try and dismantle the European banana trade system which so greatly benefits a number of poor countries in Caricom. It has been a great puzzle why the all-powerful USA should have taken up the cudgels in this matter against a group of tiny, poor and friendly countries in the Caribbean, especially when the USA itself has no interest in the EU banana market and doesn't even export bananas. Well, it is a puzzle no longer. It turns out that it was not a case of this great country pursuing a principled course of action in the splendid cause of trade liberalisation. No. Not atall. It was simply that Mr Carl Lindner, the head of Chiquita Brands which exports bananas from Guatemala and Honduras, was able to convince Mr Micky Kantor, the US Trade Representative at the time, to take Chiquita's case against the EU banana regime to the World Trade Organisation. And how was Mr Lindner able to achieve this when such requests are usually ignored and especially when no US jobs are at stake? Did an intellectually brilliant Mr Lindner so convincingly demonstrate the economic rationale and philosophical basis for bringing such a case to the WTO that Mr Kantor had no alternative but to act against the poor little Windward Islands? I don't think so. On April 12th, 1996, the day after Mr Kantor asked the WTO to examine the Chiquita case Mr Lindner began contributing US$500,000 to Democratic Party campaign coffers. For this Mr Lindner not only got his case put forward to the WTO, he also partook of coffee with President Clinton and, no doubt a high point of his life, got to spend a night in the Lincoln bedroom at the White House. It is all so pathetic and sleazy that it might be looked upon as a bad joke if it wasn't for the fact that the livelihood of thousands of West Indians is being put at risk in all these drearily corrupt goings-on. And, please note, Mr Lindner is not even a Democrat, he is a dyed in the wool conservative tycoon whose real home is the right wing of the Republican Party. This story of what really goes on is so utterly disgusting that it is almost unbelievable. Is this the great United States, leader of the world, principled fighter for the rights of man, upholder of the glorious cause of global free trade? Yes it is, my friends. That is how things work. A mighty state is perfectly prepared to wreck the economies of several small countries and destroy the already hard-pressed lives of scores of thousands simply for a slimy mess of political pottage. The next time you read or hear anything about the end of preferences, global liberalisation, free trade, the inevitable triumph of market forces and all the other outpourings of the cult of the greedy and the self-serving please murmur the word "Chiquita" to yourselves and remember what really motivates those who seek to brainwash and dominate us anew. 
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