O O Ø O O O O
G8 Hit ’n’ Run
There has been much talk of the G8 protests, some of it from this very podium. One generally valid media criticism of the protesters is they’re disorganized, riotous, and have no common, discernible position besides being anti-globalization.
The recent demonstrations in Calgary have proven that these contra-G8 groups can be quite organized, restrained and coherent. True to Cowtown’s no-horseshit M.O., no windows were broken, no businesses disrupted, and no one got gassed.
In the same vein as the Calgary school of disciplined, civil disobedience, here’s a little more clarity on some important values:
Anti-Globalization
This is an unfortunate term, as it only defines this loosely-knit group by what they’re against, namely multinational supra-legal über-corporations. There is no positive position name for this (like when we use the term pro-choice, rather than anti-abortion,) because these groups cut through a wide swath of different topics. Typically, they get additionally labelled as the new left, which is even more unfortunate because although some of the issues are favourite stomping grounds for left wing politicos, many of the topics have nothing to do with the anachronistic duality of left versus right.
I am anti-G8, but not because I don’t believe in a responsible, open global community. I’m anti-G8 simply because I’m against foreign policy in any form. This obviously doesn’t make me left wing, but I do share a common concern with many others across the protest spectrum. Corporations with billions of dollars in their war chests and nation states at their knees are granted all the privileges of individual human beings, legally, plus the added bonus of immortality. Corporations outlive their creators and begin to behave like any of us would if granted an infinite lifespan: acting out and cleaning up on long term investments.
We take this idea of companies as legal persons for granted, but is it necessarily a permanent condition? Perhaps the verdict and sentence against Arthur Anderson is the first salvo in a battle to bring corporate powers more in line with those of individuals.
This does not make me left wing.
I believe in individual responsibility, open market capitalism and freedom, freedom, freedom. The immense powers of the multinats work counter to these goals. What we have now isn’t free market capitalism. It’s more like corporate feudalism. The worthwhile struggle is not only to devolve power from the state to individuals, but to get it away from the corporate robber-barons as well.
The Apparatus
Summits go hand in hand with one of two things: either cries of police brutality, or overspending on security. This is a no win situation for the authorities, because the lack of one leads to the other. My spin is this: if I’m Billy Policeman, and I’m being besieged by throngs of incensed protesters, I’m probably going to be a little twitchy. I just want to get home to see my wife and piglets children. I’m just doing my job.
I’m just following orders.
“I’m just following orders.” is never a valid excuse. That statement is the bedrock on which terrible, horrible policies are founded. We can all imagine where this can ultimately lead. If I find myself in a situation where I have to justify my actions with this statement, it“s time to quit at the very next available Tuesday.
The other side of the coin is if I’m Moon Unit, a filthy, unshowered Johnny Protester, who is just engaging in constitutional dissent, who unwittingly gets nailed in the gut by a tear gas cannister. (Hard to believe we’re talking about Kanada here, isn’t it?)
“I wasn’t doing anything!” Sure I wasn’t. Was I adding my voice to an increasingly agitated crowd? Were there cars being overturned or did it look like they were about to be? If I didn’t get the hell out of Dodge the moment it started getting nasty, then I pretty much deserved that billy club to the nads, since it’s virtually impossible for the riot goons to distinguish the individuals from the mass of the mob.
Claiming that “I didn’t do anything,” while still participating in an aggressive group... well, we can see how leaky that argument is. Do cops attack completely unprovoked? Maybe. I’m sure they’re not above it, but I’m uncertain they have orders from above to do so. Who wants that on the front page of the fish wrap? Aside from the protesters, of course.
I repudiate any argument that depends on the authority of the group: either the controlling cops, or the protesting parties.
Child Poverty
In Africa, and a good chunk of Asia, this is probably a significant problem. In Canada, however, this is simply lying with statistics. The low-income level is not the poverty line. Stop treating it as such.
Stop meddling.
African Poverty
We can’t help Africa: they have to pull themselves up. However, we can’t keep using the so-called Dark Continent as a dumping ground and ready market for unwanted munitions and weaponry. Stop meddling.
Corporate Welfare
Multinats play hopscotch across the globe, landing on the countries that have the most suitable regulatory regime for their purposes. This does not mean we should pursue these regimes: their populations have to do that. What we have to do is bring the multinats back down to a human scale by doing two things. first, revoke their immortality. Companies are useful for organizing resources to accomplish a task beyond the scale of the individual. They function sort of like self-contained labour and capital markets, which accounts for quite a bit of the efficiency some companies achieve. But where is the need to live forever?
Second, stop buying their stuff.
Don’t work for these bastards, and for heaven’s sake, stop buying their stuff.
McJobs
This is the problem where young people get stuck in meaningless jobs such as those at McDonald’s, Starbucks and Chapters. Since the jobs are originally targeted at teenagers and part-timers attending school, the companies treat them as temporary, supplementary-income positions. They’re not considered serious careers, so the usual job perks such as health care and benefits don’t apply. The problem is, these teenagers and part-timers are increasingly staying at their McJobs well into their twenties and beyond. They claim a lack of opportunities to move into their chosen fields, exasperated by a hand-to-mouth minimum wage existence. The solution, rather than petitioning the multinats to grant boons to their employees (benefits are just companies spending their employees’ money for them), is for these employees to quit their jobs, get the Fear, and move on with their lives. Stop working for these bastards.
And we should stop buying their stuff.
That’s a pretty good round up of some contemporary issues that get lumped together as anti-global. For further details beyond the scope of a typical Tuesday, try Naomi Klein’s No Logo.
And don’t let anyone tell you she’s the new left.
Evan Spence
Tuesday, July 2, 2002
PD DLIV