[Ssf] For all you GATS fans

Chris Malins c.malins at sheffield.ac.uk
Tue Jan 11 18:04:54 GMT 2005


I thought that this was quite an exciting email, if you share my concern 
that WTO negotiations have the potential to undo untold amounts of good 
work at lower levels with the GATS as a particular concern. Nice to see 
that France is leading the way on this one.

Chris


*Report on the "Etats généraux" - Estates General - of local
governments against the GATS *
* *
*
*The Etats généraux --Estates General--of local governments against the
GATS [General Agreement on Trade in Services, one of the many trade
agreement managed by the World Trade Organisation-WTO] took place
on 13-14 November 2004. This meeting, whose title harks back to the
first step in what was to become the French Revolution, represented a
genuine first for the alter-globalisation movement, as we call it in
France,
bringing together elected officials of city, departmental and regional
councils with social activists to plan strategy and mount a common
campaign.
The fight against GATS has been a major campaign for ATTAC over the
past two and a half years so the Etats généraux represented both the
culmination of a great deal of work and a new departure from a higher
level. We see the GATS as a way to transfer huge new markets, in areas
never before considered "markets" at all, to transnational corporations
[which indeed helped to write the GATS text in the 1980s]. Manufacturing
and agriculture are covered by other WTO agreements; virtually all other
human activities fall under the GATS except for national defence, the
police, the courts and religion. It's also a way to outlaw subsidies to
public
services, make public service employees redundant and pry open
government procurement.
We recognised early on that there was no way we could influence the
WTO directly. Even when negotiations were stopped as in Seattle, they
always started again. Nor could we hope to put much pressure on the
European Commission which negotiates for all 25 EU member countries.
Given this democratic deficit, there was only one choice remaining: try to
get France to demand a new mandate for the European Trade
Commissioner and a moratorium on the negotiations. We want the
removal ofhealth and social services, education, culture and the
environment, including water, from the GATS, plus the right for every
country to declare the services that it considered non-negotiable public
services on its territory, so that transport, energy, or communications can
also be removed where required.
How best to get France, with its neo-liberal government, to change its
stance inside the EU? The best option seemed to create a groundswell of
local government opposition to the GATS and thereby oblige the
government to take notice, as it would never do if only the social
movements made up of ordinary citizens were concerned.
So we launched the campaign called "100 local governments against
GATS" counting on the participation of the 220-some local Attac
Committees.. Most of these committees began working with local
councils and members of several political parties also became active in
this campaign. We soon advanced beyond the 100 mark and renamed
the campaign "500 local governments " . At present, we have topped
620, with new signatories nearly every day. Most of these local councils
have left-wing majorities, but not all. These regions, departments, cities
and villages represent 40 million French people, two-thirds of the french
population, and have voted resolutions proclaiming themselves "GATS-
Free Zones" and called for a moratorium on negotiations. We are grateful
to all the members of these councils who drew up and sponsored the
great number of resolutions--without their contribution, the success of
this
campaign would not have been  possible.
The Estates General are THUS building on solid ground. Over the
weekend OF 13-14 NOVEMBER, we came to several decisions, most
important among them to continue working together. The steering
committee, made up of elected officials from different parties, will
continue. We all recognise the need to use all possible avenues to inform
citizens. Towns will put up "GATS-Free Zone" signs on the entry roads
and explain the GATS in their municipal bulletins. "Twinned" communities
will ask their sister cities and regions outside France to join the
movement. A letter stating our demands was approved and will be
delivered to President Chirac and Prime Minister Raffarin. And of course
we hope soon to be 1000 perhaps more GATS-Free local governments.
In addition, a separate network of elected officials has been set up whith
the goal of mobilising other officials against the GATS. Finally, about 40
organisations and associations, including Trade Unions, have formed a
collective to spread information about the harmful impact of the GATS.
All these efforts should converge to change the political balance of forces
and tilt it towards national opposision to this WTO agreement.
Austria and Belgium already have similar GATS-FREE ZONE campaigns
that are well advanced; Italy and Spain have had some encouraging
results. We hear that there is similar work going on in the UK but haven't
managed to establish contact with GATS-Free communities there.
Germany, the largest EU State, is the great black hole. We will try to
bring everyone together and hold Europe-wide Estates general next year.
Stay tuned.

Susan George
Attac-France
Transnational Institute
TNI Website( 18 November 2004 )



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