Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000 Issue No. 505
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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From Seattle to Seoul

By Faiza Rady

Play it again, Sam? Trailing Seattle, Davos, Washington DC, Melbourne and Prague, the stage was set last Friday in Seoul for yet another round of confrontation between a high-powered international trade organisation meeting and the anti-globalisation movement. Since last December's successful disruption of the Seattle World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting, the scene has by now acquired an aura of déjà-vu. All major international trade summits are met with protests.

On 20 October, selected areas of the South Korean capital resembled a battle front in the making. A 30,000-man-strong police contingent equipped with water cannons was mobilised to use force against "trouble makers" among the 20,000 protesters and secure a demonstration-free zone to the Asia-Europe (ASEM) heads of state attending the summit.

Established in 1994 to counter growing US market hegemony in both Asia and Europe, ASEM has been criticised for being nothing more than a prestigious "talking shop" in an already overly congested summit circuit.

But the Seoul summit had real ambitions. The idea was to create a potent Euro-Asian free market bloc, geared to effectively compete with the North American giant. "The destiny of the world is largely controlled by the Asia-Europe-United States triangle," explained French President Jacques Chirac. "The weak link was Europe-Asia, and that's exactly what we want to strengthen."

Accounting for half of the world's production, ASEM has indeed the potential to join the major league. Hence the Europeans' emphasis on the need to restructure the Asian economies.

South Korean students and workers at the 20 October anti-globalisation demonstration in Seoul are surrounded by police wearing heavy gear and holding riot shields and batons (photo:AFP)

Given the high stakes, it was crucial that South Korean President Kim Dae -jung use an iron fist to secure the summit's success from interference by vociferous labour unions and the Seattle-style anti-globalisation movement.

Nevertheless, the movement would not be quelled -- despite the state of siege. An estimated 4,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), supported by student activists, scuffled with 3,000 baton-wielding policemen as they tried to break the security barriers protecting the summit's no-man's land. "ASEM, which was established to overcome American supremacy, has been following in US footsteps only for the sake of capitalist gains, and has destroyed the lives of labourers and people in Third World countries," said the protesters in a statement.

At another site, 20 prominent labour leaders, including Dan Byung-ho, president of the Korea Metal Workers Federation (KMWF), also clashed with the police when they tried to deliver a letter to the foreign leaders. But to no avail. Tucked away behind their cordoned safe haven at the summit venue, the leaders of 25 Asian and European nations could conveniently ignore the activists' message .

Meanwhile the conference hall was reverberating with rhetoric about human rights and democracy, as foreign heads of state hailed President Kim Dae-jung for his distinguished record on these issues.

However, over and beyond the talk about democracy lurks another reality. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions' annual report denounces Kim Dae-jung's administration for its violation of the Korean workers' right to organise, and the consistent arrest of trade unionists.

After the gregarious back-slapping subsided, ASEM participants turned to serious business. ASEM lauded South Korea for having achieved a brilliant economic recovery after the 1997 stock market crash, which left regional economies in shambles. Europeans, in particular, stressed that the country's success story was contingent on Kim Dae-jung's neo-liberal course, in line with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) standard prescriptions. Enforcing tight fiscal and monetary policies and increased liberalisation were the order of the day.

Things looked different on this side of the police barricades. KMWF's Dan Byung-ho, who was incidentally sentenced to two years in prison for "inciting strike action" and "conspiring to obstruct business", dismissed Korea's success story as a standard neo-liberal whitewash.

While proponents of neo-liberalism rate macro economic indicators like increased growth rates and balanced budgets as models of successful economic development, such indicators detract from the real issues affecting ordinary people's lives. IMF-imposed austerity measures and privatisation included corporate restructuring through massive lay-offs. Labour "flexibility" legislation has created sweeping joblessness in a country that has long prided itself on its low unemployment level and on providing job security to its work force. Since the Kim Dae-jung administration's deregulation of foreign investment, transnational capital has acquired 30 per cent of domestic stocks, transnationals move the economy at will, and market volatility is rampant. As a result, the disparity between rich and poor has reached its highest point in history. Addressing a cheering audience, Dan told the crowd: "The fight against neo-liberal globalisation will continue."

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