Worldwide Day of Action against the WTO Summit Conference in Qatar 9 - 11 November

While hundreds of thousands of people across the world were demonstrating their outrage at the deaths of the victims of terror in New York and Washington, the rulers of the world exploited this mood to mobilise for a 'long lasting crusade' against the enemies of their 'civilised world'. But it soon became clear that our solidarity with the terror-victims does not mean we agree to their policy of war; which can only bring yet more misery, death and destruction. Even before the first bombs have been dropped the first great anti-war protests have already started. Racist propaganda and an unparalleled media campagn are being called upon to try and play us off against one another and silence the voices of criticism or brand them as the voices of terrorism. The parallel between this campaign of libel against opponents of war and the campaign to brand the anti-globalisation movement as violent criminals is no accident. As a matter of fact it is these same war-mongers who have also been attacking the antiglobalisation protesters up to the present moment. Naturally these gentlemen are using their war propaganda precisely to split the international workers' movement to prevent them from ever uniting forces for joint resistance against war and the other effects of global capitalism.

That is why it is good news that after the terrorist attack on the USA, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which represents over 156 million workers in 221 organisations and 148 countries, has announced that it is continuing its preparations for the Trade Union World Day of Action on 9^th. November.

In a conference dealing with the G8 Summit in Genoa, the Trade Union leaders of the whole world decided to accompany the next conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with a global Day of Action. "… The international Confederation of Free Trade Unions declares a global day of action in all the workplaces of the world to protest against the negative effects of globalisation and the present world trade system borne by the workers of the whole world. … "

The effects of Globalisation

Our living- and working-conditions have been under attack for years in the name of globalisation and free world trade. For the employers globalisation simply means the freedom to increase their profits, with the right to invest or withdraw capital investment whenever and wherever they wish, to be able to shift production and lay their hands on raw materials and labour at will. For us the logical consequence of the free market means being forced to compete for the lowest wages, the worst working conditions and the poorest environmental and social standards. Workers in multinational companies, e.g. in the car industry, have to fight for contracts against their own co-workers in other branches. This same pursuit of local self-interest affects governments too: in the name of competitiveness they pursue austerity programmes and attempt to destroy the social benefits won by the struggle of organised labour.

They speak of globalisation as if it were a natural process that cannot be avoided, but it is representatives of these selfsame governments, agents of big business, who sit on the boards of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Bank and promote the 'liberalisation' of world capitalism. And it is the WTO negotiations which have provided the rulers with legitimation for their policies of cuts, their boundless efforts at privatisation even in areas of the most basic social need, such as health-care and care for pensioners, education and training, water, waste disposal and public transport. These are the IMF's and World Bank's "Structural Adjustment Programmes", which force the poorest, most desperately debt-ridden nations to introduce privatisation plans and austerity measures which are catastrophic for ordinary people, while Europe and the USA shore up their borders and erect insuperable trade barriers. When public welfare is cut and new profitable avenues offered to business this happens purely for the benefit of the bosses and their profits. And it is the politicians of almost all parties right down to the local level in our home towns and villages who pursue these policies.

Often it is oppressive regimes and military dictatorships, as in Pakistan, Columbia or Indonesia who carry out the IMF plans with force and repression against popular resistance. These regimes are supported by the great industrial nations and the western 'democracies'. The basis of this support is not at all Democracy and Human Rights but their complete suppression under the diktat of the IMF and the World Bank - and in the future their unquestioned military suppression by the forces of the USA and NATO.

Mass lay offs, wage cuts, illness, hunger, poverty, war and the destruction of our environment are some of the effects we can all feel throughout the world.

The worldwide Antiglobalisation movement

Over the last ten years, these attacks have been answered again and again, especially in the most oppressed countries, by strikes, general strikes, street battles, land occupations and armed uprisings.

The heroic examples of the mass strikes in Argentina, the Mexican agicultural labourers, the \Russian miners orvthe Korean and South African car workers appear to have spread to the centres of the industrial world.

