One No, Many Yeses
Page 34
For if there is one thing that history teaches us it is that systems change – they always have, and they always will. Empires fall, values shift, power dissolves and most of the time the impetus comes from below. Back in 1381, imprisoned in the Tower of London by baying mobs of his own people, Richard II, despairing at this unexpected and all-powerful fury, feared that ‘the heritage and realm of England were near lost’.7 His luck held – just. But this is history’s lesson: that radical change, far from being the exception, is almost the norm; that nothing is inevitable, that systems can be, and often are, swept away by their own, often shockingly sudden, illegitimacy in the eyes of their people. It happened to the Romanovs, then it happened to the Soviets. An army of peaceful peasants evicted the British from India, the Berlin Wall was torn down without a shot being fired, Nelson Mandela walked from Robben Island into the presidential palace and no one could have predicted any of them just a few years before they happened. So why not this? Why not now?
I’m not old enough to remember when ascendant Marxists trumpeted the historical inevitability of global communism, but now I hear, all over the world, precisely the same argument being used for precisely the opposite system. The claim is equally false. Nothing is inevitable in history. All this will change, because it will have to, and when it does, the changes should be big, bold, beautiful. Our job is to make it happen – and to be radical and visionary as we do so. Why can’t we abolish the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF? Why can’t we redistribute land, end debt, devolve power downwards? Why can’t we feed the world, why can’t we abolish poverty? Why can’t we redefine power, lock corporations and markets back where they belong, make democracy do what we were always promised it would, whether the current elites like it or not? We can: the resources are there; so is the ability. What is missing is a willingness to use them. What is missing is vision, bravery, political will, a willingness to confront those who benefit from injustice – and if this movement has any purpose at all it is surely to provide them.
That is our job: to be bold. Not to tinker about at the margins, ‘greening’ corporations, waffling about ‘sustainability’, proposing voluntary targets, issuing policy papers, settling for better-than-nothing, politely gathering the crumbs from the table. Our job, now, is to call for everything we want, as loudly as we can – and to keep calling until we get it. Who knows – we might even surprise ourselves. We will certainly surprise the world. And if not us, then who? If not now – then when?
APPENDIX: ACTION STATIONS
If this book has inspired you to act on any of the issues it has raised, to get involved in any of the campaigns or to support any of the organisations featured, then it has done its job. The following brief list gives web-based contacts for some of the key sources of information and action covered in the book, and also includes a few ideas for other places to go if you want to find out more about the issues or get in touch with those campaigning around them. It is, of course, only a start – the rest is up to you.
1: ‘to open a crack in history’
The EZLN – all the Zapatistas’ communiqués and publications online:
www.ezln.org
Global Exchange – campaigns, resources, links and other Chiapas information:
www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/mexico/chiapas/
Indymedia Chiapas – the latest news on the EZLN and Chiapas situations:
www.chiapas.indymedia.org/
2: the belly of the beast
Peoples’ Global Action – forthcoming protests, days of action, directories of other groups and actions all over the world:
www.agp.org
3: apartheid: the sequel
Alternative Information and Development Centre – actions, campaigns and news from the South African struggle. Also the contact point for the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee:
www.aidc.org.za
Johannesburg Anti-Privatisation Forum – news and solidarity actions:
www.apf.org.za/
4: the church of stop shopping
The Reverend Billy – tips, scripts and advice on how to campaign entertainingly against chainstores in your town:
http://revbilly.com
The Biotic Baking Brigade – how to pie, where to pie, pie-ers in your area – and some great recipes:
www.asis.com/~agit-prop/bbb/
Adbusters – culture-jamming resources and links, plus ideas for celebrating Buy Nothing Day where you live:
www.adbusters.org/home/
