Fw: 's #742: What's Important?

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: . RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #742 .

: . ---January 17, 2002--- .

: . HEADLINES: .

: . WHAT'S IMPORTANT? .

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:

: WHAT'S IMPORTANT?

:

: As we review the events of 2001 from the perspective of

: environmental and human health, we have to ask, " What's

: important? " These trends seem important: growing inequality, the

: corporate drive for global control, the accelerating pace of

: innovation, and missed opportunities for building real political

: power by linking workers and environmentalists.

:

: Probably the largest single cause of ill health throughout the

: industrialized world is economic inequality, which has been

: growing steadily since 1973. Economic inequality is already

: worse in the U.S. than in any other industrialized country, and

: is steadily growing.[1]

:

: How does inequality cause poor health? Low income forms part of

: the picture, but equally important are social exclusion,

: feelings of powerlessness, chronic anxiety, insecurity, low self

: esteem, social isolation (racism, for example), and the sense

: that life is out of control, which contribute significantly to

: heart disease, depression and other debilitating and deadly

: ailments. Thus fairness and justice are basic -- and eroding --

: requirements of public health.[2]

:

: The corporate globalization project, which is aiming to relax

: controls on corporations worldwide (under the liturgy of " free

: trade " ), is contributing to inequality by reducing the capacity

: of governments to maintain labor standards and environmental

: standards or to provide safety nets for citizens who are down on

: their luck. As governments are systematically weakened, the

: decisions of unelected corporations replace those of elected

: governments, thus eroding democracy.

:

: In addition to eroding democracy, the corporate globalization

: project has two other effects: increasing inequality within and

: between nations,[3] and increasing insecurity among working

: people, who can no longer be sure that they or their children

: will find decent work paying a living wage with benefits, or

: that anyone will help them out if they lose their jobs, get

: sick, or grow old. As we saw above, a large and growing body of

: literature reveals that these twin effects -- inequality and

: insecurity -- are among the leading causes of disease,

: disability and death.[2]

:

: The accelerating pace of innovation is introducing more powerful

: technologies more quickly, with less time for thought

: beforehand. The main goal is greater corporate control.

:

: Today the most rapid innovation is occurring in genetic

: engineering.[4] The future of genetic engineering of food crops

: leads down two paths: warfare using bioengineered crop pathogens

: to devastate an enemy's crops, and " terminator gene technology. "

: The U.S. has developed, and has proposed for use, a

: bioengineered pathogen to kill coca plants in Colombia in South

: America.[4] That plan has been shelved for now, but the genetic

: engineering of pathogens to disrupt an enemy's crops is widely

: studied.[5]

:

: The " terminator gene " prevents a crop from reproducing itself

: unless the gene is unlocked by the application of certain

: " protector " chemicals or antibiotics. Thus a farmer raising

: crops from terminator seeds becomes reliant upon the supplier of

: the protector chemicals that prevent reproductive suicide.

: Farmers -- or countries -- that fall out of favor can be denied

: the chemicals necessary for next year's crop. In sum, terminator

: technology provides total control over any farmer who adopts it.

: Pressure to adopt terminator technology could be applied in many

: forms, especially by transnational corporations backed by the

: power of the U.S. Treasury, the World Trade Organization, and

: the Pentagon.[4,pg.40]

:

: Furthermore, farmers may adopt terminator technology without

: even realizing it. Scientists at Purdue University have patented

: a terminator gene that works normally for several crop

: generations, but eventually prevents reproduction unless treated

: with protector chemicals. Farmers adopting such crops could be

: controlled thereafter. Government (or corporations) could simply

: disallow the export of the needed chemicals to nations that

: engaged in behavior that the U.S. considers unacceptable. Many

: variations on this theme are possible, but they all lead to the

: same end: control.

:

: As another means of control, water supplies are being rapidly

: privatized worldwide. Using rules developed by free trade

: regimes (chiefly NAFTA and the WTO), transnational corporations

: are taking advantage of growing water shortages in dozens of

: countries, buying up water in bulk for resale at huge profit. A

: byproduct of this lucrative business will be political control

: over any country that allows its water to be supplied from

: outside its borders.[6]

:

: Rapid innovation -- aimed at control -- is also occurring in

: space warfare. Some corporations, of course, thrive on war but

: many others find their business prospects reduced by

: international conflict. Thus the corporate ideal would be to

: sell everyone arms but prevent their use. But this would require

: total control of the world.

:

: The U.S. has three programs with the potential for controlling

: the world: genetic engineering of the global food supply with

: terminator genes and the privatization of water supplies

: (discussed above), and the militarization of space -- providing

: an inescapable platform for destroying the enemies of the

: " military-industrial complex " (President Eisenhower's phrase).

