I wrote this in the aftermath of tragic events of Tuesday 11th Of September. It is still unclear who were behind these awful attacks, but it is hard to imagine who else might have interest to hit these targets except opponents of the globalization. Anti-globalists have been behind all major terrorist attacks done in the USA during last ten years, such as first WTC bombing 1993, Oklahoma bombing 1995 and Atlanta bomb attack 1996.
Enemies of the globalization are divided to many different groups of interest hostile to each other, only common nominator is that there is nothing in common. The movement is negation of the ideas of universal freedom and equality. Thus movement against the globalization is destructive first of all to itself, and the danger is that mutual hostilities lead finally to destruction of the whole planet. But what is this movement, who are these people who murder thousands of people with massive terrorist attacks, hundreds of thousands of people with economic sanctions and millions of people by marketing breastmilk substitutes to poor countries?
First of all, movement consists of opponents of globalization of the human possibilities. They are organized in form of nation states allied together to form imperiums. They resist idea to give everyone equal opportunities to make their own lives better. They build border controls, personal registers, military alliances and geopolitical interests. The purpose is to isolate the rich from the poor, and to create artificial common interests based on common history and language, against other people. Sad but true, this movement has often managed to take over the workers movement, which was once the most internationalist movement on Earth. Many participators of the environmental movement have been mislead as well. This movement seems not to suffer in Finland although the state of Finland has vanished as an independent subject of the global economy. The state of Finland continues its existence as a reservation of ice-hockey players and a Formula 1 car riding endless cycle and hunting tobacco sponsorship millions, trying to maintain illusion that nothing has changed.
Another branch of the movement are opponents of the globalization of self-governance and self-sufficiency. They fight against universal human demand of secure and independent livelihood. They are organized in a form of multinational corporations, common interest groups of multinational corporations and international organs claiming to "liberate" the world trade. Their purpose is to secure the supply of cheap raw materials to rich countries, and to divide world to consumers and producers. Their ethics is that of anti-universalism, that some have right to consume more than the others.
Third branch of the movement are enemies of the globalization of identities. They believe that in one place nature of human being is to grow a beard and walk veiled, in another to cut a short hair and wear a necktie. It is nowhere OK to be a gay, since it is "unnatural", whatever it means. At first sight these groups seem to be marginal, but then one realizes that protestant and Islamic fundamentalists organizing massive terrorist attacks are just a peak of the iceberg. More moderate forms of these movements exist everywhere - Freedom party of Austria, National Front of France, right-wing republicans of the US, Progress party Of Norway, Communist Party of Russian Federation. groups trying to create prisons of identities inside of which people are forced to uniform behavior. Real multi-culturality and ethnicity means that identities travel around the world crossing all the borders, and everyone may pick from the pack what they like. One should have as much right to be mushroom eating shaman in Finland as a computer hacker in Siberian taiga.
Fourth wing of the movement are enemies of the globalization of the equality - such as many economists and creditor institutions such as London and Paris clubs and IMF. They believe, that international financial institutions working with commercial principles may increase equality. They believe, that a company should be allowed to go bankrupt, but states from which citizens expect to receive social benefits should never be able to clean their debt. They believe that wealth created by economic growth trickles down to poor, and that no other means of creating equality exists.
There is no space for conspiracy theories here - the anti-globalist movement is dangerous due to difference of its interests, not because it has some secret agenda. For us fighting for globalization it is also no use to look anti-globalists only arrogantly. We do represent universal values of freedom and equality against relativism and egoism of anti-globalists, but still our ideas also include controversies and goals such as self-sufficiency, freedom and equality are often difficult to unite. However, idea of universal humanity is our only light in the darkness, and after 11th of September 2001 it is more clear than never before that we have no any other hope.
Antti Rautiainen 14th of September 2001
globalization & war | antti rautiainen | www.agp.org | www.all4all.org