MARCH BEGAN with Tony Blair insisting that European unions and "socialist" parties should follow his lead and embrace the values of capitalism, in the same way as the Democrats in the USA, which he regarded as a beacon of economic achievement.
Within days this beacon of unregulated capitalist enterprise was firing the first shots in a trade war against the European Union, with the clear objective of further boosting the profits and monopoly market share of its banana exporters, at the expense of bankruptcy for banana producers in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP).
It may seem like a storm in a custard bowl, but the "banana split" is a crucial test of strength between two of the world’s three major imperialist trading blocs – a test in which the EU has already surrendered crucial legal ground.
The EU says Caribbean banana producers account for only 3% of world banana exports and represent only 7% of the EU market – their only outlet. The relatively small amounts of money involved however mean the difference between survival and collapse for the ACP exporters. Since many of these are former colonies of the leading EU nations, their potential collapse is an embarrassment – not least to Blair, whose government has voiced rare criticism of the US administration.
But US multinationals, notably Dole Food Company and Chiquita Brands International, which give money to both US political parties, and dominate the market in bananas from Latin America, want to wipe out even this small pocket of competition.
In launching this offensive and preparing a wide-ranging onslaught designed to force genetically-modified and hormonally altered American foodstuffs onto the plates of sceptical Europeans, the US has been quick to make use of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the shadowy group of Geneva-based civil servants who now lead the global fight for "free trade".
In February, the leader in genetically modified food crops, US giant Monsanto, arrogantly declared that it would take legal action to overturn any measures by the EU or European governments to limit the distribution of these foods. More test cases, involving US beef containing growth hormones (banned in Europe for ten years) and milk products are due to pit EU governments against the might of US imperialism later this year.
By signing up for the "liberalisation" of world trade, surrendering any right to take independent action, and establishing an new world arbiter in the form of the "independent" and completely unaccountable WTO, EU governments have left themselves without a legal leg to stand on in banning these US exports – even where public opinion is hostile and public health issues are concerned.
The WTO was due to pronounce on the long-running banana issue on April 12.
So certain is the US that the WTO will do its bidding, Washington has pre-empted the ruling and announced its own package of retaliatory sanctions against a random list of European exports to the US, which will face drastic increases in import tariffs.
Socialists will not back any of the governments involved, all of which have connived to subordinate the interests of working people to the profits of big business and exploit the commodity-exporting countries of the "third world".
The WTO, like the treaty which established it, was only ever a device to secure further monopoly control of world trade, and should be scrapped.
Trade unions and community campaigners must urgently discuss a policy to halt the production and distribution of potentially harmful foodstuffs churned out by multinational agribusiness.