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THE VILLAGE POLITICS OF THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON GLOBALIZATION
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By Harry Westerink
In 1999 the Dutch anti-racist organisation "De Fabel van de illegaal" ("the
myth of illegality") quit the international campaign against the MAI and
the WTO. Within the struggle against "globalization" and "free trade"
coalitions were being formed with organisations working from a nationalist
or even New Right ideology. The IFG plays a central role in building these
coalitions. It is widely known that their founder Goldsmith is a New Right
ideologist, but what political positions are taken by other IFG-members?
The IFG network consists of some 60 activists, researchers and
opinion-leaders, representing 40 non-governmental organizations (NGO's)
from 20 countries. Their first meeting was back in 1994, during the
struggle against the North American "free trade" treaty NAFTA. "A complete
reorganization of the world's economic and political activity was underway,
and with it the effective takeover of global governance by transnational
corporations and the international trade bureaucracies that they
established", the IFG wrote. The IFG network quickly became an influencial
elite think tank for developing strategies against "the uncontrolled global
capital".
Reactionary worldview
The radical Left wants to end capaitalism on a world scale and replace it
by a system which satifies needs. State and capital are seen as two sides
of the same coin; it is nonsense to take sides with any of the two. And,
liberation is not something to be delivered by some elite, but will have to
come from below.
The IFG, on the other hand, wants to reinforce states to be able to harness
the "international" capital. "Local" or "national" capital in their eyes
does not seem to be a problem. Therefore, "from global to local", became
the IFG battle slogan. The IFG's reactionary view of humanity and the world
furthermore characterizes itself by its desire for the good old times, by a
desire for a back-to-nature politics like the sociobiologists, by an
incredible lack of anti-patriarchal criticism and by a reluctance to any
form of technology.
The IFG loves its image of "not Right, not Left", because in that way they
can mobilize as many people as possible for their campaigns. They build up
contacts with conservatives and even the far Right. Every opponent of "free
trade" and "globalization" is, in principle, a political friend.
Neo-Malthusian money
The radical Left wants to build a just and equal society. That's a
political choice. The Left cannot call on "nature" or "natural laws" to
prove that its choices are right. By itself, there are no norms or values
in nature.
Within IFG circles sociobiological ideas are common. That includes their
main sponsor, the Foundation for Deep Ecology (FDE). The FDE is a project
of Doug Tompkins, former owner of the clothing company Esprit. Tompkins
always was a ruthless fighter against trade unions in his companies. At the
end of the eighties he sold Esprit and together with Jerry Mander he
founded FDE. Since 1990 FDE gave at least 25 million dollar to NGO's active
on issues like biodiversity, organic farming, technology criticism and
population politics. Ironically, the FDE holds shares in companies that
promote the "economic globalization" that Tompkins argues against. The FDE
has financial interests in foreign banks and insurance, telephone and
television companies.
Deep ecology and its "biocentric ethics" are central to the FDE. But
biocentrism sometimes directly leeds to misanthropy, hating humanity. Dave
Forman for instance, one of the founders of the deep ecology organisation
Earth First, welcomed the Ethiopian famine as a natural method to reduce
the growth of the human population. Forman is Tompkins favorite ideologist.
Tompkins sponsored Forman's Wildlands Project designed to give more space
to the grizzly bear, and to reduce the North American human population by
one third. FDE also sponsors other neo-Malthusian projects. Multhus used to
say that the growth of the human population would increase hunger. He
proposed to stop hunger by destroying the poor.
Cancer cells
Also leading IFG-member David Korten endorses sociobiological ideas. This
influencial anti-globalization ideologist once was a student at Harvard
Business School and worked at the World Bank. Nowadays he is president of
the Positive Futures Network and the People-Centered Development Forum,
that also has branches in Europe. Within the IFG Korten's books are
compulsory reading. "When corporations rule the world" was partly financed
by Tompkins. Just like him, Korten also wants to reduce the world
population. From 6 to 2 billion, without clearly stating how.
