RATIONALE

The 1998 APEC Summit

This year's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Meeting will be held in November in Malaysia. Since the first Leaders' Meeting in 1993, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), people's organisations, and social movements have met in parallel gatherings to highlight concerns about the "free trade, free market" model of trade and investment liberalisation that APEC promotes. Today, a strong global movement continuously monitors, educates and mobilises people to fight the neoliberal economic programmes causing untold hardship to workers, women and peoples the world over. More than 300 participants from the Asia-Pacific region are expected to attend the Peoples' Assembly in Kuala Lumpur. This year's assembly is of utmost importance given the current financial crisis in Asia, the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the upcoming negotiations at the WTO.

What is APEC?

APEC is a regional consultative forum that includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States, with Peru, Russia, and Vietnam as new members this year. APEC aims for regional free trade by the year 2010 for developed countries and 2020 for developing countries.

"Through APEC, we aim to get governments out of the way, opening the way for business to do business."- US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Joan Spero

APEC is a non-accountable body in which heads-of-state meet behind closed doors as "Economic Leaders": representatives of economies not countries. Participation is limited to government, business, and academia, and, as a result, APEC fails to address the impact of globalisation on workers, the environment, human rights, women, indigenous peoples, farmers, and the poor. The Asia-Pacific Peoples' Assembly refuses to let APEC ignore these issues.

Why a Peoples' Assembly?

There is a rush to globalise. All over the world, governments are racing to negotiating tables, eager to sign their sovereignty away for pieces of the economic miracle that globalisation promises. The supposed miracle is tempting: rapid economic growth, rapid development-a gateway to the good life. It is also threatening: those who do not join will surely perish in poverty, isolation, and backwardness. But the simplicity of its message masks the enormity of its effect: globalisation may be the most fundamental redesign of the world's economic, political, and cultural systems ever to take place.

Globalisation, through modern communications and through free trade blocks, multilateral agreements such as the WTO, and global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, has produced an unprecedented integration of the world economy. Money, as those in Mexico and Southeast Asia certainly understand, can now travel the world in seconds. Proponents of globalisation argue that this integration strengthens competition and ensures the optimum distribution of resources. They claim it will bring rapid economic growth and prosperity for all.

But, behind the promises of prosperity there exists a grim reality: the disintegration of the social order, increasing inequality and squalor, displacement and landlessness, violence and homelessness, alienation and growing fear of the future. Globalisation has also brought massive damage to the natural world as evidenced by global climate change, ozone depletion, widespread species loss, water crises, and numerous forms of pollution.

Globalisation has not even managed to create the so-called level-playing field that it promises; multilateral agreements continue to reflect power imbalances between the north and the south. Few southern countries possess the technological know-how and capital to compete within the global economy, and multilateral agreements on investments and intellectual property only exacerbate the inequalities between nations. Consequently, competition to attract capital invariably depends on the "environment" for investment; in other words, the cost of labour, the degree of environmental and safety regulations, and the level of taxation. This is not development but a race to the bottom.

The proponents of globalisation look beyond the current reality; they speak about how all boats will eventually rise with the tide of economic growth. In the meantime, they acknowledge that some people will have to suffer and shoulder the risks. These people are clearly not from transnational corporations, which now control more than 60% of all global trade. And, they are certainly not the wealthy, who can afford the imported food and the newly privatised services such as health care. They are farmers forced off their lands to make way for large-scale monoculture crops for export. They are workers who have lost jobs to machines and corporate flight. They are women forced to sell their bodies in the tourism industry. They are indigenous peoples forced off their lands for short-term mining profits. And, as they wait for globalisation's unseen rewards, these people are rapidly losing any democratic space that they may have had to voice their opposition to these policies and to seek their rightful dues.

Globalisation has to be scrutinised and exposed. It is a process that concentrates capital and political control in the hands of the few, while offering nothing to those most in need. We must develop a vision of a radically reshaped international economic and financial order where economic power, wealth and income are more equitably distributed and the environment is respected. This is our challenge when we meet during the Peoples' Assembly.

Confronting Globalisation: Reasserting Peoples' Rights

1998 marks the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, as we celebrate the recognition of our universal rights, violations of these rights have increased dramatically this year. The current regional crisis has upset economies, communities, and environments, and has undermined the economic, social, and cultural rights that we have struggled hard for. As past People's Summits have warned, the crisis is the logical outcome of a model of development that clearly fails to grasp what "human rights" mean.

Interested organisations and individuals from within and outside of Malaysia are encouraged to join in hosting the Peoples' Assembly. If you or your organisation are interested in hosting or assisting with a Peoples' Assembly event, an issue or sector forum, or a cultural activity, please contact the Secretariat for more information. The intention is to create a genuine space to contest crucial ideas and issues in an open and participatory way.