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 „The campaign against international terrorism represents a war of conquest with annihilating consequences for the future of mankind. This crusade of the USA and Great Britain infringes International Law and is a »flagrant violation of the tenor of the United Nation's Charta. Actually this war is not only illegal, it is criminal. It implements the facts of the case which during the Nürnberg Trials was regarded as a supreme crime: Conspiracy against World Peace.«*"

Michel Chossudovsky, Global brutal, Der entfesselte Welthandel, die Armut, der Krieg, S. 413, Zweitausendeins, 2002 - *Michael Mandel, »This War Is Illegal and Immoral. It Will Not Prevent Terrorism«, Science Peace Teach-In, 9. December 2001, Centre for Research on Globalization [http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAN112A.html]

read: Smoking Gun: How the IMF Shot Argentina (November 19, 2002), by Ned Boudreau

 

'Globalization from below' - Movements

 Why they are not only important
- they provide remedy and hope against the spreading decadence of a commercialized world

Criticism of Globalization and Sustainable Alternatives

 

By Wolfgang Fischer

( pdf.file ) (spanish) ( german version )

Parts of human race are suffering from a "Mental Confusion Syndrome MCS" [Dehumanisation Syndrome, Lessened Flexibility Syndrome LFS, Necrophilia (Erich Fromm)], which hampers development of human identity, consequently leading to life-threatening delusions instead.

This syndrome develops during the social process of learning and individual maturing in such cases where reality and Truth of world and Nature are not exactly represented within the ideas and thoughts (the concepts) of the human brain.

The deficiant representation of outer reality within the inner world of the brain easily appears where individual learning is being tampered by religion, ideology or tradition which provide an education that interferes with the learning about right and wrong.

Learning by experience beginning from the very first moments of Life within the womb and lasting for lifetime is guided by two great helpers: joy and pain. Joy is to keep us on a right path and pain is to correct us from the wrong doing. Thus we learn quite rapidly and effectively about different qualities in Life. However, if from the very beginning, because of secondary reasons, we are made to believe that a bitter tasting - although disgusting - should be held for a sweet tasting, we will claim bitter as being sweet later in our lifes and might even force this false detail of awareness upon others. Let me quote from "Nature and Civilisation" (1):

"Only when we perceive reality as it truly is, and not as we have learned (through our culture, religion, ideology, scientific views etc.) to think how it is - only then do we have a chance of acquiring authentic information about our world. And only such authentic information will give rise to motivations and behaviour patterns that are in harmony with the requirements of Nature.

Sweet things will taste sweet and bitter things bitter so long as we do not hand down wrong concepts about the reality of bitter and sweet. Only the correspondence of concepts and reality prevents the split in our consciousness which will arise when we take mental concepts for real although they aren't true (e. g. considering to be sweet that which is in fact bitter, even though we may not even like the taste). Only when concept and reality are identical can we pronounce something as 'right' or 'correct'. Only the correspondence of human ideas about life with the conditions of Nature will enable humans and their life to be authentic."

"MCS" causes artificial - even virtual worlds which are looked upon as "real" whereas the necessities of the real world are being neglected. Life is no longer an object for Love, the hearts of "MCS" suffering people are addicted to desires never able to be satisfied. Their goals might be drugs, money or domination, they might even be spiritual, as we are being demonstrated by widely spread elitist religious concepts. Poverty, misery and decline of Nature's balances - all caused by an insane civilization - are progressing.

