Resist Imperialist Plunder and War

A major factor in US interest and presence in Northeast Asia is its renewed drive for hegemony. This entails in particular the new US military strategy and force restructuring to prepare to fight and decisively win two simultaneous wars in two major theaters, one of which could be Northeast Asia.

By Dr. Carol P. Araullo*
Posted by Bulatlat.com
 
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is the brainchild of the Swiss capitalist Schwab who has been gathering the world's foremost monopoly capitalists since the early 1970s. Over the next three decades, he has transformed the WEF into an elite, invitation-only corporate trade association with a membership of the world's largest corporations. The WEF invites selected world leaders, journalists, academics and other personalities to annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland, as well as regional meetings.

The WEF's membership is comprised of some 1,000, mainly U.S. European and Japanese corporations with annual revenues of at least USD 1 billion. The organization is unlike any other corporate trade association as it explicitly aims to bring together the leading business elite with their counterparts from politics and describes its mission as being a catalyst and facilitator of the foremost global community of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society. Its latest annual meeting in Davos was attended by U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney, U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the chief executive officers of Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Chevron Texaco, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers among others.

Unsurprisingly, the WEF's activities and meetings have provoked the opposition of the broad people's movement, which has greeted its assemblies with protests. It goes without saying that these protest activities have been met with violent repression. For its annual meeting in Davos, for example, the isolated alpine village is converted into a virtual garrison, off-limits to anyone but the chosen few.

For the world's business elite, East Asia is of tremendous importance. Not only is it home to more than one third of the world's population, it also accounts for a sizable proportion of the world economy. The wider Asian and Asia-Pacific region (including South Asia, South-East Asia, North-East Asia and Australasia) accounts for 56 percent of the world's population, 25 per cent of world GNP, and 22 percent of the world's international trade.

Trade and commercial relations

The EU's economic and commercial relations with Asia are of great importance for our own prosperity. Asia as a whole accounts for 21 percent of the EU's external exports, and is our third-largest regional trading partner, after Europe outside the EU (31 percent) and NAFTA (28 per cent).

The countries of North-East Asia have a total population of 1.5 billion, and an average per capita income of $4,000 (ranging from $780 in China, through $8,490 in South Korea, to $32,230 in Japan). Economically, North-East Asia accounts for 20.2 percent of world GNP, and for 17.4 per cent of the EU's external trade. Japan alone accounts for 14.0 percent of world GNP, and 6.6 per cent of EU external trade (while China accounts for 3.4 per cent of world GNP, and 4.8 per cent of EU external trade). U.S. trade with Asia Pacific surpasses that with Europe, with more than $500 billion in trade and investment of more than $150 billion. About 400,000 U.S. non-military citizens live and conduct business in the region.

US trade relationship with Asia has nearly doubled since 1992, rising from just over $400 billion to $800 billion in 2000. American goods and services exports across the Pacific have likewise grown by well over $100 billion since 1992, with results ranging from high-technology goods, to business consulting services, agricultural commodities and more. America's investment stake in Asia has risen with equal speed and equally important implications for the future. Our direct investment stock has risen from $78 billion in 1992 to $186 billion in 1999.

It is also a particularly challenging area for the global capitalist system. The current centers of imperialism are concerned about the rise of China as a potential peer competitor. Moreover, the people of North and Southeast Asia have learned from the experience of the 1997 economic crisis and have registered their opposition to further imperialist exploitation. Moreover, the legitimate desire of the Chinese and Korean people for reunification of their countries does not fit in the imperialists' plans for the region.

A major factor in US interest and presence in Northeast Asia is its renewed drive for hegemony. This entails in particular the new US military strategy and force restructuring to prepare to fight and decisively win two simultaneous wars in two major theaters, one of which could be Northeast Asia.

U.S. military presence

These factors explain for the heavy presence of U.S. military troops in Northeast Asia. Besides, U.S. imperialism is deliberately whipping up tensions with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in order to thwart the gradual process of rapprochement between the two Koreas.