According to Korten there are two realities. "One reality, the world of
money, is governed by the rules set by governments and central banks and by
the dynamics of financial markets. The other, the world of life, is
governed by the laws of nature." Just like Goldsmith Korten thinks in
totalitarian ecological terms. "The problem is not the market as such but
more specifically global capitalism, which is to a healthy market economy
what cancer is to a healthy body. Cancer occurs when genetic damage causes
a cell to forget that it is part of a larger body, the healthy function of
which is essential to its own survival. The cell begins to seek its own
growth without regard to the consequences for the whole, and ultimately
destroys the body that feeds it. As I learned more about the course of
cancer's development within the body, I came to realise that the reference
to global capitalism as a cancer is less a metaphor than a clinical
diagnosis of a pathology to which market economies are prone in the absence
of adequate citizen and governmental oversight." Korten's imagery comes
close to that of fascism.
Small scale capitalism
Some Left wing activists only struggle against capitalism. When that system
is gone, the patriarchal power relations will disappear automatically, they
think. History shows that's a fairy-tale. Korten believes in a similar
fairy-tale. Get rid of the global economy, he thinks, and all injustice
will vanish. According to him, a balanced, democratic and ecologically
sustainable society can only be based on a local economy. His ideal economy
is "composed primarily, though not exclusively, of family enterprises,
small-scale co-ops, worker-owned firms, and neighborhood and municipal
corporations". Just like the good old days, when everything was better.
"Rich and poor alike shared a sense of national and community interest",
Korten dreams together with other IFG-members. Nostalgically, they look
back to a fictitious golden age of local economies that never was. Such an
economy never existed. Capitalism has been international from the start.
Ford Foundation
The struggle against nationalism should be an important aspect of radical
Left resistance. By only serving the needs of fellow countrymen, political
organisations will drift to the Right. That is exactly what happened to
consumer and environmental organisation Public Citizen (PC), which is
represented in the IFG by Lori Wallach. PC struggles for the "average
American", who is being threatened by the "global economy". PC was
founded in 1971 by Ralph Nader and by now has 150.000 members. The
organisations is sponsored by the Ford Foundation. PC has a leading role in
the campaigns against the MAI and the WTO. In 1997 PC started the campaign
against the MAI by publishing the first draft of the treaty on their
internet website.
Very chauvinistic, PC emphasizes the dangers that are threatening the US
from abroad. It was stressed that NAFTA would make the import grow of
unclean Mexican products, and also of Canadian meat that is not carefully
examined. Nader often criticizes the power of big companies and the way
that money corrupts the American democracy. He remains completely silent,
however, on issues like abortion, homosexuality and migration. "Ralph Nader
may look like a democrat, smell like a populist, and sound like a socialist
- but deep down he's a frightened, petit bourgeois moralizer without a
political compass", says Tim Shorrock, who for a long time worked with
Nader.
'Our asshole'
Last autumn PC arranged an office in Seattle to coordinate the campaign
against the WTO summit. One of the organizers found out about "the back
door dealings that PC has with Pat Buchanan and Jesse Helms", two far Right
politicians. The PC-leadership told the astonished co-operator: "Buchanan
may be an asshole, but he's our asshole." Buchanan also admires Nader.
According to him, a couple of years ago Nader asked the managers of 100 big
American companies to show their loyalty to "the country that bred them,
built them, subsidized them and defended them". Nader asked them to bring a
tribute to the American flag at shareholder meetings. PC is probably
financed by billionaire and textile-tycoon Roger Milliken, who also
sponsores Buchanan, and earlier sponsored the far Right Barry Goldwater,
Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich. Milliken has got the money
and the experience to easily build a complete infrastucture for political
movements. PC and Milliken both deny nor acknowledge their financial ties.
