Fred's
Diary
-
2003
Sep
13
[Talk: Fair Trade and Peace]
[March protesting behaviour of WTO]
[10:00am,
Uniting
Church,
264
Pitt
St,
Sydney]
[These
are
my
paraphrased
notes
from
the
talk,
not
direct
quotes
--
Fred]1st
Speaker:
Geoff
Atkinson
(Engineer,
assoc.
with
Oxfam/Community-Aid-Abroad)
- WTO
rules
are
weighted
in
favour
of
developed
countries
--
equal
access
to
markets
sounds
fair,
but
developed
countries
skew
this
heavily
subsidising
their
farmers
[the
statistic
being
bandied
about
is
around
$1
billion
per
day
--
Fred]
- Richer
countries
have
double
standards,
dumping
subsidised
crops
on
developing
countries
while
restricting
imports
from
developing
countries.
Examples:
- The
cost
of
sugar
production
in
the
EU
[European
Union]
is
about
3
times
that
of
Mozambique.
EU
tariffs
discourage
the
import
of
sugar
from
Mozambique.
Heavily
subsidised
EU
sugar
floods
the
market
and
pushes
down
the
price
that
poor
countries
like
Mozambique
receive
for
their
sugar
exports.
- Subsidised
corn
from
the
USA
floods
the
Mexican
market,
affecting
the
livelihood
of
3
million
farmers
and
about
15
million
other
Mexicans
connected
with
the
corn
industry.
- Subsidised
rice
from
the
USA
in
Haiti.
[Some
details
found
on
another
site:
The
IMF
forced
Haiti
to
open
to
imports
of
highly
subsidized
U.S.
rice
at
the
same
time
as
it
banned
Haiti
from
subsidizing
its
own
farmers.
Between
1980
and
1997,
rice
imports
grew
from
virtually
zero
to
200,000
tons
a
year,
at
the
expense
of
domestically
produced
staples.
Haitian
farmers
were
forced
off
their
land
to
seek
work
in
sweatshops,
and
people
are
worse
off
than
ever:
according
to
the
IMF
's
own
figures,
50
percent
of
Haitian
children
younger
than
5
suffer
from
malnutrition
and
per
capita
income
has
dropped
from
around
$600
in
1980
to
$369
today.]
Atkinson:
when
the
price
of
rice
later
rose
again,
the
local
rice
industry
had
been
crippled
and
Haiti
was
locked
into
imports.
- Cows
in
Europe
are
subsidised
more
each
day
($2)
than
what
1
billion
people
in
developing
countries
live
on.
- Corporate
rights
are
put
ahead
of
the
human
rights
of
the
poor.
After
South
African
passed
laws
to
override
patent
rights
to
provide
AIDS
drugs
to
its
citizens,
Pharmaceutical
companies
attempted
to
sue
the
South
African
government.
The
rights
of
South
Africa
to
override
the
patents
were
later
granted,
but
the
USA
has
blocked
the
right
of
South
Africa
to
import
cheap
versions
of
drugs
from
other
developing
countries
like
India
which
have
are
better
able
to
manufacture
them.
- Mr.
Atkinson
favours
reform
of
the
WTO,
as
opposed
to
abandoning
it,
which
would
leave
individual
countries
to
make
their
own
arrangements,
allowing
the
developed
countries
to
keep
bullying
the
developing
world.
2nd
Speaker:
Dr
Rev
Ann
Wansbrough
(Uniting
Care)- On
the
theme
of
trade
and
peace:
- Injustice
creates
a
climate
for
war.
- The
behaviour
between
nations
in
negotiations
(including
trade
negotiations)
--
how
they
intimidate,
threaten,
ignore
one
another
--
would
be
called
domestic
violence
if
translated
to
arena
of
the
family
- Issues
of
control,
power,
access
to
resources
and
land
are
the
subject
of
both
war
and
trade.
What
was
once
accomplished
by
colonization
is
now
accomplished
by
other
means,
including
trade.
- In
Australia
and
many
other
countries
there
is
a
tradition
of
government
services,
where
the
community
takes
collective
responsibility
for
care
of
one
another,
holding
elected
officials
accountable.
This
is
threatened
by
trade
agreements
which
force
these
services
to
be
open
to
companies.
- Corporations
like
contracts
and
dislike
regulation.
This
threatens
lives
when
vital
services
like
the
provision
of
water
or
health
services
are
concerned
--
if
people
can't
afford
the
service
they
die.
The
provision
of
health
should
be
driven
by
need,
not
by
the
health
dollar.
Emphasis
on
profit
in
vital
services
distorts
lives
and
increases
the
gap
between
the
rich
and
the
poor.
- Ms.
Wansbrough
said
she
found
it
embarrassing
as
a
white
person
from
a
developed
country
to
try
explaining
the
WTO
to
people
in
tiny
Pacific
countries,
some
with
populations
under
100,000.
- WTO
rules
need
to
be
formulated
from
the
point
of
view
of
the
poorest
countries,
the
welfare
of
their
people
and
their
sovereignty.
Otherwise,
the
WTO
is
just
a
modern
weapon.
3rd
Speaker:
Sally
Mcmanus
(Australian
Services
Union)- In
Australia
and
many
developed
countries
there
is
a
minimum
wage
and
employers
have
obligations
to
employees.
In
many
developing
countries
this
is
not
so,
and
that's
bad
for
local
workers
(racing
downhill
in
competition
with
workers
without
rights)
and
bad
for
the
workers
without
rights,
e.g.
lack
of
limits
on
working
hours;
about
43
million
women
work
in
factories
where
unions
are
forbidden
and
they're
likely
to
be
sacked
if
they
get
pregnant.
- GATS
agreements
on
water/rail/health/education
services
are
not
open
to
public
scrutiny,
and
virtually
force
developing
countries
to
open
these
services
to
private
companies.
- Other
stuff
not
particularly
related
to
trade
(Costello's
Charities
Act
allows
the
government
to
pressure
charities
not
to
comment
on
government
policies
;
increase
in
monopolies
;
Corrigan
has
fingers
in
ports
/
rail
/
Virgin
Blue)
Question
time- Geoff
Atkinson:
States
must
have
the
ability
to
deliver
on
human
rights.
States
must
cooperate
to
improve
the
situation
in
those
states
less
able
to
deliver
on
human
rights.
- Someone
from
AFTINET:
A
trade
dispute
under
WTO
rules
goes
to
a
trade
panel
closed
to
public
scrutiny
--
not
an
approriate
forum
for
resolving
issues
of
public
interest.
- Geoff
Atkinson:
The
WTO
threatens
SPARTECA
(South
Pacific
Regional
Trade
and
Economic
Cooperation
Agreement),
a
regional
agreement
allowing
countries
like
PNG
duty-free
access
for
their
products
to
Australia
and
New
Zealand.
- (Possibly)
Dr
Gillian
Deakin
(Medical
Assoc
for
the
Prevention
of
War):
The
action
by
Pharmaceutical
companies
against
South
Africa
over
production
of
AIDS
drugs
was
effectively
attempted
genocide.
51
of
the
largest
economies
in
the
world
are
multinational
companies
--
they
should
be
invited
into
the
UN
and
made
liable
to
enforce
human
rights.
- Geoff
Atkinson:
Corporations
have
a
weakness
--
their
good
reputations
(c.f.
Nestle
30
years
ago).
The
Pharmaceutical
companies
backed
down
in
the
South
African
case
partly
because
they
did
not
want
to
be
publicly
associated
with
the
deaths
that
would
have
resulted.
Employees
working
for
large
companies
get
discouraged
if
they
perceive
themselves
to
be
working
for
the
"bad
guys",
e.g.
SHELL
morale
after
the
Brent
Spar
incident.
I
turned
up
a
the
Town
Hall
steps
around
2pm,
but
couldn't
work
out
where
people
were
meant
to
be
gathering.
About
2:15pm,
I
heard
someone
with
a
PA
system
nearby
and
went
to
investigate.
A
small
group
was
spouting
dogma
at
passers-by
--
one
of
the
sentences
ran
"This
model
of
exploitation
[something]
exacerbated
[something]
entrenched
[something]
belies",
so
convoluted
I'd
forgotten
it
before
I
could
dig
out
a
scrap
of
paper.
Whatever
the
group's
aims
were,
they
didn't
include
communication.As
I
turned
around
disheartened
to
give
up
and
go
home,
I
encountered
the
real
marchers
coming
along
Market
St
and
turning
into
George
St.
At
the
talk
earlier
that
day
I
was
one
of
the
younger
attendees
(I'm
39).
Among
the
marchers,
I
was
one
of
the
oldies.
The
dress
theme
was
Mexican
Day
of
the
Dead
(a
bit
early
-
the
festival
is
Nov
1),
with
costumes,
large
puppets
and
presumably
Mexican
music.
I
opened
a
pack
of
minties
I'd
brought
and
started
offering
them
to
the
people
carrying
skeleton
puppets
on
the
grounds
they
needed
to
put
on
weight.
The
march
continued
up
George
St
and
ended
up
sandwiched
between
King
St
and
the
previous
set
of
traffic
lights.
There
was
a
cutout
(Claratine?)
hayfever
gnome
with
the
caption
"The
WTO
is
bad
for
gnomes,
too!".
The
very
friendly
and
highly
amused
police
in
attendance
put
up
a
temporary
barrier
blocking
off
that
section
of
George
St
from
traffic,
and
the
protesters
basically
camped
there
and
had
a
street
party
for
a
couple
of
hours.
There
were
about
200
marchers
(estimate
from
memory).
I
parked
my
bottom
on
the
footpath
and
read
for
about
an
hour
amid
the
dancing
and
hackey
sack
/
footbag
game
(circle
of
people
try
to
keep
a
tiny
bag
airborne
via
kicks).
I
eventually
wandered
off
because
I
had
other
things
to
get
done
before
5pm.