The importance of Northeast Asia to the US is underscored by the attention the US is giving to Southeast Asia. Half of the world's trade passes though the South China Sea and there remain vast untapped natural and human resources in the region. The big Muslim populations in the countries of Indonesia and Malaysia and the tactical and geostrategic importance of the Philippines, a former US colony, are cues to why the US has labeled Southeast Asia as the so-called "second front in the war on terror".

It is in this context that the WEF is holding its 2004 Asia Strategic Insight Roundtable in Seoul. The WEF promises on its website that this meeting will enable businesses to manage the geopolitical and economic complexities of the region. In other words, the WEF seeks to tighten monopoly capital's stranglehold on the peoples of East Asia.

The timing of the meeting, however, is very unfortunate.

It is almost exactly seven years ago that the devaluation of the Thai baht triggered the massive pullout of speculative investments from the region. The ensuing economic crisis plunged the broad masses in unemployment and poverty.

Exactly two years ago, Hwosoon and Miseon, two Korean schoolgirls, were killed by a U.S. military tank. This incident reminded the peoples of Asia to the heartlessness of the imperialists' war machine and fueled the Korean people's desire for genuine sovereignty.

Both events illustrate why imperialist globalization is so detested by the people. On the one hand, it means exploitation and misery to the vast majority of the people. On the other hand, it employs brutal repression and war to impose its rule.

Historic summit

Moreover, we also commemorate the historic summit between north and south Korea exactly four years ago. The joint declaration of Republic of Korea President Kim Dae-Jung and National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il of the DPRK, which was celebrated at both sides of the 16th parallel, was an expression of the Korean people's assertion of their sovereign desire for reunification.

For us in the people's movement, it is the latter commemoration that gives us hope. Moreover, we think the current WEF East Asia summit creates more opportunities for the people's movement.

More than any other international organization or business club, the WEF exemplifies the nature of imperialist globalization. It is undemocratic. It is exclusive and dominated by Europe, North America and Japan. It serves the interests of the rich. It doesn't care about the people's legitimate interest and demands. The WEF's meetings are a convergence of representatives of capital and the imperialist nations.

The very characteristics of the WEF enable us to explain to the people what imperialist globalization really is about: the global dictatorship of monopoly capital. It is but fitting therefore to take advantage of its meetings to take to the streets and express the people's opposition to oppression and exploitation.

In the past few years we have gradually been building another global forum: a World Resistance Forum. It is not a formal organization, nor has it any headquarters or well-defined structures. It has converged in the streets of Seattle, Davos, Washington DC, Manila, Vancouver, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Genoa, Cancun, Porto Alegre, Mumbai and other places where the conspirators of imperialist globalization have assembled or have taken their greatest toll. It is also building critical mass at home through education, organizing and mobilization of the people.

Our resistance forum has taken many shapes and employed different forms of struggle, all of which are geared to the eventual victory of the people. Let us ensure that this Assembly provides another venue to bring this global struggle to a higher level.

According to the WEF website, the 'Asia Strategic Insight Roundtable' brings together leaders from business, government, the media, the academic world and other organizations in order to shape the Asian regional agenda. That may be true for now, but increasingly, the people of Asia are fighting back.

We, the people are unmasking the true, selfish nature of the imperialist neoliberal agenda. We are defining the issues and demanding changes according to our real needs and aspirations. We are resisting IMF-World Bank-WTO doctrine and policy prescriptions and governments that blindly follow the multilateral institutions' impositions. We are struggling for a new world where the people's sovereignty prevails and social justice, freedom and all-round progress is not just a dream but a reality for the majority of Asian peoples. Posted by Bulatlat.com 

* Paper read by the author before the Asia People's and Social Movements Assembly, June 14-15, 2004 in Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Carol P. Araullo is the Vice Chairperson of BAYAN-Philippines.

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