Indymedia – non-corporate news from around the world, plus access to national and local Indymedia sites:
http://indymedia.org
Mediachannel – news from, criticism of and action to challenge the corporate media beast, plus a directory of 1,000 similar organisations around the world:
www.mediachannel.org
5: the penis gourd revolution
West Papua News Online – latest news from the resistance struggle, and how you can help the fight for freedom. Every single extra voice raised in support of the Papuans makes a big difference to them; please do anything you can:
www.westpapua.net
The Presidium Council – homepage and contacts for the PDP, plus links to OPM, Demmak and other grass-roots campaigners and requests for international help:
www.westpapua.org.uk/pdp/
OPM Support Group – UK-based actions and news in support of the Papuan cause:
www.eco-action.org/opm/
e-mail: opmsg@eco-action.org
6: the end of the beginning
World Social Forum – website for the Porto Alegre event, plus other social forums around the world:
www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/home
International Forum on Globalization – resources, books and publications on globalisation:
www.ifg.org
Global Trade Watch – Public Citizen’s useful resource page on trade and globalisation:
www.citizen.org/trade
7: land and freedom
The MST – latest news, and how to help the Brazilian struggle for land:
www.mstbrazil.org
Food First – good resources on land and landlessness, plus national and international campaigns on land and food issues:
www.foodfirst.org
8: california dreaming
Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County and Reclaim Democracy – US-focused information and campaigns on corporate power and accountability:
www.monitor.net/democracyunlimited/
http://reclaimdemocracy.org
POCLAD – resources and information on corporate power in the US:
http://poclad.org
and some more . . .
Closer to home, the following are just a few organisations providing ideas and organising actions and campaigns around the issues covered in this book.
World Development Movement – campaigns against unjust globalisation at national level:
www.wdm.org.uk
Green Party – news, campaigns and alternatives to globalisation:
www.greenparty.org.uk
Schnews – excellent freesheet with irreverent news and forthcoming campaigns on the UK direct-action scene:
http://schnews.org.uk
Corporate Watch – research into and campaigns against corporations and the economic structure that sustains them:
www.corporatewatch.org.uk
New Economics Foundation – thinktank developing alternatives to the current economic model:
www.neweconomics.org
Common Ground – inspiring organisation campaigning for local distinctiveness and providing resources and ideas to help you do so:
www.commonground.org.uk
REFERENCES
1: ‘to open a crack in history’
1 The fullest account in English of the 1 January uprising can be found in John Ross’s excellent book Rebellion from the Roots: Indian Uprising in Chiapas (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995), from which my account partly draws. Other partial acc
ounts can be found in Tom Hayden (ed.), The Zapatista Reader (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002); Elaine Katzenberger (ed.), First World, Ha, Ha, Ha! (San Francisco: City Lights, 1995); and Subcomandante Marcos, Our Word is Our Weapon (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001).
2 ‘Notes on the Economy in Chiapas in 1999’, originally published in La Jornada, Chiapas, 6 October 1999: see http://flag.blackened.net and www.struggle.ws/mexico/reports/chiapas_econ_99.html.
3 Bill Weinberg, Homage to Chiapas (London: Verso, 2000).
4 Philip Howard and Thomas Homer-Dixon, Environmental Scarcity and Violent Conflict: The Case of Chiapas, Mexico, Project on Environment, Population and Security, American Association for the Advancement of Science, University of Toronto, January 1996.
5 ‘Notes on the Economy in Chiapas in 1999’, op. cit.
6 A Storm and a Prophecy, communiqué by Subcomandante Marcos, August 1992.
7 Weinberg, op. cit.
8 George A. Collier with Elizabeth Lowery Quaratiello, Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas (Chicago: Food First Books, 1999).
9 Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America, quoted in Weinberg, op. cit.
10 Private Rights, Public Problems: A Guide to NAFTA’s Controversial Chapter on Investor Rights (Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2001).
11 ‘Down on the Farm: NAFTA’s Seven-Year War on Farmers and Ranchers in the US, Canada and Mexico’, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, USA, June 2001. See www.citizen.org.