Since 1999 hundreds of thousands of workers and young people have come out on to the streets ibn Seattle and then in towns like Nice, Prague, Gothenburg and Genoa to try and prevent the powerful secret world rulers of the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank from holding their elite undemocratic and completely illegitimate conferences to decide upon the fate of billions of people.

These protests were actually successful to some extent. That is why the representatives of the WTO fled to the desert of Qatar for their meeting of 9 -11 November, where, hidden from their underlings, they want to discuss methods for a more efficient exploitation of the world and further possibilities of profit-maximisation, in view of a threatening world economic crisis.

At the same time they are trying to split the worldwide movement against global capitalism. In their media they describe the opponents of global capitalism as violent mindless thugs to scare off as many of their fellow citizens as possible and get them to fight shy of joining the movement. But it is actually their police, who turn our cities into fortresses for their conferences and who indiscriminately fire teargas, imprison, beat up and even kill demonstrators. It is they who commit acts of violence on us every day through exploitation and oppression. The rulers of the world are afraid that the workers of the world and the trade union movement will come together to fight for a better and juster world for globalisation on our terms

Their fear is justified. It is this fear which explains their shabby attempt to make a connection between the mass murder of thousands on the 11^th September and our struggle, and to use our sympathy with the victims as an excuse for a "crusade" against the enemies of the "civilised world". By "civilised world", they mean the centres of world capitalism. Of course, the underlying causes of hate and violence can be traced back to the effects of the world economic order, but it would be naïve to imagine that those who profit from this world order are going to be willing to remove these causes.

This "crusade" is the continuation of "globalisation" by military means. The victims of the World Trade Centre attack were fellow workers of many nationalities. They deserve our sympathy as do all victims of violence, oppression, exploitation and war. Just as in Vietnam, the Gulf and in every war, so in this "war against terrorism", the victims will be the international working class. Whether in Afghanistan or wherever new enemies of the "civilised world" are made, it will be us who will bear the brunt of the bombing raids and will become starving and freezing refugees.

Once again we are the victims of the now growing economic crisis: a crisis for which the corporations and governments are trying to shift responsibility on to terrorism. We, and especially our comrades, immigrants from other countries, have got to suffer the racism which is being whipped up and it is we who will be controlled and manipulated by the harsher laws brought in under the pretext of the fight on terrorism.

And it is the hard-won democratic rights struggled for by the labour movement for decades which are now going to be cut down at a stroke: an act which is designed above all to weaken our resistance to the gross excesses of global capitalism and the arrogance of the powerful.

Worldwide mobilisation

That is why we welcome the fact that the ICFTU is keeping to its call for an international day of action of the day of the WTO summit in Qatar and we count this as a tremendous opportunity to take the movement against the ideology of 'liberalism' forward one giant step.

We wish to link up with the mass demonstrations and strikes in Latin America, Africa and Asia and join forces with the protests in Australia, Canada the Usa and Europe and turn this day into a worldside day of action against war and against global capitalism.

" … The day of action will be coordinated at an international level and carried out locally and will consist of various forms of activity as individual countries think best….

…they will range from downing tools and demonstrations, workplace discussions, public meetings to high-profile media activities…."

We take this ICFTU call seriously and instead of Qatar we will take our protest everywhere throughout the world in our home towns and work places.

In any case, we have no confidence that institutions like the WTO can be reformed. They represent nothing more than the financial interests of the big corporations and conglomerates. Their cooperation with the trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is merely an attempt to give themselves a democratic appearance.

On the contrary, we support the alliance and common struggle of working men and women, trade unionists and young people and all who are determined and compelled to stand up against injustice and for the fuure of our children and our planet.

• Stop the war being waged against the oppressed peoples under the pretext of a war against drugs and terrorism!
• Against the IMF, World Bank and discriminatory terms of trade negotiated in Maastricht etc.!
• Against payment of the debts to foreign creditors and for their cancellation without compensation!
• Worldwide application of all democratic rights such as the right to trade union and political organisation, sexual equality, the right to strike and demonstrate, to asylum, to religious freedom……!
• United struggle for shorter working hours across the world with no loss of pay!
• Against privatisation, sackings and casualisation!

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