Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party of India, November 21, 2001
The process of globalisation that the WTO has spearheaded has brought untold misery and devastation to millions of workers, peasants and other small scale producers. Hundreds of farmers in India have committed suicide. Entire industries have been wiped out by the influx of cheap imports. Thousands of workers, belonging to the garment, textile, construction and engineering industries, have been thrown out on the streets as a direct result of the stipulations of the WTO. The lifting of trade restrictions on all kinds of goods has tied the Indian economy hand and foot to the merciless imperialist cartels.
The WTO came into existence in 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Anglo-American imperialists led the effort to establish this new international trade body that will function as their tool for the accelerated penetration of imperialist capital in all parts of the world and capture of the world's markets by the biggest monopolies of the world. Their aim was that the triad of WTO and the neo-colonial financial institutions - the World Bank and IMF- would act in unison and pave the way for the conquest of world markets by the handful of big powers and their multinational companies and banks. The aim was and remains the imposition of a "new world order", based on maximum exploitation and plunder of the majority of nations and peoples in the interests of the biggest imperialists and monopolies of the world.
Taking advantage of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, US imperialism and its allies have used the WTO to step up the attacks on the sovereignty of the majority of nations and peoples of the world. The WTO has become a convenient mechanism for the imperialists to interfere in and dictate the trade policy of any independent state.
India, for instance, has the right to have its own import and export policy, free from outside control or dictate. This right emanates from the fact that India is a sovereign state. This is an essential component of political independence, without which the sovereignty of the Indian State would have no meaning. By joining the WTO, the Indian State has compromised its political independence. The Government of India has given up its fundamental right to regulate the flow of goods and services into and out of Indian territory and submitted to the dictates of the imperialist powers on this question.
The process of globalisation of capital and production, championed by the WTO and other imperialist agencies, has not brought any benefits to the workers and other working people in the US, Britain and other advanced capitalist countries either. It is only the big financial and industrial oligopolies, the military-industrial complex in the US, and other such parasitic forces that have gained in terms of additional super-profits and domination over economic decisions.
The imperialist offensive is faced with growing opposition on the part of the majority of peoples, especially in the poor and oppressed nations of the world. At a recent meeting in Tanzania, officials from 49 of the world's poorest countries expressed grave concern over the meeting at Doha and the devastating effect that trade liberalisation and WTO laws have had on their economies so far.
As the glaring inequalities expose the true character of the WTO, the contradictions are intensifying also among the imperialists themselves. They are divided on who should share, and in what proportion, the spoils of the super-exploitation and plunder. While they are divided on who should get the biggest share of the cake, they are united in imposing their dictate on the world's peoples.
While demanding that all signatories to the WTO observe the rules that have been laid down, the imperialists themselves have flouted every rule in the WTO book. The tested "divide and rule" policy of imperialism has been used to try and prevent the governments and peoples of the world's nations to unite and reject this undemocratic forum.
The Government of India claims to have put up a stiff opposition to the draft agreement that was pushed by the US and others for adoption at Doha. However, the question is not merely whether this particular draft is adopted or rejected. As far as the majority of Indian people are concerned, the question is far deeper. Why should India remain part of this enslaving WTO?
There is no justification for India to remain part of the WTO. The WTO is against the interests of the masses of workers and peasants of India. It is in violation of India's independence. It contradicts the principles of mutual benefit in international economic relations. It has disastrous effects on small producers and on the broad masses of consumers, i.e., on the workers and peasants who constitute the majority of the population.
The Government of India and its spokesmen are trying to justify their unprincipled position with the false argument that India will allegedly get isolated if it pulls out of the WTO. India, with over a billion people, will not perish by pulling out of the WTO. On the contrary, it will set an example for other smaller countries and inspire them to pull out of the WTO as well. The path will be opened to enter into mutually beneficial trade relations with countries that reject the imperialist dominated WTO.
The propaganda that "there is no alternative" to the path being pursued by the Government today must be rejected. There IS an alternative. The alternative is to pull out of the WTO, on an immediate basis, and seek over time to develop bilateral and multilateral trade relations that are mutually beneficial, not enslaving and unequal. What is needed is an international trade forum that is organised on democratic lines, where all countries, big and small, can enjoy equal say in deciding the terms of trade. International trade should enable the well-being of all peoples to be secured.
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