Fed: Trade protesters the Luddites of the 20th century: Downer

AAP General News (Australia)
12-01-1999
Fed: Trade protesters the Luddites of the 20th century: Downer

By James Grubel, Chief Political Correspondent

CANBERRA, Dec 1 AAP - Protesters who forced the opening session of world trade talks
to be postponed would be remembered as the Luddites of the 20th century, Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer said today.

Thousands of protesters angry about globalisation clashed with police in Seattle in
the US overnight and disrupted the first day of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks.

Mr Downer likened the protesters to the Luddite movement in England in the early 19th
century, when workers afraid of technology destroyed manufacturing equipment they believed
was destroying jobs.

He said the benefits of free trade were difficult to sell to the public, but lower
trade barriers were good for every country.

"We can say that no country that has tried it has ended up poor as a result," Mr Downer
told the National Press Club.

"We can say that those countries that have tried to close themselves off from the rest
of the world have all suffered in doing so.

"We can say that changes in technology are completely irreversible."

He said the protesters in Seattle were fighting a losing battle.

"Those people who are demonstrating in Seattle are basically the 1999 equivalent of
the Luddite movement in England," he said.

"They want to stop history in its tracks. They do not want to see any progress.

"The Luddites failed because what they were proposing was absurd. Equally, these people
are trying to defy technology, and you can't do it."

Greens Senator Bob Brown said the protests in Seattle were a warning about social dismay
if the gap between rich and poor continued to grow into the next century.

"The unelected WTO has put commerce before social equity, the environment and human
rights," Senator Brown said in a statement.

"It is seen as a secretive club for rich corporations, disempowering ordinary citizens."

Earlier, Trade Minister Mark Vaile said the protests would not derail the WTO talks.

Trade ministers from 135 WTO member countries are aiming to set the agenda for a new
round of negotiations to reduce trade barriers worldwide.

"Certainly, in terms of the work that we're doing individually as trade ministers from
across the world, that work will continue to a satisfactory conclusion I feel quite sure,"

Mr Vaile told ABC radio from Seattle.

The demonstrations were not surprising in what was one of the most democratic nations
in the world, he said.

He expected an agreement on the future of trade talks by the end of the week.

AAP jg/mfh/cjh/de

KEYWORD: WTO AUST NIGHTLEAD

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