Response to Discussion Starter 3 - , from George Sanders, in the Burnie Group, Tasmania

At one point in the early 90s, the OECD, acting on behalf of corporate interests, had reached a stage where it was pushing member nations to accept the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, whose ultimate success depended upon key clauses that would penalise national governments if found to be acting against the interests of foreign investment, a critical element of the secretive plan that was defeated by the Seattle protest movement through 'people power'. If the plan had succeeded, there is every reason to suppose that virtual world government would have been achieved without the force of arms, dealing a heavy blow to democracy wherever it existed at the time.

However, since the Seattle hiccup, events have tended to show that the broad thrust to achieve similar objectives has, with the support and cooperation of national governments, been generally successful within a powerful media campaign to 'sell' the benefits of globalisaiton. This insidious process has been notable for much publicised 'forums'- attended by leaders of industry and commerce with government leaders - conducted in an atmosphere of exclusivity and excessive security.

As far as Australia and Tasmania are concerned, there are growing signs that democratic processes are constantly under attack. The growing gap between the haves and have-nots has split society into two distinct sections - a large dormocracy consisting of people who still believe that they are living in a democracy, unaware of the vast changes that have taken place, often uninterested in what is happening - and often too tired and stressed to have the time to take an interest - sadly a large proportion of the population; and a corpocracy consisting of people actively living and working at managerial level in the corporate world, enjoying the high financial rewards offered to those who do corporate bidding without question or complaint.

Fortunately there remain relatively small pockets of people who deliberately make themselves aware of what is going on - some of them being members of the Now We the People movement and anxious to rescue what is possible, in spite of apathy and exhaustion!

The basic demands of globalisation (and corpocracy) include: small government, reduced government spending (except on offering subsidies to ailing corporates!), ultimate control of the workforce, minimal payment of taxation to national governments, privatisation of public services and utilities and the greatest possible deregulation of banking, foreign investment and transferability of funds.

The single, over-riding aim is to make a profit - and keep on making profit - for the benefit of companies and their shareholders. When profits fall to any marked degree there is an almost immediate recouse to economic rationalisation and 'downsizing' which seeks to reduce loss of profit by reducing workforces proportionately, either by offering redundancies or by direct sackings.

Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, the authors of The Commanding Heights - the battle between government and the marketplace that is remaking the modern world, published in 1998, say: Five tests are likely to be decisive in shaping people's thinking and judgements about the shift away from the State and towards the market. They are, in brief:

1. Will market economies deliver on what they promised in terms of measurable economic 'goods' - growth, higher standards of living, better quality services and jobs?
2. Does (the system) disproportionately benefit the rich and greedy at the expense of the hardworking living in more moderate circumstances? Is there equity, fair play and opportunity?
3. Is the general participation in the new global economy very much a mixed blessing?
4. How will (or does) the system respond to the wide range of environmental concerns? Will it respond through comand-and-control or through innovative market-based systems?
5. What effects are seen in terms of demographics? For example, on whose shoulders and on which age-group will the costs involved in retirement from work, and health care, fall? As far as Australia and Tasmania are concerned, there are clear signs that the effects of globalisation (or what now passes as globalisation) tend towards the negative poles in relation to the five listed questions.

General
Almost universally the gap between the haves and have-nots has widened alarmingly. Benefits appear to have been disproportionately in favour of the rich.

Corporate funding of political parties, especially governments, is symptomatic of the influence that the corporates seek to have in government decision-making.

Recent taxation 'reform' in Australia has given birth to the GST which has, as one of its key aims, the underpinning of government tax revenue by the population at large - to make up for losses through corporate and rich individual tax minimisation.

One unfortunate effect of the GST has already emerged - its negative effect on small business. Many small firms have already been driven to the wall.

Further fatigue from economic reform is emerging from its added costs - a near-doubling in average household debt over the 1990s, dramatic decline in the extent of manufacturing and increasing signs of deeper poverty and dislocation in rural areas and the inner cities, largely as the result of the removal of services eg banks and governmetn agencies.

As a result of reduced government spending, the quality and availability of public health services, public education services and welfare services has been generally marginalised. In education there has been a marked shift to private education (which has been considerably enriched by disproportionate Commonwealth funding). Long and sometimes fatal waits for hospital treatments, as well as dental treatments, have become a frustrating feature of current health care. Constant pressures are being applied to push the unemployed intothe workforce - temporary, casual or voluntary.

The Workforce
Australia's total workforce, employed and unemployed, stood in January 2001 at 9,736,700 persons. Of this number, 68.5% were in fulltime jobs, 6.8% were totally unemployed, and a massive 24.7% were underemployed (in ABS terms, they worked more than one hour but less than standard hours in the week).

That means that more than 2,400,000 Australian men and women were looking actively for additional work. More than half wanted fulltime work and the rest, increased hours. There has been an increase in welfare dependency - the number of recipients of working age rose between 1988 and 1998 from 1.3 million to 2.3 million. According to Dr Henman (Macquarie University), the main causes of the increase are macroeconomic changes, burgeoning unemployment and underemployment - all despite a decade of economic growth that has consistently denied lower paid workers a fair share in the economic benefits generated.

