Subject: Globalism (fwd)......
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 102330 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody:
Some of you have already received the following message from Australia.
Thanks Kerrie..... There is much to think about in this piece -- for
those who still do their own thinking.... A shrinking number I'm afraid....
BTW... Guru has a recent EMF piece on the ENVIRONEWS page of the
internet at <> It is entitled:
EMF Smog - The Ugly Secret
Cheerio....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org..............http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
................................It is better to light a single candle ...
than to curse the darkness...............................................
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 19:47:17 +1100
From: Kerrie Christian
To: EMFguru...
Subject: Hans Peter Martin on Globalism in Sydney
>
> Sydney Morning Herald Newspaper in Australia
>
> GLOBALISATION
>
> Saturday, March 21, 1998
>
> The future - gloom or boom?
>
> Bill Gates was not the only visitor to Sydney this week with
globalisation on his mind.
> Hans-Peter Martin, co-author of the bestseller The Global Trap,
presented a somewhat
> different view of the future. HELEN TRINCA reports.
>
> EARLY this week, when Hans-Peter Martin finished his stint at the
airless, crowded Tom Mann
> Theatre near Sydney's Central station, he went across to the
Entertainment Centre to, as he put it, see
> the future.
>
> Dr Martin is something of a futurologist himself, being co-author of
the bestseller The Global Trap, an
> analysis of the way globalisation is threatening jobs and the ability
of nations to control their own
> destinies.
>
> But Martin's visit here this week was overshadowed by that of another
global guru - Bill Gates, and it
> was the Microsoft version of the future Martin went to hear at the
Entertainment Centre. The
> Vienna-based journalist tried the odd heckle during Bill's speech, but
was taken to task by the faithful in
> the 6,000-strong audience. The doomsday man versus the boomday man.
Martin, who works for Der
> Spiegel magazine and co-wrote The Global Trap with colleague Harald
Schumann, is no Luddite, no
> protectionist, no Pauline Hanson, no Ross Perot.
>
> But he warned against the Gates claims that computers and the Internet
would empower the people,
> breaking down the gap between the haves and the have-nots and
generally making us happier
> Vegemites. "Bullshit," Martin told his audience of unionists,
community workers and academics at the
> Tom Mann Theatre. Even so, he conceded, it was people like Gates who
were on the attack and
> people like him who were on the defensive.
>
> The Asian crisis may be a timely example of his view that uncontrolled
financial markets can spell
> disaster but critics of globalisation risk sounding like spoilsports
who have still not got the message
> about deregulation, the free market, productivity and efficiency. For
some who reject Martin's analysis,
> the Asian crisis is more about crony capitalism and too much
government intervention rather than not
> enough. Gates, who even briefed Federal Cabinet, embodies the can-do,
get-real, get-rich potential of
> a global world. His is the American story rewritten for the computer
age.
>
> The 40-year-old Martin is the same generation as the computer whiz but
he has been reared on a
> different style of capitalism - the social-democratic version of
postwar Europe which balanced profits
> against employment. Not so long ago, European companies were happy
with profits of between 2 per
> cent and 3 per cent, Martin says. Now they go for at least 10 per
cent, cutting jobs in the process.
>
> It is not just a European tale, but Martin's background has led him to
question a system where nation
> states are losing power; where corporations shed workers to reach the
profit levels dictated by
> shareholder interests; where money sloshes around the globe, pulled in
and out of portfolios on the
> shortest timeframes; and where size really does matter.
>
> He is not the first to lament the world's reluctance to mediate the
global miracle. But The Global Trap
> is an accessible outline of some big challenges facing the West and a
useful catalyst for the conference -
> Globalisation, the Asian Crisis and the Future of Australian Jobs -
held at the Tom Mann.
>
> Organised by key left-wing unions, the Evatt Foundation and Social
Change/Pluto Press, which
> published Martin's book here, the conference signalled a growing
awareness among union leaders of the
> need to educate the movement about some of the reasons behind job
losses. The ACTU president,
> Jennie George, opened the conference and was there for the duration,
indicating the peak body will
> escalate efforts to develop global union links to counter the
multinationals.
>
> But there is another level of alliances being sought - between unions
and community groups in a civil
> society movement, even though, as one speaker pointed out, unions
might find the approach by some
> non-government agencies (NGOs) anarchic and disorganised compared with
their narrower focus. She
> didn't say it, but, clearly, some NGOs might find some unionists stuck
in an old class war mindset.