:

: U.S. plans for the full militarization of space have generally

: been kept out of public view, except for the " star wars " missile

: defense system, initially proposed by President Reagan to

: protect the U.S. against Soviet missile attacks. Even though the

: Soviet threat has vanished, the star wars program remains alive.

: During 2001, the NEW YORK TIMES explained why: the star wars

: program is a " Trojan horse " with a " larger purpose " the

: full-scale militarization of space.[7]

:

: Space warfare is already a huge, secret industry based on exotic

: technologies, but the goals are quite traditional: control.

:

: The Pentagon has its hopes set on a space-based laser, " the Buck

: kind of thing, " says Colonel Doug Beason at Kirtland Air

: Force Base in Albuquerque. He hopes to be testing a laser weapon

: in space by 2008 -- 6 years from now.

:

: Other exotic weapons are even further along. " I'm particularly

: excited about high-power microwaves, " says Colonel Beason. A

: ground-based microwave weapon already exists. " We're testing it

: on humans now, " Colonel Beason told the NEW YORK TIMES in

: August.

:

: The U.S. intends to be first to militarize space. " Space is our

: next manifest destiny, " says Senator Bob , Republican of

: New Hampshire. And so President Bush in 2001 reneged on the 1972

: Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a necessary step in U.S. plans to

: turn the starry firmament into an inescapable platform for

: raining destruction down upon anyone who imperils our manifest

: destiny of global corporate control.

:

: Militarizing space will start a new arms race, which will divert

: hundreds of billions of tax dollars into the bank accounts of

: corporate elites. Thus even if no Buck weapons are ever

: fired, merely building them will increase inequality and degrade

: public health.

:

: We environmentalists are failing to recognize and support the

: major force that has held inequality in check for the past 150

: years, namely labor unions. Even today when the union movement

: is relatively weak, unionized workers earn 21% more per hour

: than non-union workers. But more than that, it was organized

: working people who compelled employers to abide by the standards

: that we now take for granted in all civilized societies: a

: 40-hour work week; weekends off; paid vacations; sick leave;

: family leave; retirement (private pensions and social security);

: health insurance; limits on child labor; workplace safety and

: health standards; legal protections against discrimination based

: on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, or

: physical disability; protection against sexual harassment,

: arbitrary firing; and so on. These standards and norms are not

: perfect, and too often they are not effectively enforced, but

: they are fundamental and essential to civilized life, and we

: would not have them without unions.

:

: Since 1980 the U.S. has been openly hostile to working people

: and unions. The situation has grown so bad that Human Rights

: Watch published a report in summer, 2000, documenting how the

: U.S. routinely violates the three universally-recognized human

: rights of workers: the right to join a union, the right to

: bargain collectively, and the right, if all else fails, to

: strike.[8]

:

: Unions are not perfect. In the past many have been racist,

: sexist, jingoist, and, some of them, corrupt. Many have been

: undemocratic, top-down organizations (mimicking corporations).

: Still, in our reading of American history, the one group that

: has had the greatest and most lasting success in curbing the

: power of the corporate elite is organized working people. In

: fact, no other group even comes close. Furthermore, the new

: union movement is now reaching out to everyone (including

: environmentalists, who have, so far, largely turned a deaf ear).

:

: As counter-intuitive as it may seem at first, probably the

: single most important thing that environmentalists could do to

: protect the environment would be a multi-year campaign to change

: U.S. labor law, to allow workers to form and join unions, in

: accord with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

: Why shouldn't it be as easy to form a union as it is to form a

: corporation? Declare your intention, pay your $50 fee, end of

: story.[9] If labor law reform became a top priority of

: environmentalists, in a decade or perhaps less, this one

: legislative change could move environmental concerns from the

: political fringe into the mainstream with powerful new allies:

: the 34 million U.S. working people now denied union membership,

: who are bearing the brunt of widening inequalities (worldwide)

: caused by growing corporate control.

:

: The environmental movement's failure to appreciate and support

: the needs of working people is merely a symptom of an even

: larger problem: Because we have all pursued single-issue

: politics for three decades, natural allies are failing to learn

: about each other's struggles, much less work together.

:

: The base of citizen activism at the local level in the U.S. is

: astonishingly large and vibrant. Social movements abound: the

: environmental justice movement, the toxics movement, the

: movements for clean production and zero waste, the movement to

: protect and empower people with disabilities and chemical

: sensitivities, the community (neighborhood) development

: movement, the anti-globalization movement, the democratic labor

: movement, the civil rights movement, the faith-based movement

: for justice, the sustainable agriculture movement, the animal

: rights movement, the peace movement, the women's movement, the

: gay rights movement -- together they could create a massive

: counterforce that could take us off the earth-destroying path

: that our unelected leaders have chosen.