With little or no recourse to union protection or natural justice, workers have been literally forced to accept injustices and poor working conditions - making complaints means to risk losing jobs.

"Australia has experienced one of the fastest and most damaging reductions in its public sector workforce of any OECD country - with disappointingly little public resistance or debate", and "Australia has been a world leader in 'reinventing government' by contracting out its services and functions, supplementing a privatisation programme that has, in dollar terms, exceeded that of many countries that dwarf Australia economically". (Australian Options) In recent years, governments of both persuasions have endeavoured increasingly to remove any protection that might be offered by trade unions.

A key strategy has become the development of workplace contracts and the exclusion of union representation from worksites. Most favoured is the single contract which allows much greater employer control across the board (depending on the scrupulousness of individual employers!) Insecurity has developed as a major source of worry for employees especially among the large numbers employed as casual or temporary staff. These appointments meant loss of sick and leave benefits etc - although there are signs that this situation will be remedied to some extent in the future.

Working overtime without extra pay has also become a common feature where downsizing has, in removing workers, also left someone to do all the jobs previously required.

Long-distance transport drivers are under increasing pressure to work extraordinary hours in spite of legislation designed to protect their interests.

Migrant workers in Australia are still being engaged in lowly paid (or unpaid) sweated labour, particularly in the clothing industry.

A recent Howard government move to push the Administrative Decisions Bill through the Senate is designed to disallow domestic challenges based on human rights violations through UN agencies etc.

Supermarkets in Australia rely heavily on the unemployment of young people, generally as casual or temporary labour.

Forest Enterprises in Tasmania is under attack for the generally unsatisfactory manner in which its activities are being conducted. For instance, it is claimed that an omission to receive Huon Council permission before clearing an area was "an oversight".

It is generally well-known that Forestry Tasmania can override established forest practices without penalty - and, in some instances, questioning such actions is not possible under the rules governing its administration.

The Manufacturing Workers Union has recently launched preemptive legal action to stop the secret training of an alternative workforce (strikebreakers) at an Adelaide oil refinery. More locally, I have noticed a tendency for some small shops in Burnie to be staffed by one person only at lunchtimes - placing such individuals at risk from possible lawbreakers.

Education
Corporate influence in tertiary education is demanding specific courses designed to train students in specific skills required in the corporate workforce - which is having a negative influence on encouraging breadth of education.

Corporate influence in primary and secondary schools, whilst helpful in the material sense, is clearly aimed at brain-washing pupils towards familiarity with corporate requirements and company logos etc.

The sacking of an academic at Wollongong Uni suggests that commercial issues are receiving more weight than free speech (and writing).

The Australian Education Union in Tasmania claims that private schools receive five times more commonwealth funding than State schools. At least 25% of all Tasmanian students now attend private schools.

Person in the Street
For the average man or woman in the street - upon whom Government relies to keep on spending to boost the fragile Australian economy - many are unconscious of the fact that their choice of shopping places is gradually being whittled down to heavy dependency on supermarkets and department stores, almost all of whom are cogs in the overarching corporate machine. These, in turn, have the clout (by virtue of spending power) to force suppliers, in many instances, particularly farmers and dairy farmers, to prices they offer - or leave them.

Choice of goods to buy, especially clothing and sports goods, is manipulated by powerful corporates with "normal brand names" - often with strong links to sweatshops and their lower costs of production - which are rammed endlessly down the throats through glossy advertising throughout the media (which, in itself, is controlled worldwide by a handful of media barons committed to globalisaiton and free trade for their huge share of the profits involved).

At the same time, the man or woman in the street - with little time or inclination to explore alternative media 'offerings' overseas - is fed with the messages that support the theme of buy, buy, buy, and as little information as possible that might lead to understanding of the whole situation. To make up for the lack of reality, attention is directed as attractively as possible to the great values of sport (which has been turned into a money-making spectacle wherever possible) and other diversions - the latest application of the Marxian principle of "religion, the anodyne of the masses".

Farming
Tasmanians are now aware of the GMO seed experimentation in secret locations in the State, in spite of a Government moratorium against it. Clearly the agro-chemical companies involved, tacitly supported by the Commonwealth government, deliberately ignored the local rules in order to push their own agenda.

Local cheese manufacturer, Lactos, which has made its reputation with the quality of its products and the "clean, green" label, has lost its previous managing director (who expressed publicly his aversion to GMO experimentation in Tasmania) and is now directed by a contract CEO, who has shown that he is prepared to downgrade production for the domestic market in favour of increased export targets.

The recent proliferation of forest plantations on marginal and productive ex-farmland, encouraged by farmers who snatched at the inflated prices offered for their land, as well as speculators seeking to minimise taxation, threatens the overall management of sustainable forestry management as well as the established rural social fabric.

George Sanders