After Seattle, What?

Mike Prokosch coordinates the globalization program at Boston's United for a Fair Economy.

"We are rooted in a belief that a desirable, just world is one directly controlled by the people. We reject capital-dictated government and all forms of discrimination. We will not be controlled by corporations and militaries, nor by their insidious propaganda. We must reclaim our power of self-determination and realize a truly equal society.

"When we look around we see immense talent, compassion, and potential. We can use these tools to structure our lives to the benefit of the planet and its peoples. In the past few years we've seen our actions gain momentum as a swelling movement against global capitalism, corporate domination, and falsely democratic political structures. We are rising up, and we are getting things done."

That isn't rhetoric. It's a precise description of what was happening in the streets of Seattle. A new movement was born out of many movements in Seattle. Now the many-leveled challenge is to help it grow:

. The challenge of strategy. While a brand new poll shows 83% opposing trade agreements that do not include labor and environmental standards,we don't have a strategy, either in the US or globally.

. The challenge of coordination. There are promising examples--the Steelworkers-Earth First partnership, and an Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment; DAN is going continental. The challenge remains to pull together labor, environmental, student, religious, peace, and solidarity groups nationwide.

By default, the initiative is local. In city after city, activists are bringing together the diverse movements that put Seattle on the front page. One such experiment is in Boston, where United for a Fair Economy and the new Global Action Network are taking on:

. The challenge of the teachable moment. Millions of Americans heard about the WTO and corporate globalization for the first time. Now they're asking for more. It's an opening for economics education on a massive scale. United for a Fair Economy has a short workshop, "WTO for Beginners," which we will present in Cambridge Feb. 8, with a leadership training Feb. 13. There are tailored versions for labor, religious, and student audiences. Contact us for information. We want to work with groups in New England and nation-wide. Some very important protests are coming up in Washington, DC, April 9-16, against the IMF and World Bank

. The challenge of labor and environmental standards. President Clinton's attempt to push them through the WTO met with a united "No!" from governments of the global South, and helped scuttle the Seattle talks.

Clearly, two stories are unfolding in the global economy today. One story is racism. North vs South--conspicuous consumption here while half the world lives on less than $2 a day. The other story is corporations vs wage-earners--a clear class struggle. These two stories collided in Seattle. On the streets, corporations were the universal enemy. Inside the WTO meeting, elites from the global South finally rebelled against the US's remarkably arrogant trade minister, Charlene Barshefsky. But some from those elites lumped us outsiders together with Ms. Barshefsky. To them, we're all Northern racists who are trying to shove labor and environmental standards down their throats. Neither story is the story. Neither is the right line. Both are real for billions of people.

At present, three billion people live on less than $2 a day. They have to take anything that keeps them alive, even if they are exploited on the job and poisoned at home. In the future, our common interests overcome giant transnational corporations so that "freedom is a fact and economic, social, and ecological persecution are mere fossils in our history," in DAN's words.

In Boston, we have an idea for opening a tiny breach in the present to let in the future. We're pairing activists North and South. A local union, say, will select one person to correspond with a Brazilian union militant, compare realities, name their different social conditions and their conflicting interests. Then they'll look for common ground and ways to support one another. Meanwhile, they will be reporting back to their respective unions. A broad dialogue will begin--one we will take to our whole network by comparing conversations students and environmentalists are simultaneously having.

Through dialogue and action we hope to pull together the global movements. Our actions can attack the structures of injustice afflicting the South--the Northern wealth and power crystallized in global institutions and corporations, accumulated in centuries of slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism, and corporate globalization. Those are some of our ideas. More are developing daily. We plan to spread them nationwide and to learn from other cities' experiments. Contact us: United for a Fair Economy; 617/423-2148 x 24; <mikeprok@ziplink.net>