It now stands before us on the world’s stage in all its brutish, iniquitous nakedness.Įmpire may well go to war, but it’s out in the open now–too ugly to behold its own reflection. We may not have stopped it in its tracks–yet–but we have stripped it down. We, all of us gathered here, have, each in our own way, laid siege to Empire. But there is another way of looking at it. If we look at this conflict as a straightforward eyeball to eyeball confrontation between Empire and those of us who are resisting it, it might seem that we are losing. While bombs rain down on us, and cruise missiles skid across the skies, we know that contracts are being signed, patents are being registered, oil pipelines are being laid, natural resources are being plundered, water is being privatized and George Bush is planning to go to war against Iraq. We know that under the spreading canopy of the War Against Terrorism, the men in suits are hard at work. Still, many of us have dark moments of hopelessness and despair. As for corporate globalization’s glittering ambassadors–Enron, Bechtel, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen–where were they last year, and where are they now? And of course here in Brazil we must ask, Who was the president last year, and Who is it now? In India the movement against corporate globalization is gathering momentum and is poised to become the only real political force to counter religious fascism.
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