:

: Traditionally, political parties have provided the big tents to

: hold people with similar beliefs. Now, however, the Democrats

: and Republicans have both embraced the corporate agenda, leaving

: the vast majority of people unrepresented. What an opportunity!

:

: Our failure to seek -- much less achieve -- political unity

: remains our most pressing problem. We are divided, and so long

: as we remain that way, we will be conquered.

:

: ==============

:

: [1] Stille, " Grounded by an Income Gap, " NEW YORK

: TIMES Dec. 15, 2001, pgs. A15, A17.

:

: [2] See REHN #497, #584 AND #654. And see the bibliography in D.

: Raphael, INEQUALITY IS BAD FOR OUR HEARTS: WHY LOW INCOME AND

: SOCIAL EXCLUSION ARE MAJOR CAUSES OF HEART DISEASE IN CANADA

: (Toronto: North York Heart Health Network, 2001). And see, for

: example: Ana V. Diez Roux and others, " Neighborhood of Residence

: and Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease, " NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF

: MEDICINE Vol. 345, No. 2 (July 12, 2001), pgs. 99-106. And:

: Marmot, " Inequalities in Health, " NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF

: MEDICINE Vol. 345, No. 2 (July 12, 2001), pgs. 134-136. And see

: the extensive bibliographies in the following: M. G. Marmot and

: G. Wilkinson, editors, SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

: (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999; ISBN

: 0192630695); A. Leon, editor and others, POVERTY,

: INEQUALITY AND HEALTH: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE (Oxford and

: New York: Oxford University Press, 2001; ISBN 0192631969);

: Wilkinson, UNHEALTHY SOCIETIES: THE AFFLICTIONS OF

: INEQUALITY (New York: Routledge, 1997; ISBN: 0415092353); Norman

: s and others, IS INEQUALITY BAD FOR OUR HEALTH? (Boston:

: Beacon Press, 2000; ISBN: 0807004472); Ichiro Kawachi, and

: others, THE SOCIETY AND POPULATION HEALTH READER: INCOME

: INEQUALITY AND HEALTH (New York: New Press, 1999; ISBN:

: 1565845714); Alvin R. Tarlov, editor, THE SOCIETY AND POPULATION

: HEALTH READER, VOLUME 2: A STATE PERSPECTIVE (New York: New

: Press, 2000; ISBN 1565845579).

:

: [3] Bruce R. , " The Great Divide in the Global Village, "

: FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Feb. 12, 2001), pages unknown; available at

: http://63.236.1.211/articles/scott0102.html.

:

: [4] Pat Roy Mooney, THE ETC CENTURY; EROSION, TECHNOLOGICAL

: TRANSFORMATION, AND CORPORATE CONCENTRATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

: (Winnipeg, Canada: The ETC Group, 2001); available in PDF: http://-

: www.rafi.org/documents/other_etccentury.pdf. The ETC Group

: (formerly RAFI, the Rural Advancement Foundation International)

: can be reached at 478 River Avenue, Suite 200, Winnipeg, MB R3L

: 0C8 Canada; Tel: (204) 453-5259, Fax: (204) 284-7871. This

: report is " MUST READ " for all activists.

:

: [5] and others, " Biological Warfare Against Crops, "

: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN (June 1999), pgs. 70-75.

:

: [6] Maude Barlow, BLUE GOLD:THE GLOBAL WATER CRTISIS AND THE

: COMMODIFICATION OF THE WORLD'S WATER SUPPLY, Revised edition.

: (San Francisco: International Forum on Globalization, Spring

: 2001). See http://www.canadians.org/blueplanet/publications/-

: eng_bluegold-intro.html.

:

: [7] Jack Hitt, " Battlefield: Space, " NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE

: August 5, 2001, pgs. 30-36, 55-56, 62-63.

:

: [8] Lance Compa, UNFAIR ADVANTAGE: WORKERS' FREEDOM OF

: ASSOCIATION IN THE UNITED STATES UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMAN

: RIGHTS STANDARDS (New York: Human Rights Watch, August 2000).

: ISBN 1-56432-251-3.

:

: [9] Kellman, BUILDING UNIONS (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Apex

: Press, 2001). ISBN 1-891843-09-5. Apex Press, P.O. Box 377,

: Croton-On-Hudson, NY 10520; or phone POCLAD at 518-398-1145, or

: E-mail people@.... See also REHN #697, #698, #699, #700,

: #701.

:

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