Activists Against Globalization:
The 4th Annual Asia-Pacific
People's Assembly
By Rick Mercier
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Activists Against Globalization:
By Rick Mercier |
| Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 16--As the leaders
of APEC nations prepared to converge on Kuala Lumpur for their annual summit,
representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGO's) met in Malaysia's
capital for the fourth annual Asia Pacific People's Assembly.
Assembly delegates had harsh criticisms of the neoliberal development model, which they say promotes a form of globalization that favors transnational corporations and national elites. The assembly also condemned the U.S. government for its support of "anti-people regimes sympathetic to American neoliberal policies." Broken Promise"Far from its promise of development, globalization has wrecked societies, destroyed economies and financial systems, destoyed production systems, resources and the environment, brought small entrepreneurs and producers to ruin, and has led to famine conditions in many countries in Asia and the Pacific," said a unity statement ratified by the assembly's 636 delegates, who represented 30 countries and more than 300 NGOs.The delegates cited "historic levels of joblessness," referring to the 26 million workers without jobs in Asia (excluding China and South Asia). The crisis of neoliberalism has set back the standard of living in some Asian nations by 20 years, according to delegates who participated in an assembly forum on migrant labor. A Variety of IssuesIndividual forums and workshops focused on issues ranging from human rights to indigenous peoples to the urban poor. Participants in a human rights forum denounced Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, where more than 200,000 people have died as a result of the Indonesian invasion and subsequent counterinsurgency operations. East Timor activists say that this holocaust could not have occurred without Western (and Japanese) complicity-most notably that of the United States, which provides the Indonesian military with the bulk of its arms and equipment. U.S. Marine and Army units-including ones based in Okinawa-also train regularly with their Indonesian counterparts.The new U.S.-Japan defense guidelines drew criticism from the Japanese delegation to the assembly. One Japanese delegate said that the United States and Japan are seeking to increase their political and military control over the Asia-Pacific region. Indigenous PeoplesParticipants in an indigenous women's workshop argued that neoliberal globalization "is the continuation of the colonization which we have suffered since the search for raw materials and markets for the industrialized world's economies started."Filipino indigenous activist Geraldine Fiagoy said that today there
is "a mad scramble by business to claim indigenous knowledge and resources."
Indigenous peoples are being pushed off their traditional homelands, and
these areas are opened up "for research and extraction by big business,"
she said.
UNFORTUNATELY
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