Workers and the WEF The meeting of the World Economic Forum in New York City is nothing more than a Board of Directors meeting of Global Capital, Inc. to discuss how the world economic system can be best managed to maintain power, profit and privilege for those who have it. For those of us who are working people, homemakers, students and retirees, and for those who have the misfortune of being unemployed or homeless, there is nothing to be gained in this venture. Whatever great decisions they come up with, whatever they decide to do with the world economy, we will still be the ones on whose back the system operates
So if this is the case, then what are so-called labor "leaders" like AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and others doing inside the Forum, breaking bread with our enemies? Do they honestly think that they can persuade the assembled bosses to give us a few more crumbs, when what we should be fighting for is the whole pie? They may take part in protests and rallies outside the Forum, but by just being present inside, they help legitimate the whole sordid business.
The fact is that the "leaders" of the labor movement are quite comfortable with sharing the stage with corporate cutthroats and international manipulators. They see their ultimate interests as tied up with the success of global capitalism, as long as they can come back to us and say how they "won" us a little more justice and equity in the great scheme of things. But the fundamental relationships of power, profit and privilege remain unchanged, with us holding the short end of the stick.
Look at the recent "love affair" between Service Employees International Union Local 1199 President Dennis Rivera and Governor Pataki and his allies. Perhaps the health care workers of New York have gained something in the short run, but ultimately, by kowtowing to the party in power, the health care workers are left dependent on favors for their livelihood. No politician in the final analysis represents the interests of working people, but the people who Rivera has allied himself with are particularly known for their regressive, anti-worker policies. What the whole thing is really about is promoting the power and careers of "leaders" like Rivera rather than the interests of working people.
Clearly we do need a global economy, but not the type we are living under today, even if we manage to get a few more bucks in our paychecks from it. We need an economy based on producing goods and services for use not profit,where the world's resources can be shared fairly and equitably among all. We need a truly new world order, one that transcends the competition of nation-states and their armies, so that the tragedy of September 11 and the violence that has followed from both sides may never happen again. We need unity in pursuit of our common interests but one that respects and nurtures diversity, not a "united world" based on the imposition of corporate commodity culture in every corner of the planet, as the WEF aims to impose.
The Workers Solidarity Alliance is an organization of men and women like yourselves who are fed up with the current order of things. We have a vision of a world human community without bosses or bureaucrats, where work is self-managed by the workers themselves and social organization is based on direct democracy. To achieve this vision we call for building a labor movement without professional leaders, organized across the false lines of trade, workplace, industry and nation, where we both fight for a better life today and for a new world tomorrow.
We call this vision anarchist unionism or syndicalism, but the name is far less important that what it stands for. We call on all workers to move forward from the rallies and protests outside the WEF to carry this struggle into our workplaces and communities, and to build the type of global movement that will serve our interests and the interests of society as a whole.
January 31, 2002
Workers Solidarity Alliance
339 Lafayette Street - Room 202
New York, NY 10012
tel: 1-212-979-8353
e-mail: wsany@hotmail.com