Already in 1993 Millikin's lobbyist Jock Nash brought the followers of
Buchanan and Nader together on some anti-NAFTA strategy meetings. Nash
became well acquainted with the prominent PC-lobbyist Wallach. They became
political allies. The followers of Nader are calling their relationship
with Milliken "a tactical alliance". But according to others they also
share an ideology. "What is Lori Wallach's or Ralph Nader's positive agenda
for the global economy?", a trade union leader asked. "At times it seems to
me to be not that different from Buchanan's view."
Political illiterates
Whilst some of the American lobby-organisations display an almost paranoid
suspicion of foreign capital, the Canadian anti-globalization activists
are, on their turn, afraid of the import of American products and
investments in Canada. "Canadians began to see an increasingly large
proportion of the nation's wealth leaving the country to line the pockets
of foreign investors", says Canadian IFG-member Barlow. She continually
fosters Canadian nationalist feelings and apparently wants the Canadian
investors to get rich instead of their American colleagues.
Barlow is president of the 100.000 member Council of Canadians (COC) and
together with Tony Clarke wrote the book "MAI, the Multilateral Agreement
on Investment and the threat to Canadian sovereignty". The COC says it
resists "with a critical and progressive voice" the wholesale of Canada to
the American companies. "We are sleepwalking into a system of politics
foreign to our culture and our history", says Barlow. As if capitalism is
not an integral part of modern Canadian society.
"Big business' interest in our schools is symbolic of the Americanization
of Canadian education", Barlow writes. According to her Canada is adopting
"American-style individualism", "unabashed entrepreneurialism" and "a
culture of competitiveness". "Governments and peoples around the world are
increasingly concerned about global cultural homogenization in which the
world is dominated by American values and lifestyles, carried through the
massive U.S. entertainment-industrial complex." It is dubious to speak of
"the" national American character or a "typical" American economic system.
Many countries view culture as their richest heritage, according to
Barlow. Without this heritage "they have no roots, history or soul". Barlow
speaks of "the Canadian culture" which should be protected from "the
American culture". It is very unclear what, according to her, the contents
of these cultures are, what the differences between them are and why "the
Canadian culture" is supposed to be better than "the American culture".
"The very people who believe most in weak government and have the greatest
to gain from the destruction of federal power are promoting an agenda that
will be our undoing as a nation", says Barlow. By diminishing state power,
these Right wing politicians are supposedly putting the well-being of the
Canadian citizens at risk. Barlow thinks that is un-Canadian, because
Canadians supposedly like to see their country as "strong, caring and
united". Fighting proponents of "free trade" with an inflated Canadian
nationalism, that's what COC calls "progressive politics".
Buddhist paradise
The separation between state and church is one of the civil liberties that
has been gained in Europe, but only with blood, sweat and tears. It was an
important progression, when the power of the mighty church was broken and
people were allowed to think more freely. A great numer of
IFG-members, however, believe that religion can solve many of the current
problems. Take, for instance, prominent Buddhist IFG-member Helena
Norberg-Hodge. She puts a lot of energy into saving disappearing
"traditional societies" and "local cultures". In Norway she campaigned in a
coalition of Left and Right wing forces against becoming a member of the
European Union. She also founded the elite International Society for
Ecology and Culture (ISEC), that campaigns against "globalization".
Norberg-Hodge has been living in Ladakh in Northern India for years. That
region has a Buddhist culture, comparable to that of the Dalai Lama's
Tibet. In her book "Ancient futures" Norberg-Hodge writes about the
enormous changes in the lives of the Ladakhi, after they came into contact
with the west. "The story of Ladakh serves as a source of inspiration for
our own future. It shows us that another way is possible, and points to
some of the first steps towards kinder, gentler patterns of living",
according to the bookcover. Despite the rigorous climate and the harsh
environment, the Ladakhis were happy and contented for centuries, the Dalai
Lama writes in his foreword to "Ancient futures". According to
Norberg-Hodge everyone had enough food, and families and communities were
strong.
