Corporate Globalization Chileans Protest
APEC
By Roberto
Manriquez
ZNet
Nov. 18, 2004
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“The safest city in
the world” is the title of today’s newspapers in Santiago in order to
explain the impressive amount of security measures taken for a new version
of the Asian Pacific economy cooperation forum, to be held in Chile from
November 19 to 21, a summit in which business men and chiefs of state from
21 Countries, including the US, Russia, Japan, China and Canada, among
others, will gather.
To this mega
appointment arrives: a triumphant George W. Bush, although according to a
poll divulged last week, 58% of Chilean people would have followed the
world trend and voted for Kerry. Hu Jintao, the Chinese President,
infamous for having greeted as a regional member of the communist party
the repression in Tiananmen Square. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president,
an ex KGB with a human rights record in no way desirable.
“The summit is
nothing more than the attempt to start a business round and to initiate a
pole of competition with the EU, but based on our ‘competitive
advantages’, that are none other than low salaries, environmental
depredation and absence of civil control”, says Alvaro Ramis, theologist
and one of the leaders of the Chilean Social Forum, a civil rights
organization opposed to this meeting.
Founded in 1989 the
APEC yearly summit has already had Commerce ministries, chancellors and
top excecutives (there is a CEO summit) that handle more cash that many
Third World nations: 14 of them control multinationals that together are
worth US $15 more billions than the GDP of any country that is not a
member of this select group, or 20 times the chilean GDP.
The APEC economies
concentrate 60% of the world’s GDP and 42% of the world population, and
are the ones that supported the growth, trade and world investment in
recent years.
“Nothing will come
out of this summit, some pictures a good will declaration which must be in
a draft status by now, but respecting to the people’s interests, we can
only expect more of the same old same old’ “, says Hugo Fazio, a well
respected economist from the Center of Alternate Studies for Economy (CENDA)
and a former Central Bank president (the chilean equivalent to the federal
reserve).
The summit, defined
as a meeting of economies, not countries, a euphemism adopted in order to
integrate Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei, as the Chilean government officially
calls it) has produced a tide of criticism from the civil society that are
assisting as a mere spectator to a mega display of capitalist joy, where
“by the way, there won’t be discussing any form of control to the
environmental depredation nor the establishment of unions in Asian tax
paradises,” says Ramis.
But the summit has
turned out to be an excellent opportunity to organize those who are not
content with the neoliberal economic model imposed by the government of
the socialist president Ricardo Lagos and the thousands of Chileans moved
and angry with the latest images of devastation that the American army has
perpetrated in Fallujah.
For weeks dozens of
marches and protests have been organized that are considered to be a
preparation for the big national protest day expected for this Friday,
November 19th- made artificially a holiday, for security reasons, says the
government.
Students and citizens
organized in more than 200 NGOs and civil rights associations of all kinds
are expected to march from the
Alameda (the main avenue) in order
to protest against APEC and Bush’s visit, who in addition to this summit
will be making an Official estate visit, after the reunion.
“To achieve an
official authorization for these marches and public events has been an
ordeal, the government seems to conclude that the streets and the city
belong to executives, business men and chiefs of state and not to the
citizens, any way, we have managed to prevail our civil rights and in this
sense, we call out to a firm but peaceful and joyful demonstration”,
emphasizes Ramis.
Bulatlat
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