The Written Word
for April 19, 2000

It's a strange world in which we live.

There are protesters, growing in numbers, picketing and demonstrating against all manner of international institutions including the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. And I can relate to these protests. There is much that needs improving in the World Bank and IMF and the World Trade Organization and the international business community needs to know that people want to be heard in this world of a global economy. But many of these protesters have not thought through just what it is they want.

Many of them are simply reborn Free Trade and NAFTA opponents who need to vent their rage at having been defeated. For the most part these are intelligent people who simply have a mental block. Let me spell it out for them.

NAFTA is here and it's here to stay. There is no going back. That having been said, there is a great need for international rules and international justice. The very thing that these people successfully opposed, MAI is the same thing they need, with, admittedly, more thought, more care and more public input.

The Maude Barlow's of the world, in order to keep the fires of their special breed of nationalistic socialism alive, instead of first opposing then suggesting a better way are doing the first thing only. By so doing they are really saying to the international corporate community - do as you please because any attempt to rein you in we will oppose with every fibre of our bodies.

The need for world wide rules is the same as the need for rules in a country, like Canada, or a province like British Columbia. Despite their bleatings to the contrary, capital will not respect the environment, local interests or national sovereignty unless they are compelled to - any more than the local or national marketplace would behave without the big stick of the government policeman keeping law and order. To fight against all international controls in the world economy is like Canadian governments getting rid of competition rules, environmental laws and social programs.

There is great - and legitimate - concern that nations have lost much of their sovereignty to international business. Countries can no longer even control something so basic as their own currency. The problem is that those who should be helping their countries gain some control of the situation are those whose only contribution is to noisily protest the obvious while coming up with no solutions other than the ridiculous such as revoke NAFTA. Not only does that simply waste time and effort and cost a lot of policing money it occupies the space into which should fit an enormous effort to find a way of policing the new world economy. And that's the real tragedy.

Instead of encouraging governments to work and indeed fight for a fair international marketplace the protesters are making it politically unpalatable for governments to do anything, thus defeating by their own efforts the true purpose of those efforts