Dialogue: Globalisation protests have arrived 50 years too late

By KEITH SUTER*

Another chapter in the worldwide demonstrations against globalisation was added by the May Day protests throughout Europe. These were the successors to last month's rallies in Washington, which had an intensity last seen in the United States in the opposition to the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

But a number of compelling factors suggest this reaction against globalisation is too little too late. The riots in the 1960s were against specific targets, notably the Vietnam War.

Globalisation is not a specific target. Globalisation is the erosion of the power of national governments, which have to share their power with other organisations, notably transnational corporations. National governments no longer have so much power over their economies.

It is a process, not a specific event. A fish does not know that it swims in water; people have been slow to notice the process of globalisation that has been going on all around them.

The Vietnam War was straightforward to oppose. For opponents, there was nothing to be said in its favour. But globalisation has become entrenched in almost all the countries of the world because it has different aspects which appeal to different people.

For the first time in human history, many countries have a mass-based consumer economy. A century ago, the richest person in the world had few choices about how to spend his or her money. Dental treatment, for example, would have been painful - no matter how rich a person was.

But now more people have more wealth for more goods than ever before because of the growth of a global consumer market for goods. A rising tide lifts all boats.

The anti-globalisation demonstrators will have problems maintaining public support if they argue that there should be fewer goods on sale. Consumers enjoy their clothes, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, pop music, television and movies. They will not surrender these to oppose globalisation.

Many people in Asia are being exploited in poor working conditions making goods for the Western market. But life back on the farms is not easy, either. Many of the present generation in Asia are doomed to suffering, whether on farms or in factories.

They hope that eventually the wealth of their countries will enable them - or their children - to have better lives as their countries gradually get richer.

I am the beneficiary of the suffering that was inflicted on my forebears a century and more ago as Britain went through its own industrial revolution. I live well partly as a result of their suffering. No country has yet invented a gentle way to go from a farming-based economy to a modern factory one.

A further problem for the opponents of globalisation is that they are all agreed on their dislike of the process, but they have different motivations. Some are concerned with the exploitation of workers in all countries and believe that all workers should have a better standard of living.

Others are nationalists who dislike foreigners (be they Jews, Asians, blacks, Western bankers or Americans from Hollywood). They are opposed to globalisation because it is the latest form of foreign influence in their countries.

Then there are people in Western countries who want to keep out cheap foreign goods from Asian countries because they undercut the prices of their own goods.

Third World countries want access to the markets in Western countries where their goods will undercut the higher-priced goods in those countries. They have large foreign debts to pay off and they will be able to do this only by selling goods in Western countries.

With such a variety of motivations, it is going to be very difficult to maintain a united front against globalisation.

The tragedy is that we should have been having this debate half a century ago, just as the globalisation process was getting under way. Then we could have tried to design a globalisation process - preferably through the United Nations - that would have benefited more of humankind.

The reality is that globalisation is taking place and cannot be reversed. How can we bring together all the parties (including the transnational corporations) to make sure that globalisation works better for more people. How are we going to make lemonade out of this lemon?

* Dr Keith Suter is a senior fellow of the Australian Global Business Network.