Forward to Genoa!

Forward to Genoa!

The main target for the anticapitalist movement after Nice will be the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, in July. Certainly that will be the target of the newly formed "Drop the Debt" campaign - one of the initiatives to come out of Jubilee 2000.

But Genoa will be far from the only focus for protest over the months to come.

The World Trade Organisation, international trade ministers and European Union representatives will meet in Geneva in March to try to thrash out the next stage of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, or Gats.

Already the forces of opposition - unions and environmentalists - are mobilising, which is hardly surprising because what lies at stake under Gats is the prospect of health and education provision throughout Europe being forcibly opened up to the private sector.

In developing countries, Gats will enable overseas companies to supply water, electricity and public transport projects in place of state-controlled monopolies.

Geneva will concentrate on reaching international agreement on which service sectors will be offered for liberalisation - the so-called 'bottom up approach'.

It is impractical to mobilise seriously for every international meeting, and March is not very far off now.

But trade unionists should attempt to organise some major events in this country to make clear our opposition to this neo-liberal agenda.