Collision of two worlds

UNITED NATIONS— The streets of New York city may well turn out to be a raging battle ground next week when radical activists launch a mass protest against corporate globalisation.

Paradoxically, the only safest hideout for New Yorkers would be a vacation either in the Tora Bora Mountains in Afghanistan or the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza.

The target of the protest is the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), which has shifted its venue from the alpine town of Davos in Switzerland to one of the ritziest hotels in New York: the Waldorf Astoria.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says: "We feel that we are better prepared than any other city to deal with any contingencies."

The police arsenal includes pepper spray, water cannons and tear gas canisters aimed at subduing protesters who had earlier caused mayhem at similar meetings not only in Davos but also in Seattle (in the state of Washington), in Genoa, Italy, in Salzburg, Austria and in Melbourne, Australia.

The New York Times predicts that the demonstrations "could be unlike any seen before in the city."

The participants in the WEF come mostly from the highest echelons of government, including 20 heads of state, and about 250 academic experts, religious leaders, Nobel Prize winners, artists, writers, scientists and media representatives.

Also present would be about 1,000 business leaders, including the chief executive officers (CEOs) of virtually all of the world's major transnational corporations— some of whose annual budgets exceed the gross national product (GNP) of most developing nations.

The protesters include radicals of every stripe— ranging from the International Socialist Organisation to the Workers Democracy Network.

The broadbased coalition of NGOs includes labour leaders, students, environmentalists, human rights campaigners and anti-corporate-globalisation activists.

The theme of the five-day mass protests — scheduled to take place January 31 through February 4— is summed up in a phrase which embodies the philosophy of participating NGOs: "Another World is Possible." 

The sub themes include: "Stop Destroying the Earth", "Wipe out the Third World Debt", "No Apartheid for Immigrants", "Hands Off our Civil Rights", "Stop Fuellings Terrorism", and "Stop the War Machine."

The protests come at a time when the United Nations is getting ready for a major international conference— in Mexico in March — to find solutions to the world's mounting economic problems.

A meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the upcoming International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, has just concluded with little or no concessions from rich nations.

The demands of the world's poorer nations include an increase in official development assistance (ODA), a reduction or cancellation of external debt, better prices for primary commodities, removal of tariff barriers for Third World exports and increased foreign investments.

Last week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged rich nations to double their ODA, from the current average of $50 billion to $100 billion annually.

Annan said "this may sound ambitious" but it would still be well short of the recognised goal of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP) agreed to by all donor nations in a resolution adopted by the General Assembly in the 1970s.

Only four donor countries have so far consistently achieved that target during the 1990s: Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

The need for increased assistance has also been prompted by the global economic downturn caused, in part, by the terrorist attacks on the US last September.

But the call to bolster ODA has already received a negative response from the US, the world's richest country, which has refused to make any firm commitments.

"No time frames, no commitments— and no illusions," a US delegate is quoted as having told a closed-door meeting of the preparatory committee last week.

Additionally, US Ambassador John Negroponte says that a major theme of the Mexico conference should be that domestic resources— not ODA— are "the basic foundation for a country's development."

But a coalition of over 50 NGOs says that the Mexico conference would be a farce if it does not come up with pledges not only to increase aid but also to cancel debts and eradicate global poverty.

If rich nations do not make concessions, is "another world" really possible? 

Or is it just another fantasy in a global economic environment where everything is stacked up against the world's poor?