The violent reactions to an attempt to begin a new round of the World Trade Organization in Seattle should be considered and understood by every United States citizen. We need to get past the platitudes and "spin" of the media and politicians to the underlying reasons for the development of GATT and the WTO.
War has been an historical approach to resolving economic disagreements. Economic restrictions such as tariffs and non-tariff barriers have also been used. Most of the approaches of earlier centuries and decades have been attempts to support some system of protecting the "haves" from the "have-nots." In some cases, the "have-nots have taken away the wealth of the "haves."
After the World Wars, there was some hope of developing a system for listening and talking to resolve economic conflicts and for the development of a more inclusive world. GATT and eventually the WTO are the results of that resolve. Simply put, the WTO is what GATT became at the point of adding some measure of sanctioning powers to its agreements.
During my early years (thirty-five years ago) in the automobile industry, I was a unit president of a UAW local union. Part of my responsibilities included attending national union meetings in Detroit where I sometimes gave the opening invocation and Walter Ruether, President of the UAW International Union was the principle speaker. It was always a thrill to hear Walter speak. Walter Ruether, with the exception of Lee Iaccoca, was the most charismatic speaker I have ever met. Walter was a powerful man. His presence filled a room as he entered, even when thousands of people were in attendance. He captured the heart and intellect of virtually every person in his presence. Walter could speak for two hours and it would seem like fifteen minutes. One could disagree with everything he was saying and still not want him to end a speech. It always seemed like he was talking directly to me. Every person in the room felt that Walter was speaking directly to him or her.
One of Walter's speeches is burned indelibly into my memory. He began the speech by saying that, "In return for years of loyalty and service to a company, you deserve more consideration than a paycheck. You deserve some sense of security and appreciation." He went on to say, "Until you have done your day's work, you do not even deserve a paycheck." Some of the local union leaders were not too happy with the addendum about "doing your day's work."
His closing comments to this particular speech were extremely poignant. The events of the past week in Seattle reminded me of those closing points. Ruether said that a few weeks before our meeting, the reigning Henry Ford had taken him for a plant tour of a Ford manufacturing plant. Walter told of Henry bringing his attention to a bright shiny new automated machine along their tour route. Ford was quoted as saying, "Walter, that machine replaced six men. How do you feel about losing union dues from those six men?" To which Walter replied, "I am not as concerned about losing their union dues as I am about how you are going to sell new Fords to those six men in the future." Walter then looked at us with a stern countenance and prophetic admonition. He said, "Gentlemen and Ladies, I can foresee the day when, due to automation and mechanization, three percent of the world's people will be able to do one-hundred percent of the world's work." After a dramatic pause, he went on to say, "The challenge of our generation will be to discover ways to include the other ninety-seven percent of the world's people in sharing an acceptable amount of the world's wealth so that they can survive. If we do not meet this challenge, the world may not survive."
He reminded us that, eventually, the majority will rule. Hungry people become desperate and angry when they can find no way to provide for their families and no opportunities for some amount of comfort. He said that if we fail to meet the challenge of including the ninety-seven percent, they will eventually take everything from the three percent and we will digress to a time when there were no comfortable lives.
We, the citizens of the United States, have believed for years that the third world and less developed nations cannot stand against our nuclear power. After all, we have more nukes than the rest of the world's nations together. Today, people who are angry with us and jealous of what we have are developing simple and inexpensive weapons of mass destruction that cannot be detected. These weapons can be delivered by one person or a few individuals and are capable of killing millions of our citizens.
It is imperative that we, at least, have a forum for listening and talking with them. Walter's words still ring prophetic in my memory as I watch the protesters' signs urging us to separate from the WTO. "The challenge of our generation will be to discover ways to include the other ninety-seven percent of the world's people in sharing an acceptable amount of the world's wealth so that they can survive."
If we refuse to listen, they will still be heard.
Dan Robling
December 4, 1999
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