But the Ladakhi society is characterized by outspoken feudal-patriarchal
and religious-fundamental power relations. Norberg-Hodge acknowledges that
"traditional culture" is far from ideal."There was a lack of what we would
consider basic comforts, like heating in the freezing winter temperatures.
Communication with the outside world was limited. Illiteracy rates were
high; infant mortality was higher and life expectancy lower than in the
West." But, if you look at this society from the inside out, you start
looking at it differently, says Norberg-Hodge.
Patriarchal shamans
Norberg-Hodge strongly identifies herself with "local culture" and
considers it normal that shamans and astrologers take a central position in
everydag life. They decide for instance when to sow or harvest, when to
marry, and with whom.
She adheres to a sort of blood-and-soil theory. "The Ladakhis belong to
their place on earth. They are bonded to that place through intimate daily
contact, through a knowledge about their immediate environment with its
changing seasons, needs, and limitations. They are aware of the living
context in which they find themselves. The movement of the stars, the sun,
and moon are familiar rhythms that influence their daily activities."
Norberg-Hodge also doesn't mind that women are being excluded from the more
important religious functions and rituals. Only a man can become Dalai
Lama, the highest religious leader. The ultimate goal of all rituals is to
make the male religious leaders spiritually able to take in the female
principle. In that way they will supposedly be able to become ruler of the
universe.
"The role of the monasteries in Tibetan culture has often led people to
describe the society as feudal. Initially, I too assumed that the
relationship between the monasteries and the rest of the population was an
exploitative one. Some monasteries own a lot of land, which is worked by
the village as a whole. There are also farmers who, in addition to their
own land, cultivate monastery fields in return for some of the yield", says
Norberg-Hodge. But according to her, the monasteries also offer "real
economic benefit" in the form of "social security".
Norberg-Hodge speaks adoringly on "the process of give and take between the
monastery and village". In fact, however, the Buddhist monasteries have an
enormous worldly wealth and spiritual power, which they can use to keep the
villagers obedient.
Technophobia
In a capitalist and hierarchical society technology is developed to support
profit making and social control. But, technology can also serve resistance
and liberation and can be applied striving for justice and equality.
In IFG circles criticism of technology often ends up as technophobia, as is
the case with Jerry Mander. According to him, technology has the most
powerful influence on our society. Technology is intruding on our
consciousness and is taking every next generation further away from nature
by locking us in a purely techological environment.
According to Mander modern technology leads us to "the greatest setback" of
democracy in history. He speaks of a "conspiracy of technical structures",
and believes that "the megatechnology" is causing the problems of the
world. But he puts the situation on its head. The capitalist and
patriarchal power relations are at the roots of the type of technology that
is now destroying humanity and nature. First those power relations should
disappear. Only then, in a liberated society, technological advance can
really be in the service of humanity.
Just like Korten, Mander looks back with melancholy to the life of former
generations that was supposedly not diluted by consumerism and technology.
His technophobia is even enhanced by his middleclass position. He obviously
does not need to make dirty hands and so he thinks he doesn't need any
technological appliances. But in the course of history technology has in
fact helped humanity a lot to make our existence more bearable.
Contradiction
All around the world, at congress after congress, meeting after meeting, on
paper and digital, IFG-members preach their message: we should go back to
the village, back to nature, back to life as it used to be. The IFG village
politics are simple: keep it small, withdraw yourself, revive the days when
everyone was happy and knew his place, when the community still offered
certainty and safety.
However, there's one problem: those days and that life never existed and so
they will never come back. A struggle for a society without exploitation
and oppression cannot go together with a reactionary nostalgia for some
good old times. Because back then, just like today, society was defined by
patriarchal, and feudal or capitalist power relations.
Harry Westerink is a member of the dutch anti-racist organisation "De Fabel
van de illegaal"
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geocities.com/capitolhill)