So what is the WEF

national | public consultation / irish social forum | opinion/analysis Tuesday July 01, 2003 12:18 by Andrew

These are the notes of a talk I gave at the Grassroots Gathering on Sunday for the session organising opposition to the European WEF summit in October.

This October some 400 industrialists and assorted hangers on will descend on Dublin for the European summit of the World Economic Forum. The city centre will be brought to a halt as the sort of globalisation demonstration we have seen in Seattle and Prague occurs in Dublin.

So what is the World Economic Forum. Actually according to the UN it's a NGO! In its own words "The Forum provides a collaborative framework for the world's leaders to address global issues, engaging particularly its corporate members in global citizenship." That is from the WEF web page and despite the careful spin should be worrying to anyone reading it carefully.

Across most of Europe and North America it is possible to believe a rather pleasant myth. That is that we live in a democracy where we the people have a real say in how our regions are run. Sure individual politicians are often flawed but we can punish them at election time. This myth extends to the global level - here our democratically appointed leaders make decisions on how the world is run in the public view at global bodies like the United Nations. Acceptance of this myth is the corner stone on which the economic stability of our societies are based.

So where does the WEF fit into this?

Well Mary Harney gave us a good clue in welcoming the decisions of the WEF to come to Dublin. She said "This forum will have the capacity to influence change and drive the reforms needed to build competitiveness and greater social inclusion in the EU" .

So a glimpse of reality. You might have thought through elections and referenda you decided on the direction of the EU. But really it is a self-defined club of the worlds top 1,000 companies that do so. Don't worry, there is some Irish involvement. At least until recently AIB and Eircom were both members of the WEF. Yep that's the bank that refused to pass on the ECB interest rate cut to borrowers and the company that saw tens of thousands of people lose their savings in the privitisation share disaster. The list of companies involved tells us quite a bit about the WEF agenda. These include Microsoft, Monsanto, Nike, General Motors and, until recently, Enron" ..

The WEF has been described as the first "'true International of capital" .. It's widely credited with being the organizing force behind capitalist globalisation. And uniquely on the planet its powerful enough to make even the US president behave. "There was a telling moment at Davos 2000 when the assembled executives refused to vacate the conference chamber to enable a security check before Clinton's speech. The US President's Security Service was forced to back down after a corporate 'sit-in'. Clinton's speech went ahead: even the President of the US has to respect the wishes of the corporate club" .

Let us be clear though. The WEF is not run by stupid people. It does not organise under the banner of 'lower wages – bigger profits'. Quite the opposite in fact, since globalisation activists brought its existence out into the open it has promoted itself as a 'make the world a better place' gathering of the global elites.

This has been quite successful in getting the 'personalitie'’ of the anti-poverty industry on board, Bono being our best know local example. One gushed over how the New York WEF "environment was one that encouraged communication. One of the most memorable of the events was a late night, unscripted gathering of about 200 people, with Former President Bill Clinton. A nice surprise - Shimon Peres walked in in the middle of it. Both took questions from the audience. It was close to having a personal fireside chat with them" .

So alongside these corporations a handful of the do gooding elite of the world are allowed in. Some like Bono are of course millionaires themselves, others like archbishop Desmond Tutu are figures who rose to be figure heads of massive struggles. Butt the end of the day the WEF is still about a global elite making the decisions as to how the rest of us will live our lives. Deep Throat in the film version of 'Watergate' tells the investigators to 'follow the money'. Generally always a good idea as 'he who pays the piper calls the tune'. So who funds the WEF? "Membership fees from the 1,000 foremost companies who are the Forum's members" . who pay upwards of $30,000 in annual dues.

So what does the WEF have to say about the Dublin summit?

"Held under the auspices of the Irish government, the Summit will attract:

* 400 business leaders;
* select heads of goverment;
* ministers of finance, economy, industry, innovation and labour;
* key media leaders;
* academia and civil society representatives.

The conclusions and recommendations of the Summit will be fed into the Irish EU Presidency in the first half of 2004"