 

Current situation

A way of thinking, which does not regard the native peoples as having equal rights and as being of the same importance as ‚whites' reveals to be morbid. Elitist ideologies and the notion of superiority in relation to people of different ethnic origin create injustice and lead the social develpopment of societies astray. Likewise the madman who believes to be able to fly and who, in case of surviving, is given a lesson after having jumped out of the window. The central symptome of suffering from "MCS" finally is an upside down world view as it is being demonstrated by the world's commercially leading nations. Instead of heading for global justice and ecological welfare, their obvious aim only is the welfare of their money-system. Their "New World Order" consists in consolidating and legalizing the domination of a highly rich minority of "Corporations" upon the vast majority of nations being impoverished, exploited and marginalized by WTO, IMF World Bank ("unholy or killer trinity, Mies) conditions and regulations. Todays discussion on reparation payments for jewish forced workers during Nazi Germany gives an example for the shortsightedness caused by "MCS". This discussion completely leaves out of sight far more dreadful dimensions: the man-made fate of North- and Southamerican cultures, of African cultures and of all the cultures in other parts of the world which have been completely destroyed by the "trade-agents and missionaries" of the European states. I am not yet speaking about the theft of cultural art (thousands of tons of handicrafted gold, which have been melted down to coins just to fill the European cashboxes for their wars and industries) and of all the natural resources up to now.

Of greatest consequences however was the destruction of human identity with its deluding effects up to today. The loss of human identity and orientation is the simple reason for crime, greed, hatred and war, which easily can be heated-up and misused by those who manipulate world wide informations. As long as Communism existed a certain control of powers still was possible - although on a very inhuman level. Capitalism and Communism, both likewise neglected basic requirements for securing a healthy future on our planet. Todays situation is marked by uncontrolled (neo-liberal) Capitalism and clearly reveals the degrading character of its sheer materialistic system. The lately reborn coalition between Fascism and Capitalism as it showed up in Genoa leads to a new dimension of disregarding world wide social necessities.

 

What to do?

All people not yet infected with "MCS", all people still clear sighted with their hearts open for Love and compassion are called to unite and to combine their efforts in changing a "monster civilization, which is eating away its own subsistence" (2) into a sustainable and peaceful society.

The noose which the traders are tightening over the rest of the world only can be untied by a real mass movement, which can be born out of the present anti-globalization-movement: Our World is Not for Sale! (3). Motivated by social and ecological engagement new ideas are wellcome to break the nerv of the System. Any of the movement's violent action might be misused by the System's forces as we were shown in Genoa. We have to think about new strategies. The therapeutical idea is clear: fostering responsible and critical awareness (4), isolating and outlawing of elitist concepts or activities by consolidating all, who stand for social justice and ecological sustainability. Let's organize manifold meetings to ensure mutual exchange of ideas! Let's spread our ideas globally and locally. Mutual understanding and knowing each other will provide orientation for a better world for all of us and for Nature.

In order to liberate the view to a better future we might deal with history first thus to accept and regret all the guilt having been piled up to the very moment. This would clear our minds and set free our truthful human identity (5). We would gain energies for our noble goal to establish social and ecological justice. All those personalities could provide their views, who despite of their intellectual education and scientific studies did not lose their roots and religion towards wholistic existence of Life. Their concepts of global and local society and economy, of industries which respect nature and habitat, of a harmless use of money (6), of just wages and taxes, of using even former military infrastructure to provide better roads, better communication structures, better water supply etc. where needed, and of more ideas about repair and improvement will all reflect the immanent Source of Life thus serving eternal evolution.

More and more people are attracted by meetings, protests and information organized by the multifarious Anti-Globalization-Movements as they are dealing with subjects concerning everybody's life. Backgroundinformation on contexts of crisises, wars and developments which at first glance do not seem to be related will change public opinion to a dissident attitude. Critical awareness will spread. Buyers will choose socially and ecologically friendly products and will avoid certain companies or countries of origin. Voters will be voting differently. A complete boycott of elections might be useful to remind politicians that their duty is to serve the citizens and not the money-system. The encreasing numbers of non-voters must no longer be ignored. If necessary a general and peaceful upheaval will terminate further misuse of power by means of boycott and dissident attitude in order to safe Life on Earth. In addition a process of social appropriation is necessary, which on the one hand rolls back the development of alienation, expropriation, deregulation and pseudo-liberalisation and on the other hand - by broad acquiring of specialized knowledge like social as well as life authority - creates the conditions for self authorization of world citizens. Worldwide cooperation and exchange on lowest and local levels will create an atmosphere of hope and confidence amongst all supporters of Life. A better world is possible! Let's work together!

