For sale: essential services

>> WTO negotiations draw fire for putting everything from medical care to sewage treatment up for grabs

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

When the latest round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations begin this week in Doha, Qatar, its remote location won't do much to silence its opponents. Because the remote Persian Gulf state is neither easily accessible nor particularly hospitable to noisy, agitated crowds, protesters around the world will be staying at home and raising a ruckus in their backyards.

In Canada, protest preparations have been under way for a year in anticipation of this week's meeting of an institution that has been described by one activist as "Satan himself." Local demonstrations, conferences and speeches are planned for a trumpeted "Week of Action." Two caravans, one starting from Victoria and another from St. John's, have been travelling the country, stopping in communities along the way, and will converge on Ottawa this Friday.

One particular target for protesters' ire will be the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which, they say, will treat all services, from postal to health care to sewage to culture, as a tradeable commodity. "The WTO wants uniform thinking throughout the world, and culture is a big obstacle to that," says Caroline Harvey, the caravan's Quebec co-ordinator. "GATS calls for an immense world market, where all services have the same value and to treat them as products. Art and culture are not products that can be marketed like cereal or cars."

GATS calls for equal treatment for foreign corporations as for domestic ones, which, its opponents feel, will undermine local autonomy by unfairly rewarding sinister multinationals with subsidies and tax breaks. Although the 33-year-old artist and songwriter Harvey is no fan of the present system of artist subsidies, she does think that GATS will kill off an already poor subclass.

Artists, however, are not the only ones who will suffer from an even more liberal trade regime. According to Nadia Alexan, the Montreal co-ordinator of the Council of Canadians, GATS will spell the end of municipal life as Canadians know it. "All of our services are on the negotiating table," says the 60-year-old retired school teacher. "That's why we're trying to warn the municipalities, because it has a direct influence on our elected representatives. Municipal government is the one level of government which doesn't vote according to party lines, but even that is now being eroded. These international agreements are binding on all levels of government, and these decisions are made by bureaucrats at the WTO who don't give a damn about what citizens want."

As for the notorious anarchist CLAC, they will be holding a demo Friday noon at Philips Square. It's theme, "Economic Disruption," is pretty much self-explanatory. The present atmosphere, however, has some of its members wondering how warm their reception will be. "This war against terrorism is now against every person who has something to say against the authorities," says Michelle Sarrasin, a member of the CLAC media committee. "We're hoping people will come down into the streets but it's hard with all this propaganda and repression we're facing."

There will be another demo Friday at 4 p.m. by Coalition N-9 at Cabot Square, across from the Forum. The Quebec-Qatar Caravan arrived in Montreal last night and will depart for Ottawa on Friday morning. There will be a conference this afternoon, Oct. 8, at UQÀM and a debate at

7 p.m. tonight presented by the FTQ at the Centre

St-Pierre (1212 Panet).