“We are the victims of WTO and we are fighting back!”

Press Statement

For reference: Ramon Bultron
Member, ILPS International Coordinating Committee
ILPS – HK Section
Tel. No.: 94773141

In a week’s time, Hong Kong shall become a melting pot of anti-WTO protests and activities. In the People’s Action Week, it shall be the voices of people victimized by WTO policies that should be heard.

The International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS), a global formation of anti-imperialist grassroots and grassroots-based organizations shall bring to HK workers, peasants, youth, women, students, indigenous people, migrants, and other sectors who are the most directly and gravely affected by the neoliberal globalization policies of the WTO.

For long time in the anti-WTO movement, others spoke for us. This time, we shall speak for ourselves.

On the People’s Action Week, we shall bring in workers from various countries who have suffered from contractualization and other forms of flexibilization of labor; depression of their wage in the face of soaring prices of basic commodities; and joblessness caused by the closure of small- and medium-scale businesses due to fierce and unequal competition from foreign monopolies.

Peasants will also come in droves for with the WTO, millions of peasants have become hungry and their production has suffered because of the liberalization of agriculture, use of GMOs produced by multinational companies, land grabbing, and land conversion.

Women from all continents shall bring out their concern on the worsening situation of women in different sectors. Class and gender oppression of women has become synonymous with WTO and globalization. In fact with globalization, women as commodities have become more rampant than before.

Deterioration of the economic, social and political situation in their home country has also forced many people to migrate and seek survival abroad. Commodification of migrant labor is set to be intensified especially with the General Agreement on Trades in Services (GATS) Mode 4.

Indigenous people, youth, student, church people, human rights advocates, children’s rights advocates, cultural workers, government employees, and even progressive parliamentarians shall all come to HK – because they themselves have been victims of WTO and globalization.

Now is the time for the victims of the WTO to speak. We are the ones who suffer the brunt of the grave impacts of WTO policies. We shall be the one who will unite and cause its downfall.

On the 6th Ministerial Conference of the WTO, the grassroots have only one voice and one call: JUNK WTO!