Heeding Our Own Warnings, by Jessica Azulay (11.2002): excerpt: .... But for those of us who hope to see radical change to the systems of oppression, we need to look for strategies that have both the potential to stop the impending war and lead us closer to our longer term goals of (might I say it) revolution. We should see preventing the war on Iraq as a short-term goal and find strategies that treat that goal as a means to an end - the end being wholesale transformation into a radical society. This means we cannot afford to abandon the critical struggles that Bush and friends so desperately want us to forget about. Since those in power are corporations and power-hungry politicians, we can best raise their costs by challenging not just their authority to declare war on Iraq but also their economic and political authority in general.

.....This is exactly what happened in the sixties during the anti-Vietnam War organizing. It was not enough that people were protesting war. What really scared elites was the fact that there was a large and growing movement that included not only antiwar activity but also anti-system organizing. The youth were challenging authority, questioning social norms, and generally rebelling against mainstream mentality. This is the type of energetic and broad movement that we need to build today, both because it will be the most effective and swift in bringing down Bush's war plans and because it will help us in all of our struggles.....

Footnotes:

(1) Nature and Civilisation, A Life-Threatening Conflict and the Way of Survival - Alienation of Humanity and Possibilities for Healing, by Wolfgang Fischer - [http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/nature.html]
(2) Why should we consolidate? Civilization in Crisis, by Satheesan N. Kochicheril [http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/crisis.html]
(3) Our World is not for Sale [
http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/WTO010b.html)
(4) Global Responsibility, - New Orientation in Culture and Politics -, Reflections on what it Means to be Human, Plea for a Civilisation in Accordance with Nature that is not Based on Money and Violence, by Wolfgang Fischer [
http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/responsibility.html]
5) Our View of Humanity Decides our Future. The Need to Immunize Society, by Wolfgang Fischer [
http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/immunize.html]
(6) The Principle of EQUILIBRISM, The Socio-Ecological Concept of Economy [
http://www.equilibrismus.de/en/index.html] or [http://www.systemfehler.de/en/]

Recommended Reading:

The Lessened Flexibility Syndrome - LFS, by Antonio Rossin

- Tariq Ali, The Clash of Fundamentalisms - Crusades, Jihads, and Modernity, Verso, London 2002
- Belen Balanya, Ann Doherty, Olivier Hoedeman, Adam Ma' anit & Erik Wesselius, EUROPE INC: Regional & Global Restructuring and the Rise of Corporate Power. London, Pluto Press, 2000
- Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Nick Faraclas und Claudia von Werlhof (Hg), There is an Alternative. Subsistence and worldwide Resistance to Corporate Globalization, London, zed press, 2001
- Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalisation of Poverty. Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms, Third World Network, Penang, Malaysia 1997
- Michel Chossudovsky, Disarming the New World Order [
http://www.transnational.org//meet/seattle.html]
- Arundhati Roy, Power Politics, South End, 2002
- Saral Sarkar, Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism? A critical analysis of humanity's fundamental choices, Zed Books, London 1999

WTO and Agriculture (Nothing but Hypocrisy - Everything but Free Market), Facts by Devinder Sharma (May. 04)
An Attack On People's Movements, by Vandana Shiva, Nov. 2004

see also Opinion by proletarians against the machine

Resistance to Neoliberalism, War and Militarism: For Peace and Social Justice, Manifesto Porto Alegre II ( german ) (spanish version) (pdf.print version)

War and Economy (Money), Why peace is not (yet) really wanted by a majority of politicians, by Wolfgang Fischer (pdf.file) (german) (spanish)

and more: Globalization from below


After Genoa: Why We Need to Stay in the Streets

By Starhawk

Since Genoa, there has been lots of healthy debate about where the movement needs to go. The large scale protests are becoming more dangerous and difficult. The summits are moving to inaccessible locations. The IMF and the World Bank and the G8 and the WTO continue to do their business. Are we being effective enough to justify the risks we're taking? Should we be focusing more on local work, building our day-to-day networking and organizing?

