Jeremy Corbyn
Exploitation and hope
JEREMY CORBYN looks at the contrasting worlds of Davos, where the faceless and super-rich are meeting, and the Kenya World Social Forum's authentic democratric voices of hope.
REPORTS from the World Economic Forum meeting in the Swiss town of Davos have dominated the media over the last week.
The uninitiated could be forgiven for mistaking that the WEF or "world summit," to give it its shortened name, is some sort of United Nations organisation that represented a legitimate coming together of heads of government. The reality is somewhat different.
The event has seen Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders issue various pronouncements on climate change and the prospects for a world trade deal in the near future.
However, the WEF is actually a business membership organisation. Companies must have sufficient turnover to be able to join and make an initial payment of ,000. They then pay huge amounts more to receive information and newsletters.
A big payment must also be made to attend the meeting, alongside a promise of good behaviour. Dissent is not welcomed.
The WEF annual report boasts assets of over 0 million and of the secure and pleasant environment in which the talks take place.
Around 800 chairmen or chief executives representing big business join members of the Forbes rich list to make the trip each year.
To ensure that the event takes place in a pleasant environment free from protesters and cushioned from reality, Swiss taxpayers fund security to the tune of million. Anyone who wants to raise a critical voice is kept miles away by a massive security presence which ensures that the clear crisp air is not polluted by any discordant rabble.
An economic summit just for companies would not work, so some government leaders are invited to ensure that the message of deregulation, asset protection, exploitative trade agreements and profitability is spread and a few royals are asked along to decorate the forum's big end-of-show dinner.
Each year, a few non-governmental organisations are invited to join the jamboree to give the impression that this really is a participative event designed to put the world to rights.
However, any NGO that is lucky enough to be granted a pass has to be on its best behaviour. Some get invited back. Others are not so lucky.
Mumbai and Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South was once invited, but it was asked not to return as it had been deemed to be "negative in its approach" to the nature of the conference. The same applies to governments from poorer countries.
The forum boasted that this year's overarching theme of Shaping the Global Agenda, the Shifting Power Equation would give business the opportunity to influence the future, while WEF founder and guru Professor Klaus Schwab expressed concern at "an increasingly schizophrenic world."
Bang on cue, Merkel asserted in her opening speech: "Globalisation offers far more opportunities than risks for people - more peace, more prosperity and more growth."
The meeting then spent several days extolling its belief in eternal growth and consumption, while claiming that this had nothing to do with environmental destruction.
Meanwhile, a few thousand miles away, 150,000 people attended an alternative event.
The World Social Forum was conceived at the Seattle WTO demonstrations and was initially held in Porto Alegre in Brazil.
Its aim was to provide space and opportunity for social movements from across the globe that would allow the landless, marginalised, poor and dispossessed to meet, discuss and agree common themes for the future.
Under the banner Another World Is Possible, the assembly educated itself and united around themes.
One theme was the impact of globalisation on employment, where operations are routinely closed down by firms in "expensive" places and opened up in slightly cheaper locations as capital moves freely around the globe. The victims of these capital movements have no such freedom.
The Kenya WSF motto People's Struggles, People's Alternatives - Another World is Possible provided the backdrop for a discussion about free trade and its effects.
So, while the conference in the crisp air of Davos was united in its determination to create global free trade, opening markets and ownership of industries and services to allcomers, those meeting in the sports arena outside Nairobi were more concerned about "economic partnership agreements."
Under these schemes, the European Union insists on an open market for its goods and services in return for market access for primary products. The net result is the privatisation of services and loss of economic power and sovereignty for the world's poorest states.
Not for nothing is it said that a new form of colonialism is being heaped upon Africa.
The WSF also discussed issues of war and peace, condemning the Iraq war and supporting the Palestinian people in their determination to achieve justice and recognition. But, being held in Africa for the first time, issues of land ownership, HIV/Aids, access to water and sanitation were high on the agenda.
The WSF does not pretend to be a political party or even an incipient world movement, but more a space for democratic discussion and debate.
The contrast between Davos and Nairobi could not be greater. Opulence versus poverty.
Authentic democratic voices versus the faceless power of the super-rich.
A message of hope versus greed.
We live in a media age and the reporting by the main TV channels and newspapers showed just where their allegiance and interests lie.
The Davos event was presented as a legitimate and serious discussion on global issues with an air of authority. The Nairobi event was barely reported, although the BBC website managed to dig out a story on a dispute about the sale of food at the forum's grounds.
Tragically, the manoeuvrings at Davos are likely to bring about a new initiative on world trade that will increase the power of global corporations and harm the interests and needs of the poorest people in the poorest countries.
However, the WSF provides a vital opportunity for the people who suffer most from the ravages of "free" trade and globalisation.
Sustainable locally based agriculture and industry will do far more for environmental protection than all the pious words in Davos.
• Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North. He can be contacted at corbynj@parliament.uk
