Globalisation and anarchy

C. Roy Reynolds

MAYBE WE haven't noticed, but while we have been busy fighting our dirty little war here, confrontation has been taking place in the wider world. Things which can affect mankind much more than our attempt at internecine campaign.

I refer to the episodes of violence that have erupted around the so-called G8 meeting of rich countries meeting in Genoa, Italy. We are tired of being reminded of the saying that if you don't know history you could be doomed to repeat it.. If only it was not so true.

What is happening now with a few select countries configuring the world to their own liking, and no less important, to their advantage bears resemblance to what happened a century or so. Then as now, the concept of 'free trade' was being bandied about. That kind of talk, then as now, generated concern not so much between nations as between classes. This led the rise of trade unions and all the subterfuge and violence to suppress it. In America many masters of industry and commerce were dubbed 'robber barons' in recognition of the way they did their business. Many had what amounted to their own security forces.

Workers who attempted to stand up for their rights were beaten up, and killed for their audacity, often with the help of the state machinery. A prime example was Joe Hill of legend and song. A common designation of such persons was 'anarchist', a term that has been dusted off and brought out again to describe some of the activists at Genoa and other places. We know what anarchists are supposed to do, but do we always know why they do it?

In the late 19th century and early 20th, trade unions and other workers organisation suffered much backlash from business, government and much of the public from its alleged connection to anarchists. Before we take all this at face value perhaps we should ask whether or not we know the reason for all this anarchy. While some of it was likely due to what might be called genuine anarchy, was much of it engineered to give workers' movements a bad name? That was almost certainly so.

And having arrived there, what of the present day manifestations? The several groups expressing alarm and dismay about how a handful of rich nations are rounding up the world and herding it into the global corral to facilitate its easier management can hardly be ignored. There are many elements within these groups who are driven not by trade union issues but by science and concern for humanity. The G8 nations and the vast corporations, which to a great extent control them and set their agendas, could never be accused of being too dumb as not to recognise the public relations coup to be gained by a stirring of the pot of anarchy. It worked already, it will work again!

The persons and groups who are expressing genuinely held, scientifically reasoned views will surely be drowned out and discredited by the pillagers and burners. Most of the decent world must be aghast at the disorder and sympathise with the poor rich nations besieged literally in their citadel. The barbarians must indeed be kept at bay!

It seems to me that much of the world has not yet caught on to the essential fraud that is being perpetrated at their expense by this frenzy to shut them up in this glorious global village. How could a handful of nations get together and decide for the whole world what the terms and conditions of their future existence must be?

If such a course is decided upon shouldn't it have been in a forum of the nations, obviously the United Nations? What gives the right to a few powerful nations to meet in Seattle, Genoa or anywhere else and set the rules and conditions under which the whole world must live or more possibly, die?

It seems that they might have money and power but they don't have too much common sense. Their greed and anxiety to control with minimum fire-power have apparently led them to forget that it was in the wake of the reaction to concepts like trade unionism and workers rights that communism came to the fore. And just like how the hamhanded League of Nations held and set the stage for the emergence of Hitler and World War Two thus will it be again.

It might not be called communism but you can be assured of this: you can be assured the human species will not too long be corralled into a one-dimensional reservation. This is not the way of our species. The carving up of Africa, South America and other regions of the world, with most of the principal parties absent from the transactions led historically to nothing but trouble and misery. They are making the same mistake today and not even smart bombs from outer space and missile-killing missiles will be able to keep the reservation quiet or docile!

C. Roy Reynolds is a freelance journalist.

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