I was in Genoa. Because of what I experienced there, including the moments of real terror and horror, I am more convinced than ever that we need to stay in the streets. We need to continue mounting large actions, contesting summits, working on the global scale.

Our large scale actions have been extraordinarily effective. I've heard despairing counsels that the protests have not affected the debates in the G8 or the WTO or the IMF/World Bank. In fact they have, they have significantly changed the agendas and the propaganda issuing forth. In any case, the actual policies of these institutions will be the last thing to change. But for most of us on the streets, changing the debate within these institutions is not our purpose. Our purpose is to undercut their legitimacy, to point a spotlight at their programs and policies, and to raise the social costs of their existence until they become insupportable. Contesting the summits has delegitimized these institutions in a way no local organizing possibly can. The big summit meetings are elaborate rituals, ostentatious shows of power that reinforce the entitlement and authority of the bodies they represent. When those bodies are forced to meet behind walls, to fight a pitched battle over every conference, to retreat to isolated locations, the ritual is interrupted and their legitimacy is undercut. The agreements that were being negotiated in secret are brought out into the spotlight of public scrutiny. The lie that globalization means democracy is exposed; and the mask of benevolence is ripped off.

Local organizing simply can't do this as effectively as the big demonstrations. Local organizing is vital, and there are other things it does do: outreach, education, movement building, the creation of viable alternatives, the amelioration of some of the immediate effects of global policy. We can't and won't abandon the local, and in fact never have: many of us work on both scales. No one can go to every summit: we all need to root ourselves in work in our own communities. But many of us have come to the larger, global actions because we understand that the trade agreements and institutions we contest are designed to undo all of our local work and override the decisions and aspirations of local communities.

We can make it a conscious goal of every large scale action to strengthen local networks and support local organizing. Aside from Washington DC, Brussels, or Geneva, which have no choice, no city is ever going to host one of these international meetings twice. Even now, we hear rumors that Washington is considering relocating or limiting the upcoming IMF/World Bank meeting. But if we find ways to organize mass actions that leave resources and functioning coalitions behind, then each grand action can strengthen and support the local work that continues on a daily basis.

Summits won't remain the nice, juicy, targets that they are for long. Over the last two years, we've reaped an agenda of meetings that were set and contracted for before Seattle. Now that they are locating the meetings in ever more obscure and isolated venues, we need a strategy that can allow us to continue building momentum.

As an example, some of us have been talking about linked, large-scale regional actions targeting stock exchanges and financial institutions when the WTO meets in Qatar in November. The message we'll be sending is: "If you move the summits beyond our reach, and continue the policies of power consolidation and wealth concentration, then social unrest will spread beyond these specific institutions to challenge the whole structure of global corporate capitalism itself." Marches, teach-ins, countersummits, programs of positive alternatives alone can't pose this level of threat to the power structure, but combined with direct action on the scale we've now reached, they can.

Of course, the more successful we are, the meaner they get. But when they use force against us, we still win, even though the victory comes at a high cost. Systems of power maintain themselves through our fear of the force they can command, but force is costly. They cannot sustain themselves if they have to actually use force in order to accomplish every normal function.

Genoa was a victory won at a terrible price. I hope never to undergo another night like I spent when they raided the IMC and the Diaz school, knowing that atrocities were being done just across the way and not being able to stop them. I ache and grieve and rage over the price. I would do almost anything to assure that no one, especially no young person, ever suffers such brutality again.

