APEC '99: trading in hype
ON JULY 13, the Aotearoa/New Zealand APEC Monitoring Group announced details of its campaign against the NZ government for hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in 1999 and to educate New Zealanders about the free-trade hype.
According to the group's spokesperson, Leigh Cookson, "[APEC's] underlying model of development denies communities the right to determine our own future and advances the government of big business, by big business for big business."
The group plans to "expose and oppose" APEC and its aggressive free-trade and investment agenda. Public fora and other educational activities will coincide with each of the senior officials meetings to be held in Wellington in February, Christchurch in April/May and Rotorua in August.
As well, a two-day conference during the APEC leaders' summit in Auckland in September will examine the connections between experiences of the "New Zealand experiment" and the regional and global drive towards economic liberalisation being promoted by APEC. "We are told there is no alternative ... but that is a lie ... Globalisation is being driven by identifiable players to advance the interests of an economic elite ... more and more people in this country are seeing that the free market and open economy do not deliver", said Cookson.
"There are many other reasons why New Zealanders should oppose APEC", said Cookson. "There's the $50 million or so budgeted for the 1999 APEC summit at a time of continued cuts to health, education, welfare and other sectors.
"There's the massive disruption that will be caused to Auckland during the summit. And there's the package of extremist market reforms it promotes ... APEC's program is a recipe for social, environmental, economic and political disaster."