Reject APEC, build solidarity
The No to APEC Coalition is preparing for the November '97 Pacific rim leaders summit in Vancouver.Canada. Local organiser Luningning of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC) explains. • Why "No to APEC?"
The coalition includes over 50 grassroots organisations throughout Canada and the United States. We are saying No to APEC based upon marginalised people's experience with various 'free trade' agreements. Agreements like NAFTA here in North America, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). And, of course, the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the International Monetary
The lives of millions of people, in the Third World and in the industrialised contries of the North, have been negatively impacted by imperialist globalisation and its three elements of liberalisation, privatisation and deregulation. APEC is just one more manifestation of the whole globalisation process. So we really need to say No! to these free trade' agreements and Yes to building alternatives that will really satisfy people's needs and look at the needs of society as whole rather than looking at profits for corporations and continued imperialist control • What do you mean by "imperialist globalisation"?
The mass media basically say that globalisation is an inevitable process. That, because of the opening up of the world economy, countries have to compete with each other in the global market or "global village" So globalisation as a term has been popularised. But we want to use or popularise the term imperialist globalisation, because we see this process as neither benign nor inevitable. It is being pushed by the major imperialist powers in the world today - the US, Japan and Germany - to attempt to resolve the chronic crisis they find themselves in. So we in the Coalition speak of "imperialist globalisation" to address the root cause of who is really behind the globalisation process. • What kinds of organising is No! to APEC doing in Vancouver?
We come from various sectors like the women, youth and students, people of colour, migrant workers, etc. We are also made up of solidarity groups. As organisations, we have been doing various types of organising in British Colombia (Canada's West coast 18 International Viewpoint #293 province). But since we have come together in the spring of 1996, we have focused on educating in the community about APEC and sharing people's experiences about free trade since the inception of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA. Mostly through popular education workshops with community and individuals. We have also had a series of public meetings about APEC generally, and on specific topics, such as education, privatisation and globalisation and the impact on youth and students. We have also been putting out a monthly newsletter, which gives updates about what's happening in various cities across North America in opposition to APEC, reporting on our activities and on the Canadian government's plans for the summit and the APEC process. • A women's and children's pre-conference was held on June 13-15. What was achieved?
We had the theme Women and Children Resist Imperialist Globalisation, Women and Children Say No! to APEC. A lot of women's organisations have been involved in the Coalition since the very start — we actually grew out of a grass roots women's group in Vancouver. In our organising and education work, we have always recognised that the women's movement in Canada has been quite dynamic and quite strong. So we wanted to share our experience as women within the context of imperialist globalisation and put out our position that as women we are opposed to APEC and the process of imperialist globalisation.
We were able to involve over 100 women in the pre-conference, which was a real success. It was quite inspiring, too, to see a lot of young women looking for this political discussion and education and the opportunity to analyse their experience, not only as women, but as part of the marginalised people of Canadian society. Part of our objective in holding the conference was to build towards the November No to APEC conference. But we also wanted to draw on the strength of the women's movement. To really reclaim that militancy that has always been part of the tradition of the marginalised women's grass roots movement.
Hopefully we will continue to build international solidarity among women and children. We are hoping a lot of women ands children will be able to come from the third world to attend the People's Conference. • There will also be an international youth and students conference in November...
Youth and students have also been organising from the beginning. For example, I am a member of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance, based in Vancouver. As youth and students, we see the necessity to clearly grasp, analyse and reflect upon our experience as youth and students under the context of imperialist globalisation.
We have also come up with the position that we need to expose and oppose APEC. The government of Canada, as chair of the 1997 APEC summit, has chosen youth to be a special focus of activities this year. It's
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I recently participated in a discussion at the University where the APEC leaders summit will take place. There was a debate about the benefits for youth, The APEC side said, for example, under APEC a student based in Canada could go over to Hong Kong, set yourself up with a fax, modem, and cell phone in a studio loft and that's how you further your career opportunities.
They are trying to sell APEC as a means for youth and students to advance their individual interests rather than look more deeply and broadly at the process of APEC and how it impacts on the majority of people.
We are also hoping to reflect on what has been our history as a youth and students movement in Canada. How can we learn from the example of youth and students in the third world? And how can we build a strong youth and student movement here in British Columbia? • How does APEC affect workers in Canada and internationally?
In terms of the stated goal of APEC's Human Resource Development working group, they want to create a flexible labour force, which will be able to move freely from country to country. They want to facilitate the free flow, not only of goods and capital, but also of labour. Migrant workers become known as internationally shared human
In the North there is the impact of the out-migration of cheap labour from third world countries. And in both the third world and the industrialised countries, there are attacks upon workers' rights to organise, and attacks on job security. A more flexible work force is being created through the extension of part-time work and the growth of service
The same thing is happening in the social issues of the post-Cold War world.
Philippines. Private employment agencies specialise in five-month contracts: because after six months, under the Philippine Labour Code you are entitled to various benefits. Multinational corporations and Filipino capitalists are seeking to reduce their costs by avoiding paying these benefits. There is a general depression of labour because of the cheap supply available in the third world.
You still have the same type of exportoriented economies under APEC. But within the industrialised countres, the globalisation myth or the myth of free competition in the global marketplace is being used by corporations to downsize, to reduce wages, to again move towards more flexibalisation and contractualisation of labour. • How does the approach of your People s Conference differ from that of the People's Summit, the other 'civil society' event in Vancouver?
It you look back at the history of APEC, there have been parallel NGO summits since the beginning. But it was only in Manila last year, at a grass roots mass conference, the People's Conference Against Imperialist Globalısation, when the position was strongly put out that not only do we want to critique and say we are anti-APEC, but we want to reject APEC and say that APEC is only part of the imperialist globalisation process.
There is really no hope of reforming or toying with the idea that we can change APEC to put a more human face on it or saying if we critically collaborate with APEC we can get something out of it for marginalised people.
1 think the PCAIG last year and this year builds on the experiences of marginalised people, not only with APEC but going back to the structural reform programs of the IMF and World Bank, and saying this has been the people's experience with APEC and imperalist globalisation. We need to focus on educating, organising and mobilising our communities against the process and gainst our work. Went or Peter Drucker at:
No to APEC! * • What are the specific themes for the
Last year, the People's Conference in Manila analysed the overall context of imperialist globalisation. We had various reports from both the industrialised world and third world countries. There were sectoral reports, discussions for example from women, indigenous people, workers, peasants, youth and students.
Because we view the Vancouver conference as a continuation of the resistance begun in Manila, this year we will focus more specifically on organising: what we can achieve as grass roots organisations and how can we use our educating and organising work among our communities. How can we really build genuine international solidarity on the basis of a critique of the imperialist system.
We are also planning to highlight three countries where there is a particularly strong anti-imperialist struggle: the Philippines, where there has been a revolutionary movement since 1968, Mexico, because of Chiapas and the impact of NAFTA, and South Korea, because of the strong and militant workers struggle that took place earlier
After the case studies, we will look at the gains since last year's conference. Last year, over 100 international delegates attended from 34 countries. Since then, what networking and information exchange has there been? What have been the campaigns we have been able to support each other on? How can we learn from solidarity and organising? What are the experiences of massbased organisations in different contexts of organising the resistance?
It's really critical for us in North America to begin to look at that kind of question, because we need to reflect on what kind of lessons we can learn from the anti-imperialist movement in the south. and to consider how can we really advance the anti-imperialist movement here? * Source: Socialist Challenge, Summer 1997 issue. Contact: No to APEC, 451 Powell St, Vancouver BC, Canada. © (+1 604) 215 9190, <notoapec@vcn.bc.cn>
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