[11101] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
GII: Global Power Grab
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vigdor Schreibman - FINS)
Mon Feb 24 21:31:56 1997
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 17:37:41 -0600 (CST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
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FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age
FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE
Vol V, Issue No. 4 (172 lines) February 24, 1997
CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP":
GII: Global Power Grab
By Vigdor Schreibman
A one trillion dollar telecoms deal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fins Information Age Library, last week, mounted a new
directory: Global_Information_Infrastructure_Links. If you
take a look it will give you a rough idea of just how dominant
a role international public sector organizations now hold
(e.g., ITU, OECD, WTO, GATS, NAFTA, APEC, WIPO, EC, G7), when
armed with a franchise of delegated power from the nations of
the world to decide global socioeconomic public policies.
A stunning example of this pattern took place Feb 15, 1997,
when more than 60 countries adopted an agreement to open their
own telecommunications systems to foreign exploitation, which
is set to enter into force on 1 January 1998. This agreement
was negotiated under the auspices of the United States Trade
Representative (USTR), International Telecommunications Union
(ITU), World Trade Organization (WTO), and General Agreement
on Trade and Services (GATS). It followed the European
Commission's, "Bangemann Report," 26 May 1994, for a "Global
Information Society" [Fins-GII-ECb], and the proposal by the
United States for, "The Global Information Infrastructure:
Agenda for Cooperation," announced Feb 1995 [Fins-II2-03].
Data on telecommunications markets covered by the WTO
Negotiations on Basic Telecommunications, were released Feb 17
from the International Telecommunication Union database on
World Telecommunication Indicators. This reveals that "global
telecom services revenue in 1995 stood at $601.9 billion (in
US dollars), a figure which represented 2.1% of global GDP."
Just two of the participants in the negotiations, the European
Community and its Member States, and the United States,
account for 68% of revenue and 58% of international traffic.
Renato Ruggiero, the Brazilian Director-General of the WTO,
congratulated member governments "for their determination and
foresight in bringing the negotiations on basic telecommuni-
cations services to a successful conclusion" [Fins-GII-WTO].
Explaining the expected benefits, Ruggiero claimed that "The
telecoms deal will contribute to lower costs for consumers,
and the price reductions will be very significant. This is
good news for firms, which in the aggregate spend more on
telecommunications services than they do on oil... It is
difficult to be very precise in these matters, but telecoms
liberalization could mean global income gains of some one
trillion dollars over the next decade or so. That represents
around 4 per cent of world GDP at today's prices."
The fiction of "free market" theory
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nevertheless, people have heard this rosy scenario before.
What gives rise to alarm over this pattern of global economic
activity is the largely authoritarian decision making process
put in place by the new globalization regime. The basic idea
advanced by the dominant powers, the EC with the concurrence
of the United States, is the implicit demand for a free ride
on society, as specified by the Bangemann Report: "Market
forces must drive progress of the Information Society" with
removal of all "non-commercial political burdens and budgetary
constraints imposed on telecommunications operators." The
import of this hard line strategy was made perfectly clear at
the G7 meeting in Ottawa, June 1995, in seeking to "dismantle
the labor laws and cut social safety nets," purportedly to
"encourage the world's unemployed to look harder for work and
help businesses create jobs" [Fins-SR3-19; Fins-NC4-18].
Special concerns were raised by the ITU, UNESCO, and EU,
concerning the social, cultural, and environmental aspects of
the GII. However, a review by FINS of initiatives in those
areas indicates that they have focused on securing "widespread
public acceptance and use of the new technology," under market
controls. In the United States, support for the remarkable
National Education and Research Network (NREN) program, based
on a long-term vision of "broad support of the Nation's
intellectual activity," [Fins-II-02, para B.3], was abruptly
terminated under pressure from industry for market controls.
The economist's model of "free market" theory is based on
the "entirely independent behavior of individuals." This is
insupportable. Mary Parker Follett, who is recognized as the
"Prophet of Management" (1995), observed that "(A)n individual
is one who is being created *by* society, whose daily breath
is drawn *from* society, whose life is spent *for* society."
Market theory is, in short, a "broadly perpetrated fiction,"
rejected by post-industrial knowledge and experience. See
e.g., James Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory (1990); and
Andrew R Schmookler, The Illusion of Choice (1993).
The fiction of market theory has opened a wide gap between
capitalism and democracy. This anti-democratic, 19th-century
structure of power must be brought into better balance for the
future, many scholars have argued during the past two decades:
Lester C Thurow, The Future of Capitalism (1996), Benjamin R
Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld (1995); Kevin P Phillips, Arrogant
Capital (1994); Neil Postman, Technopoly (1993); William
Greider, Who will tell the people (1992); Edward S Herman and
Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent (1988); and Charles E
Lindblom, Politics and Markets (1977).
The market simply disregards the multiple perspectives and
criteria, including empowerment of the people to facilitate
design by the stakeholders of social systems, followed by
state-of-the-art social systems design. For all the euphoria
over the GII deal, the market scheme is likely to fail all the
tests: of authenticity, sustainability, responsiveness,
uniqueness, personal development and organizational learning,
and the ethics of design. See Bela H. Banathy, Designing
Social Systems in a Changing World 223-231 (1996).
Industrial age newspeak in the knowledge age
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the advent of globalization, colossal power is being
placed in the hands of a few "Global Gladiators," as Alvin
Toffler (1990), described the new breed of multinational
behemoths. Yet American commentators critical of the global
power grab were shunned in reports on the telecoms deal issued
by leaders of the national press corps: The New York Times,
The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Meanwhile,
the Associated Press cynically reported a derisive but easily
dismissed editorial on this topic by the Iraqi government
newspaper Al-Jumhuriya, Feb 17, 97. The AP wire story was
picked up Feb 19, by EDUpage, an Internet news service that
quoted Baghdad's criticism of the rapidly expanding Internet,
depicted as, "the end of civilizations, cultures, interests,
and ethics," and "one of the American means to enter every
house in the world. They want to become the only source for
controlling human beings in the new electronic village."
It is wicked journalism to quote the hated Baghdad on this
controversial issue of importance, while censoring by silence
learned American civil libertarians such as Barber, Chomsky,
Grieder, Phillips, Schmookler, and Thurow who may concur with
Baghdad in this instance. The threat of "total control," was
named as the singular issue of concern to Americans, in email
sent to the Cultural Environment Movement discussion list, Feb
12, 1996, by Dr. George Gerbner dean emeritus of the Annenberg
School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania. This
statement followed approval of the Telecommunications Act of
1996, Feb 8, 1996. The new field of global control opened by
the WTO telecoms deal greatly exacerbates such concerns.
End "total control" of GII
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Total control" of GII must end when the telecoms treaty
comes before the US Senate for ratification. Global conquest
and oligopoly were of the industrial age. In the 21st-century
knowledge age, one may triumph only with people power.
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