12 Quoted in The Zapatistas: A Rough Guide (Bristol: Chiapaslink, 2000).
13 Quoted in John Ross, The War Against Oblivion: Zapatista Chronicles, 1994–2000 (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 2000).
14 Quoted in Ross, Rebellion from the Roots, op. cit.
15 The Retreat is Making Us Almost Scratch the Sky, communiqué by Subcomandante Marcos, February 1995.
16 The Majority Disguised as the Untolerated Minority, communiqué by Subcomandante Marcos, May 1994.
part 1: one no
2: the belly of the beast
1 Press release from the ‘Anti-Statist Black Bloc’, Independent Media Center of Philadelphia, 9 August 2000: see www.phillyimc.org.
2 This, and more along the same lines, can be found in ‘Black Blocs for Dummies’ on the web at www.infoshop.org/blackbloc.html. To be fair, not all Black Bloc-ers are this gung-ho.
3 The website of Peoples’ Global Action lists such events around the world on the many global days of action since 1998: www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/en/index.html.
4 Christopher Lockwood, ‘Swiss thwart forum protest’, Daily Telegraph online, 30 January 2000.
5 Vital Signs 2001, Worldwatch Institute, New York, USA.
6 Human Development Report 1999, United Nations Development Programme.
7 World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty, The World Bank.
8 Human Development Report 2001, United Nations Development Programme.
9 World Development Report 2000/2001, op. cit.
10 Human Development Report 2001, op. cit.
11 Susan George, ‘A Short History of Neoliberalism’, speech given at the Conference on Economic Sovereignty in a Globalising World, Bangkok, 24–26 March 1999.
12 David Jenkins, Market Whys and Wherefores, quoted in James Bruges, The Little Earth Book (Bristol: Alasdair Sawday Publishing, 2000).
13 Human Development Report 2001, op. cit.
14 Invisible Government: The World Trade Organization – Global Government for the New Millennium? (San Francisco: International Forum on Globalization, 1999).
15 ‘Network guerrillas’, Financial Times, 30 April 1998.
16 Jimmy Langman, ‘Neoliberal policies: big loser in Bolivian elections’, Americas Program of the Interhemispheric Resource Center, 5 July 2002.
17 An excellent account of the Cochabamba ‘Water War’, by local journalist Jim Schultz, can be found on the Democracy Center’s website: www.democracyctr.org/waterwar/index.htm.
3: apartheid: the sequel
1 ‘Eskom v. Soweto: The battle for power’, Focus magazine, South Africa, March 2002.
2 Patrick Bond, Elite Transition: From Apartheid to Neoliberalism in South Africa (London: Pluto Press, 2000).
3 ‘Structure of the South African Economy: Challenges for Transformation’, South African Communist Party, paper presented at the SACP Special Strategy Conference, September 1999.
4 Bond, op. cit.
5 The Reconstruction and Development Programme, 1994. Full text available at www.polity.org.za.
6 Patrick Bond, Against Global Apartheid: South Africa Meets the World Bank, IMF and International Finance (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2001).
7 Jon Jeter, ‘South Africa weighs a welfare state’, Washington Post Foreign Service, 9 July 2002.
8 Focus magazine, 2002, quoted by Patrick Bond, personal correspondence.
9 David A. McDonald, The Bell Tolls for Thee: Cost Recovery, Cutoffs, and the Affordability of Municipal Services in South Africa, Queens University, Canada/Municipal Services Project, March 2002. See www.hst.org.za/local/lgh/docs/MSPreport.doc.
10 Pravasan Pillay and Richard Pithouse, ‘The Durban march on the UN Conference on Racism: An eyewitness report’, New Internationalist online, September 2001. See www.newint.org.
11 Ashwin Desai, The Poors of Chatsworth (Johannesburg: Madiba, 2001.
12 Ashwin Desai, The Poors of Chatsworth (Johannesburg: Madiba, 2001).
13 Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000).
4: the church of stop shopping
1 Facts compiled by Shape Up America (www.shapeup.org) – and the New Road Map Foundation (www.ecofuture.org).
2 Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America (New York: Eagle Brook, 1999).