Almost anything. Anything except backing away from the struggle. Because that level of violence and brutality is being enacted, daily, all over the world. It's the shooting of four students in New Guinea, the closing of a school in Senegal, the work quota in a maquiladora on the Mexican border, the clearcutting of a forest in Oregon, the price of privatized water in Cochabamba. It's the violence being perpetrated on the bodies of youth, especially youth of color, in prisons all over the United States, and the brutality and murder going on in Colombia, Palestine, Venezuela. And it's the utter disregard for the integrity of the ecosystems that sustain us all.

I don't see the choice as being between the danger of a large action and safety. I no longer see any place of safety. Or rather, I see that in the long run our safest course is to act strongly now. The choice is about when and how we contest the powers that are attempting to close all political space for true dissent.

Genoa made clear that they will fight ruthlessly to defend the consolidation of their power, but we still have a broad space in which to organize and mount large actions. We need to defend that space by using it, filling and broadening it. Either we continue to fight them together now when we can mount large-scale, effective actions, or we fight them later in small, isolated groups, or alone when they break down the doors of our homes in the middle of the night. Either we wage this struggle when there are still living forests, running rivers, and resilience left in the life support systems of the planet, or we fight when the damage is even deeper and the hope of healing slim.

We have many choices about how to wage the struggle. We can be more strategic, more creative, more skillful in what we do. We can learn to better prepare people for what they might face, and to better support people afterwards. We have deep questions to consider about violence and nonviolence, about our tactics and our long range vision, which I hope to address in a later posting.

But those choices remain only so long as we keep open the space in which to make them. We need to grow, not shrink. We need to explore and claim new political territory. We need the actions of this autumn to be bigger, wilder, more creatively outrageous and inspiring than ever, from the IMF/World Bank actions in Washington DC at the end of September to the many and regional actions in November when the WTO meets in Quatar. We need to stay in the streets.


Opinion:

proletarians against the machine:

If we are here, it is not as professional activists of anti-globalisation, trying to find a position of mediation between the puppets of the economy and its 'victims', by acting on behalf of others (the "invisible", the revolted proletarians against the IMF or the World Bank, the refugees, the precarious workers.) We are not interested in representing anyone, and we spit in the face of those who wish to represent us. We do not understand exclusion as exclusion from the centers of economic decision-making but as the loss of our everyday life and activity as proletarians because of the economy.  

If we are here, it is not because we prefer fair trade to free trade, it is not because we believe that globalisation weakens the authority of nation-states. We are not here because we think that the state is controlled by non-democratic institutions, nor because we want more control over the market. We are here because all trade is the trade of human misery, because all states are prisons, because democracy conceals the dictatorship of capital.  

If we are here it is not because we see proletarians as victims, nor because we want to place ourselves as their protectors. We didn't come here to be impressed by spectacular riots but to learn the tactics of everyday class war by the strikers of Ansaldo and the disobedient proletarians in the metal industry. We come here to exchange our own experiences as the dispossessed of the whole world.  

If we are here, we do not come as members of the numerous NGO's, official lobbies, ATTAC or the rest of those who merely wish to be included in the discussions over the modernisation of capitalism and who hope that their proposals (e.g. tobin tax) will be able to save capitalist social relations, i.e. the same relations which perpetuate our alienation and exploitation.  

If we are here, it is as proletarians who recognise capitalism not in the meetings of the various gangsters but in the daily robbery of our lives in the factories, in the call-centers, as unemployed, for the needs of the economy. We do not speak on behalf of anyone, we start from our own conditions. Capitalism does not exist because of the G8, the G8 exists because of capitalism. Capitalism is nothing but the expropriation of our activity, which turns against us as an alien force.  

Our festival against capital does not have a beginning or an end, it is not a pre-determined spectacle, it does not have a fixed date. Our future lies beyond all mediations, beyond nation-states, beyond all attempts to reform capitalism. Our future lies in the destruction of the economy.  

For the total abolition of the state and capital.

For the world human community.  


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Emanzipation Humanum, version 7. 2002, Criticism, suggestions as to form and content, dialogue, translation into other languages are all desired

http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/resist01.html

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