Despite their best attempts to limit open shows of protest, the World Trade Organization (WTO) will have to put up with at least one rather large and unwanted guest when it convenes its annual meetings of top trade ministers in the small middle-eastern state of Qatar this weekend.
Greenpeace’s 55-metre long schooner, the Rainbow Warrior, will soon be docked in the harbour of Qatar’s capital, Doha, broadcasting pirate radio and offering seminars on the harmful effects of globalization to local residents.
“After the summit is over they’ll be sending out press releases about how great the event has been. We have people on the ship with a different story to tell and we really hope people will listen to it,” said spokesperson Marjorie Nichol. The radio broadcasts will also be on-line at the Greenpeace website.
The seminars on the Rainbow Warrior—given by an international group of witnesses who have seen first hand some negative effects of WTO policies—will also be open to WTO delegates, in the unlikely event they decide to skip out on gourmet dinners and venture outside the security zone.
Nichol explained that the unusual form of nautical protest was adopted because of the extreme restrictions in attending the summit. Plane tickets cost $4,000, hotel rooms are impossible to find and even those who have made it there are now being told that barely any public displays of protest will be allowed.
“We think the whole process should be open to the public. As it is now we’re not even allowed to be in the town,” she said.
The extreme lockdown comes after the last WTO summit in Seattle where demonstrators, angry that only business and government reps are included in the talks, managed to shut down parts of the event. The WTO has a general mandate to increase trade around the world. However, none of its agreements are formally tied to any sort of environmental improvements, and they often supercede local laws put in place to protect the environment.
Greenpeace wants to change that, saying that the WTO could be a positive force if it stopped the secrecy of its meetings (the public is not allowed in, nor are any non-governmental organizations) and it adopted a key set of demands.
“They shouldn’t have any more talks after this one until the US signs the Kyoto protocol,” said Nichol, referring to the global warming treaty that nearly every country has signed except the US. “The US shouldn’t be able to pick and choose. When there is a huge deal that allows corporations to trump community interests around the world, they choose to go in on that, but not when they are asked to cut their emissions. That’s just not fair.”
Another key demand is that subsidies for environmentally problematic industries should be stopped.
“We give huge subsidies to drill for oil, which is bad for the environment, and we don’t give any subsidies at all for to companies that seek to generate wind or solar energy,” she said. “It should be the other way around; we should use government subsidy policy to encourage good behaviour, not bad.”
Other demands include ensuring WTO policies are not implemented without environmental assessments and that they are not allowed to overule local environmental laws. Greenpeace also wants to stop the patenting of lifeforms (mainly genetically modified seeds) because they fear that with widespread use of GE seeds a handful of companies could overthrow local agriculture world-wide. Finally, the group wishes to see the precautionary principle adopted as a matter of course.
“Precautionary principle simply says if there is scientific uncertainty about what an activity will do to the environment, the burden of proof should be on the people who want to pursue the questionable activity,” said Nichol..