3 New Road Map Foundation, op. cit.
4 Allan Casey, ‘Make your school an ad-free zone’, Adbusters, No. 28, 2000.
5 David Bollier, ‘The Grotesque, Smirking Gargoyle: The Commercialising of America’s Consciousness’, August 2002: see www.tompaine.com.
6 Sharon Beder, ‘Marketing to Children’, edited from a conference paper presented in Sydney in 1998. Available at: www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/children.html.
7 Bollier, op. cit.
8 Todd Halvorson and Yuri Karash, ‘Russia takes the lead in space-age advertising’, www.space.com, 31 May 2002.
9 New Road Map Foundation, op. cit.
10 David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald, ‘Well-being Over Time in Britain and the USA’, paper, Dartmouth College and Warwick University, 1999.
11 Lasn, op. cit.
12 Quoted in Edward Goldsmith, ‘Development as Colonialism’, in Mander and Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against the Global Economy (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996).
13 ‘Is globalisation doomed?’, The Economist, 27 September 2001.
14 Katharine Ainger, ‘Empires of the senseless’, New Internationalist, April 2001.
15 See www.billboardliberation.com.
16 A recommended gallery of recent and classic subverts can be found at www.subvertise.org.
17 Adbusters, No. 40, 2002.
18 See www.fanclubbers.org.
19 Katharine Ainger, ‘From the streets of Prague’, New Internationalist online: see www.newint.org/streets/prague.htm.
20 See www.rtmark.com.
21 Quoted in ‘Filtering the news’, New Internationalist, April 2001.
22 Lasn, op. cit.
23 Quoted in Kim Masters, The Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip (New York: Morrow, 2000).
24 Neil Hickey, ‘Unshackling big media’, Columbia Journalism Review : see www.cjr.com.
25 Quoted in Ainger, ‘Empires of the senseless’, op. cit.
26 Ibid.
27 Matthew Arnison, ‘Open publishing is the same as free software’, June 2002: see www.cat.org.au/maffew/cat/openpub.html.
5: the penis go
urd revolution
1 This estimate is widely quoted by human-rights campaigners, including John Rumbiak, head of West Papua’s leading human-rights organisation, ELS-HAM.
2 The imprisoned Swiss journalist, Oswald Iten, wrote of his experience, and of the torture he witnessed, in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung on 22 December 2000.
3 Throughout this chapter, people referred to by first names only have had their identities disguised, for obvious reasons.
4 According to the AFL-CIO union’s ‘Executive PayWatch’. See www.aflcio.org.
5 Many of these facts and figures can be found in Project Underground’s 1998 report Risky Business: The Grasberg Gold Mine – An Independent Annual Report on PT Freeport Indonesia (available on the web at www.moles.org). Others can be found in Abigail Abrash and Danny Kennedy, ‘Repressive Mining in West Papua’, in Moving Mountains: Communities Confront Mining and Globalisation (London: Zed Books, 2001); on Freeport McMoran’s website (www.fcx.com) and in the company’s 2001 annual report.
6 John McBeth, ‘Bull’s eye’, Far Eastern Economic Review, 4 December 1997, quoted in Risky Business, ibid.
7 Van Zorge Report on Indonesia, 1 May 2001.
8 President Harry S. Truman, Inaugural Address, 20 January 1949.
9 Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890–1945 (New York: Hill & Wang, 1982).
10 ‘Trifungisi: The Role of the Indonesian Military in Business’, paper presented by Lesley McCulloch to the International Conference on Soldiers in Business, Jakarta, 17–19 October 2000. Available at www.bicc.de.
11 Ibid.
12 Risky Business, op. cit., p. 7.
part 2: many yeses
6: the end of the beginning
1 Philippe Legrain, Open World: The Truth About Globalisation (London: Abacus, 2002).
2 ‘A different manifesto’, The Economist, 27 September 2001.