>
> But there are hopes of a follow-up meeting in November, and Martin
urged the conference to adopt
> techniques used by groups such as Greenpeace to build a movement for
social peace. Citizens should
> remember they had one large leverage left with multinationals - the
power of the consumer. He cited as
> a template Greenpeace's successful campaign against Shell's plans to
dump a North Sea oil rig off
> Scotland in 1995. The most obvious tools for such a movement come from
Bill Gates's world - the
> Internet and e-mail. Exploiting the global machinery to monitor its
impact and connect with other groups
> is something Martin and others at the conference urged. The central
thesis of The Global Trap is not
> that globalisation is bad but that it is important what form it takes.
The current version is spawned by an
> economic rationalist ideology dictated by Wall Street and Washington,
leading to great economic
> disparities between people, say the authors.
>
> Technology means that in the next millennium we will need only about
20 per cent of people working to
> keep the system ticking over. The rest may or may not be employed but
the reality is that they will not
> be needed for work in the conventional meaning of that term and that
if they are working it will be for
> peanuts.
>
> A key culprit is the unregulated financial market, specifically
investment funds which pull moneys in and
> out of portfolios around the world at whim. A key danger is the rise
of "radical seducers" who preach
> isolationism and look for easy scapegoats, such as migrants. (Martin,
ever the journalist, says he sought
> an interview while in Australia with Pauline Hanson but she turned him
down.)
>
> What to do? The book says the 20:80 script is not inevitable and urges
a regional solution based on a
> European Union. It should be reshaped as a political institution
prepared, among other things, to impose
> taxes, set minimum social and ecological standards for world trade,
and set a tax on currency dealings
> to reduce damage caused by speculative exchange-rate fluctuations.
Since the book was published,
> Martin and Schumann have begun stressing the need to maintain
infrastructure spending through
> alternatives to direct tax. "If we don't want the State to pay, that's
fine," Martin said. "But someone has
> to do it."
>
> He suggested foundations be set up in Europe or through the OECD, for
example, with corporations
> required to pay them levies for specific purposes such as education or
health.
>
> MUCH of Martin's analysis is European-based and his key critic at the
conference, Michael
> Stutchbury, a deputy editor at the Australian Financial Review,
portrayed Martin's "global claptrap"
> as not much more than an anti-American polemic. Stutchbury panned the
book, saying some elements
> were laughable, others naive.
>
> John Buchanan, who also addressed the conference and is a researcher
at the Australian Centre for
> Industrial Relations Research and Training and a well-known
commentator on job trends, is a great fan
> of The Global Trap. He said it was rich in empirical detail and
measured in its conclusions but he
> would have liked a stronger analytical framework. But he had no
problems with Martin's focus on
> Europe.
>
> "If you take his position that it is not whether you globalise, but
how, then as a matter of policy reality
> you have to find institutions to do that," Buchanan said. "The choice
in Western democracies has been
> to follow the US line or seem like a Neanderthal." Instead, the EU
offered a different system of
> integrating economies and had the potential to be a block within the
world system which could find a
> new approach to globalisation, Buchanan said.
>
> Martin also targets the World Trade Organisation, with the idea being
that the free-trade watchdog can
> be reformed so that free trade is not abolished but moderated by a
framework of social responsibility.
>
> Already on the agenda for some activists at the conference was the
Multilateral Agreement on
> Investment being negotiated by the OECD which critics claim transfers
national power to transnational
> corporations. The international questioning of the MAI has been a
success story for the sort of civil
> society movement which Martin advocates. Patricia Ranald, senior
research fellow at the Public Sector
> Research Centre, who has been working and publishing on the MAI, said
it was the first time that a
> mass movement had had some influence on an international agreement.
Certainly, the response to MAI
> has been more critical than the public response to the Uruguay Round
on free trade negotiated just five
> years ago.
>
> Hans-Peter Martin said we are entering a more compassionate period: it
will no longer be so cool to be
> a global adventurer like Bill Gates. John Buchanan told the conference
there was a choice between the
> market as master and the market as servant. Professor Jane Marceau of
the University of Western
> Sydney, who is a specialist in industry policies, said the problem was
not, as some might argue, that
> technology was "rolling over the people". Rather, technology was being
used by people with differential
> power.
>
> "It is not technology rolling over," she said. "It is capitalism
striking back."
>
> Even Peter Sams, who sits on the Right of the union movement and is
secretary of the Labor Council of
> NSW, indicated he had seen the light. "In many ways, you were conned
and I was conned," he said, of
> the free-market, deregulatory approach which swept government,
including our own, in the 1980s and
> early 1990s.
>
> Laurie Carmichael, the old warhorse of the union movement who was so
influential a decade ago in
> developing a radical training and skills formation approach to the
problems of youth unemployment, was
> saying nothing. He doesn't speak to the press now that he is retired
and doesn't have to.
>
> But he looked pleased: the global alternative was at least getting an
airing.
**************************
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html