Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Report on the World Development Movement campaign launch

anarchist606 | 10.11.2000 12:34

The event was massively attended and oversubscribed. This event was to launch a campaign against the GATS agreement due to be introduced in 2002. GATS are the way the WTO is planning on opening up areas such as health, water and education to corporate interests.

Report on the World Development Movement (WDM www.wdm.org.uk) campaign launch against the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) London, 9/11/00

The event was massively attended and oversubscribed. This event was to launch a campaign against the GATS agreement due to be introduced in 2002. GATS are the way the WTO is planning on opening up areas such as health, water and education to corporate interests.

First up was George Monbiot, author of ‘Captive State’ and Guardian Writer. He talked about the GATS, about how they are linked to the fuel protests. His point was that in a market economy, if the truckers found their costs higher they pass this increase on to their customers (supermarkets etc..). They can't because there is too much competition around, if they passed the costs on, another firm would snap up the contract. Why is there too much competition? Because the Road Haulage Association have been lobbying for bigger trucks on the roads (bad for environment & damage roads!) and so bigger trucks means less are needed, hence the smaller haulage firms are in trouble. Why would the Road Haulage Association lobby for big trucks if would damage it’s members interests? Because the association is dominated by a few Trans-national haulage firms and those connected to supermarkets etc..

Then Naomi Klein, author of ‘No Logo’ spoke. She talked of the GATS and of how they will effect us. To underline it she talked of assaults on the Canadian (and UK ideal) that everyone should be entitled to free healthcare, about how the Canadian national health service and open education system is under assault from the commercial sector. Under GATS this would get worse. She also talked of and I think it’s an important point, trying to build something positive out of the movement. It’s one thing to be against stuff, but we also need to be for something.

The final speaker was Jessica Woodfoffe. of the WDM. She gave 3 reasons why GATS suck:
1. The ‘trade and services’ definitions cover basic commodities that should not be subject to a free market such as healthcare, water and education.
2. They limit and countries attempts to block corporate programs. For example say you planned to build 3 hotels in a region, GATS could force the building of as many hotels as corporations wanted, regardless of Eco-tourism, local consent, community rights etc.
3. GATS is FOREVER. Once implemented, they cannot be reversed, no matter what subsequent governments/communities decide.

Then there were questions from the floor. I’ll only mention a couple. George Monbiot was asked why he attacked the Mayday protestors in a Guardian article. His response was that the issues this movement is dealing with are too important to be messed up and that part of what the movement is about is free speech, thus it’s his right to criticise what he disagrees with.

One other point that was raised is that what’s happening in Hackney (www.indymedia.org.uk) is going to be happening here soon.

A lady asked, about developing countries and expressed her fear that in attacking things like GATS/WTO stuff could we not be hampering the development of the third world. Naomi Klien responded by saying that GATS served corporate interests only. Other speakers gave relevant examples such as the privatising of water supply in rural Mozambique. The rational behind this being “if people want water enough, they’ll find away of buying it.” This was attacked as offering some of the poorest people in the world a choice or food or water, but they cant afford both.

In summary, GATS aren’t due to be ratified till 2002. When they do that’s it. Now is the time to mobilise and stop this. From fighting PFI in our communities to stopping the WTO and building on what has been gained, this is the big struggle of the 21st century and it’s up to use to stop it.

anarchist606
- e-mail: anarchist606@hushmail.com
- Homepage: www.wdm.org.uk

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. GATS must be stopped — Anna
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech