MIM NOTES No. 201 January 1, 2000 People's Assembly brings oppressed nations' anti-imperialism to Seattle Seattle, November 28-29 More than two hundred people attended the International People's Assembly. The People's Assembly was a conference aimed at exposing the disastrous effects of imperialism on the peoples of the world and forging unity between anti-imperialist groups. The conference focused on the WTO and put forward the slogan, "No to the WTO!" MIM recognizes the progressive character of this slogan in oppressed nations, while we argue that it should not be put forward in the imperialist countries, where it will be co- opted by reactionary class forces (see article inside this issue). Many of the delegates and the majority of the speakers were from oppressed nations, such as the Philippines, Thailand, south Korea, and Honduras. Participants in the People's Assembly also marched in the streets of Seattle on November 30, despite being denied a permit. At a time when the imperialists in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and imperialist-friendly, so-called critics of the WTO were busy spinning all kinds of fairy tales, the People's Assembly put forward the correct perspective that the WTO is principally the tool of a few imperialist powers to force open foreign markets while protecting their home markets. As a particularly pressing example of this, the conference paid particular attention to the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA), which brought agriculture under the jurisdiction of the WTO. As MIM wrote in 1995, speaking of the GATT agreement which created the WTO: "If the internationalist bourgeoisie has its way, much of the agricultural production of foodstuffs in the Third World may cease because of competition from the United States. Instead, the imperialists always want the Third World countries to focus on exotic cash-crops for export instead of food for their people. The imperialists would like the masses to forget that the money made from exports goes into the pockets of the rich and does not go to buying grain to stop starvation. "The removal of tariffs against U.S. grain and fodder crops will allow for an increasing ability of the United States to destroy national and local food systems within Third World countries and to replace them with an economy of dependence on U.S. grain, and post-harvest 'value-added' food. This would not be possible if the economies were run by the dictatorship of the proletariat in alliance with the peasantry. Instead, these governments are run by imperialist puppets who benefit from selling out their countries. With few exceptions, comprador governments allow as much U.S. and other imperialist domination as they can impose. "As a result this GATT will create additional incentives for Third World countries to direct their agriculture towards forms of agriculture that do not compete in U.S. dominated grain/fodder markets. Thus as has happened in the past, Brazil will grow soybeans for Japanese cattle production but not black beans; Mexico will grow broccoli for the United States, but not corn and beans for its own people. In essence domestic/national food economies will be replaced by export-oriented ones at the expense of autonomy." Speakers also focused on the effect of the policies pushed by the WTO on wimmin. Liza Maza, secretary general of the Filipino wimmin's organization GABRIELA, stated, in part: "As our meagre family income is further reduced, our husbands are forced to leave our villages in search of jobs. Many do not return, leaving us women on our own to keep the rest of the family alive. Our working hours are doubled or tripled to augment our income and find food for the children. "Many of us are likewise forced to leave for the urban areas and even other countries in the hope of finding jobs. Some of us end up being victimized by labor and sex traffickers. A number have prostituted themselves as unwilling commodities in the sex trade. "To make matters worse, the collusion among the imperialist powers, the local ruling elite and the state that they dominate, goes beyond the economic sphere. To stifle peoples' opposition and to protect monopoly capital business interests, the state unleashes its military and paramilitary forces against the men, women and communities resisting globalization. Militarist aggression is the imperialists' and the states' answer to legitimate peoples' demands." Differences between oppressor and oppressed nations Among people here in Amerika who recognize and oppose the terrible exploitation and oppression the peoples in the colonies suffer at the hands of the imperialists, there is a temptation to organize people here around the same issues and in the same manner. But this is not always appropriate. Asking "how does the WTO affect people in the imperialist countries" is not the most appropriate question to ask when looking to organize anti-imperialist resistance here. For example, the heavily subsidized Amerikan farm sector benefits from being able to dump its product abroad; it is not the target of dumping. Among the imperialist-country labor aristocracies, opposition to imperialism does not involve immediate economic interests; environmental and anti-militarist interests play large roles. MIM was happy to see that in the keynote address and several other presentations, the People's Assembly spoke out against so-called labor leaders in the imperialist countries who stoke up chauvinism by promoting the myth that Third World workers are stealing imperialist-country workers' jobs. This chauvinism is very dangerous in the imperialist countries, as it lays the groundwork for fascism and war. In the united $tates, such chauvinism is also responsible for violence against people from Asian, Latin American, and other Third World countries. For its part MIM spends considerable time rebutting the opponents of NAFTA, GATT, WTO, etc. who support the labor aristocracy. We know that oppressor- nation nationalism plays no progressive role. On the other hand, in oppressed nations, economic nationalism is an objectively progressive phenomenon. In oppressed nations, there is a national bourgeoisie which is threatened by the WTO and which can be led by the proletariat in an anti-imperialist direction. And in countries like the Philippines, proletarian-led revolutionaries are closer to seizing state power than we are. Although our tactics and strategies differ according to our different material conditions, our goals are the same. The imperialists drive the workers and peasants of the colonies and neo-colonies ever deeper into absolute impoverishment and prevent them from managing their own affairs for their own benefit. The imperialists are the biggest culprits wreaking environmental devastation, which knows no borders. The imperialists bring about wars and may even end the humyn species in a nuclear conflagration. The best thing people in the imperialist countries can do to end this disastrous state of affairs is to support the national liberation struggles of the colonies and neo-colonies and prepare for socialist revolution here in the belly of the beast. We stand united with the participants of the People's Assembly in the recognition that what actually determines what happens under the WTO is not the law, but the class and national struggles of people against imperialism.