No Globalization Without Representation
By Dr. Lenora Fulani
"The hour of destruction, or manly opposition to the machinations
of tyranny, stares you in the face. Every friend to his country, to
himself and posterity...is now called upon...to make a united and
successful resistance to this last, worst and most destructive
measure of administration."
Is this a leaflet for the protests at last week's meeting of the
World Trade Organization in Seattle? No. It's a leaflet for a
1773 town meeting in Boston to protest the passage of the
Tea Act by England's Parliament. But the 226 years between
the Seattle and Boston protests notwithstanding, the two
events have some interesting things in common.
The British East India Company, which dominated the late
18th century tea trade in Asia, was on the verge of collapse.
Its warehouses along the Thames were hugely overstocked
with unsold tea. It was time for a "bailout"-1770's style. East
India was awarded a monopoly in the American colonies and
a deal in which the British government would refund to it the
import duties collected upon arrival of the tea in England from
Asia. A duty tax on the colonies was imposed by the Tea Act
of 1773, but since the price of East India's tea would drop due
to the refund, it would be cheaper than the Dutch tea it competed
against. Thus, the British expected that America would relinquish
protests about taxation without representation because the
people were getting a good buy. Parliament believed it could
thus secure its authority to tax the colonies-something the
colonists had been resisting for over ten years-and save Britain's
control over the international tea trade in the process.
However, Parliament was wrong. The colonists recognized
the ploy for what it was-an effort to bribe them into complying
with an unconstitutional tax, into forfeiting their political interests
in exchange for cheap consumer goods.
When three British ships carrying 45 tons of tea landed at Griffin's
Wharf in Boston Harbor, a group of some 200 patriots, disguised
as Mohawk Indians, dumped the tea into the harbor.
The British called the Boston Tea Party an insurrection and
closed the port of Boston, abrogated the Massachusetts
Charter, installed a military governor, and completely usurped
the colony's democratic institutions. In response to this and
other parliamentary acts which imposed England's authoritarian
will on the colonies, the Committees of Correspondence were
formed, which soon convened the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia in 1774. The solidarity there was remarkable.
Patrick Henry said it most eloquently: "All America is thrown
into one mass. Where are your landmarks-your boundaries
of colonies? They are all thrown down. The distinctions between
Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders
are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American."
Less than two years later, the Declaration of Independence
was drafted and signed. The war to establish the democratic
governance of America of, by and for the people, had begun.
The Battle in Seattle was not exactly a tea party. And today's
global trading realities are a lot more complex than the days
when the British East India Company controlled the tea trade.
But the principle that the terms of U.S. participation in the world
marketplace-as both consumers and producers-must be determined
democratically by the American people is still at issue. It is that
principle that Americans are rising to defend-including those in
the streets of Seattle, in the communities of color (amongst the
hardest hit by the erosion of our manufacturing base); including
environmentalists, trade unionists and economic nationalists.
Cheap consumer goods, the "bribe" of the new millennium,
won't make up for the declining quality of U.S. jobs, the vast
discrepancies in the distribution of wealth, the destruction of
the global environment, the undermining of our sovereignty and
human rights violations overseas.
The anti-WTO movement is a movement that throws down the
boundaries depicted by Patrick Henry two centuries ago. This
time, the boundaries are less geographic and more ideological.
And it is this coming together of left, center and right-the creation
of "one mass" -that seriously threatens the bipartisan elite.
That is one reason why my Reform Party alliance with Pat Buchanan,
a left/right coalition opposed to economic policies that favor
transnational special interests, has caused such a furor.
Does Seattle signal the coming of a new American revolution
against postmodern tyranny and for a radically restructured and
reformed democratic process? Only if the American people are
ready to dump the two parties and rebel against the labor, left and
environmental bureaucrats who tell them to vote for the Democrats
in spite of their support for the WTO and like-minded trade policies.
That's what the Reform Party is all about. And that's what its
political reform agenda is all about-giving the American people
the power to determine our trade policy by restoring our control
over our own government through instituting process reforms like
term limits, initiative and referenda, same day voter registration
and campaign finance restructuring.
The revolutionists tossed the tea into the harbor rather than be
subject to taxation without representation. But it wasn't about
the tea or about the tax. It was about the process by which the
tea was taxed. We fought a war to guarantee that the process
by which commerce and society overall were governed would
be democratic and self-determined. And there are battles yet to
be won.
Today the usurpers of democracy and self-determination are not
the British Crown and Parliament, but Bill Clinton and Al Gore,
Trent Lott and George W. Bush-the Democrats and the Republicans
who would have the WTO and its unelected representatives of
multinational capital set the terms for our economic endeavors.
If the battle cry of the 1770's was "No Taxation Without
Representation," then the battle cry of the new millennium may be
"No Globalization Without Representation." And America is going
to have to declare its political independence from the two parties
to make it stick.
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Lenora B. Fulani twice ran for President of the U.S. as an independent,
making history in 1988 when she became the first woman and African
American to get on the ballot in all fifty states. Dr. Fulani is currently a
leading activist in the Reform Party and chairs the Committee for a
Unified Independent Party. She can be reached at 800-288-3201
or at fulani.org. Please notify editor@cuip.org to be added
to this email distribution list.
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