[asia-apec 1796] (Hong Kong) People before Profit, Development with Dignity

[Kevin Yuk-shing Li]

People before Profit, Development with Dignity

Position paper
Solidarity and Resistance against Globalisation
Hong Kong

Most people think of Hong Kong as affluent and exciting - a glamorous corner
of universal prosperity on the tip of poverty-stricken "communist" China.
Yet the disparity between rich and poor in our "City of Life" is shocking -
and getting worse. In 1996, the Gini coefficient (an indicator of a
society's equality where one equals perfect inequality and zero perfect
equality)
for Hong Kong was 0.518, a figure that compares unfavourably with many of
the world's developing countries. Many Hong Kongers - blue-collar workers,
professionals and even managers - face unemployment or underemployment.
Working class families are living in dire poverty and having to cope with
the stresses this can bring - poor housing, divorce, violence, drug abuse
and a lack of educational opportunities.

The government's response has been to launch ideologically driven policies
to maintain or increase profits: government services are subcontracted to
the private sector, reducing them to the status of a commercial activity.
Employers have slashed wages and increased working hours; those who have
jobs find them increasingly insecure as employment climbs to 5% or more. At
the same time, social welfare has been cut and those claiming CSSA have been
stigmatised as scroungers. The very environment we live in is being
permanently damaged by profit-orientated development.

Yet we in Hong Kong are not the exception. Working people all over the world
are facing this same reality whether they live in "rich" or "poor" regions.
The problems are particularly acute in developing countries that are being
forced to compete on the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) mythical "level
playing field". The WTO's hypocrisy is breathtaking. Its trade rules are
forcing developing countries to open their agricultural markets to heavily
subsidised agribusiness corporations from the developed world while small
farmers are forced off the land and into the clutches of poverty and
disease. Urban workers' jobs are increasingly insecure as hungry migrants
move to the cities in search of work and wages are forced down as a result.
Women especially are the hardest hit as they often have to suffer
discrimination and prejudices that deny them access to education, employment
opportunities and social resources in general. They suffer under the yoke of
a double oppression.

Yet the source of all this misery is hardly a mystery. At the heart is an
unequal distribution of power and wealth in human society. In 1998, the
richest 20% of the world's population were 78 times wealthier than the
poorest 20%. The world's richest 385 people own and control more capital
than the sum capital of 2.5 billion people. Such are the inequities of the
so-called laissez-faire economy. This is not a "natural" state of affairs.
The market is a trading mechanism created by man and regulated by man-made
rules. The men (and some women) who make the rules are high- ranking
government officials working in tandem with rich and powerful businessmen
obsessed with maximising profits. Hong Kong's government has long endorsed
this "trickledown", non-interventionist model that espouses the free market,
a congenial business environment and loosely regulated competition.

Ironically, the result is hardly a "competitive" scenario, let alone a
"level playing field". Giant transnational companies (TNCs), increasingly
monopolise the global market. They offer massive support to governments
(often in the form of hard cash) that implement business-friendly policies
and undermine (occasionally resorting to armed subversion) the few
governments that dare to offer an alternative. The whole process lacks the
participation of working people who get poorer as the rich get richer.

Against this backdrop, the World Economic Forum (WEF) is preparing to
convene in our city. It is made up of the representatives of TNCs and
government elites from all over the world. Although the WEF does not have
the statutory power of the WTO or the brute fiscal influence of the World
Bank, its meetings and conferences aim to persuade or coerce governments to
further open their markets to the TNCs. It is actively neo-liberal and
played a key role in the creation of the WTO. It publishes annual country
reports on competitiveness and rabidly promotes unfettered competition as
the only means to wealth creation.

The WEF summit offers us an opportunity to fight back! Our values are not
based on power and wealth but the right to live, a decent standard of
living, dignity and mutual respect. We reject the government's hypocrisy and
double standards - even as it preaches a "free market", it has made one
intervention after another to protect the interests of the rich and powerful
at the expense of the rest of us.

Solidarity and Resistance against Globalisation is a broad alliance of
non-government organisations and individuals with different concerns and
priorities in Hong Kong. But we are united in our demand for justice and the
right to live with dignity. Our demands to those that rule over us are
simple and clear:

1. An immediate halt to privatisation. Actively create genuine, fairly paid
jobs for working people.
2. Guarantee the economic and political rights of all people. Implement
democratic monitoring of the activities of governments, TNCs and
international organisations.
3. Governments and TNCs must accept their global responsibilities. The
interests of developing countries must be taken into account and all future
economic development should be based on equality and justice.
4. A balance between development and environmental protection must be our
goal. Openly conducted evaluation of environmental impact should be built
into all economic activity.

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Reply Slip

To all friends concerned with Hong Kong's development and the livelihood of
its people,

Solidarity and Resistance against Globalisation
Official Inauguration.
Join Us!

We have recently set up Solidarity and Resistance against Globalisation
(SRG), an alliance of groups and individuals in Hong Kong who are angry and
concerned at rising global poverty. One of our immediate tasks is to focus
on the upcoming summit meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), to be held
in Hong Kong this coming October. The SRG hopes to organise an appropriate
reception for the Summit and help concentrate the minds of the pro-business
leaders attending on the urgent problems facing us.

For most working people in Hong Kong, everyday life has become increasingly
difficult over recent years. Wage cuts, the contracting out of public
services, increasingly powerful monopolies and environmental destruction
caused by transnational companies are the daily reality of our lives. Hong
Kong's ruling elite continually talk up the free market, telling us we must
attract more foreign capital, and to be 'value-added', grab our share of the
spoils of globalisation etc. But who will really profit from all this
so-called free market "competition"? Certainly not the poor or working
people of Hong Kong.

Yet we do not have to accept our rulers' propaganda and greed. One of the
aims of the SRG is to organise a series of activities including
publications, visits to interested groups and community organisations,
street activities and organising forums to discuss development issues. We
will also stage larger events such as carnivals and community meetings. We
hope that these activities will lead to more and more people in Hong Kong
becoming aware of the poverty and social polarisation that globalisation
brings. We want to act as a counterweight to the continuous barrage of free
market propaganda that dominates our lives. We want more people to reject
the "development" model that benefits the few at the expense of the rest of
us.

There is an alternative! Whether you are an individual or represent a
non-government organisation, we invite you to sign on to the SRG and be part
of a fight-back against poverty, unemployment, hunger and disease. Attached
is a paper on what we stand for and a draft plan of action.  Join us in our
discussions and activities to promote fair and just development for
everyone.

Interested? Then please complete the form below and fax it to (852)
2385-5319.
If you have any questions please contact us.

I/We (name of individual or organisation)
_____________________________________ want/do not want to join SRG
And/Or:
( ) Want to attend the next meeting of the SRG
( ) Would like to be contacted by a member of the SRG
( ) Would like to take part in educational activities
( ) Would like to help distribute publicity materials and pamphlets
( ) Would like to attend the planned carnival
( ) Would like to take part in community discussion meetings
( ) Other suggestions:____________________________________________________
Contact Details:______________________________________________tel:_________