WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The UPI Think Tank Wrap-Up is a daily digest covering brief opinion pieces, reactions to recent news events, and position statements released by various think tanks.
Institute for Public Accuracy
(The IPA is a nationwide consortium of policy researchers that seeks to broaden public discourse by gaining media access for experts whose perspectives are often overshadowed by major think tanks and other influential institutions.)
Upcoming WTO Summit in Qatar: 'Globalization' in a Time of War
-- Ben Lilliston and Sophia Murphy. Lilliston is the communications coordinator at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. Murphy us director of the trade program for IATP.
Lilliston: The form of globalization represented by the WTO will do little to lessen the threat of terrorism. In fact, it is driving greater divisions between the rich and poor -- between developed and developing countries.
Murphy: Despite the collapse of the WTO talks in Seattle, it seems developed countries' governments have learned nothing. We are now presented with a text that several developing countries have rejected outright, and which fails to reflect the positions of the Africa Group. The General Council has been bypassed by a process of one-on-one and then small group meetings, as well as mini-ministerials which were not open to all members ... Trade rules for agriculture must address dumping of agricultural products in the international system. The lack of competition in international commodity markets ensures an asymmetric division of profits; that benefits agribusiness rather than producers or consumers.
-- Ziad Abdel Samad, executive director of the Arab NGO Network for Development, a coalition of human rights, environmental, labor and other groups that has co-organized an NGO forum in Beirut which ends Thursday.
The majority of the developing countries that have joined the WTO are calling to stop and assess the impact of the implementation of WTO agreements on the social and economic effects of trade agreements ... They are also calling for the reassessment of the mechanisms of the WTO, especially those related to participation in the decision-making process and the dispute settlement body in the WTO.
-- Robert Weissman, co-director of Essential Action: Confronted with the prospect of bioterrorism on a massive scale, the Bush administration and the pharmaceutical industry have colluded to protect patent monopolies at the expense of public health. The administration has refused to take steps to authorize competitive generic production of Cipro to ensure an adequate supply of the product ... Now U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is hard at work in the WTO negotiations to deny poor countries the policy tools -- including the early introduction of generic competition -- they need to make essential medicines more accessible. These disputes are about corporate profit versus public health, clean and simple."
-- Doug Henwood, editor of Left Business Observer: In this time of crisis, opportunism is everywhere, with lobbyists using the dismal economy as an excuse to shake loose giant tax breaks from Congress, and the free trade crowd using global recession and even the 'war on terrorism' as excuses to promote a whole new trade round. Their brand of neoliberalism has given us a vast polarization of incomes and regular financial crises, but they assure us that the only cure is more of the same.
Progressive Policy Institute
PPI Praises Bayh-McCain Proposal for Expansion of National Service
Will Marshall, president of PPI today praised the two senators' new proposal.
"The Call to Service Act proposed (Wednesday) by Sens. Evan Bayh and John McCain marks a milestone in the evolution of national service in four crucial respects," said Marshall.
"First, the Bayh-McCain bill aims at taking national service to a truly national scale. Having seen AmeriCorps develop and prove its value since its creation eight years ago, the bill's sponsors propose to quintuple its annual enrollment, to 250,000.
"By dramatically expanding opportunities to serve, the bill moves us closer to the day when national service will be a common expectation of citizenship, a rite of civic passage for young Americans seeking to give something back to their country.
"Second, the bill weaves military and civilian service into a seamless fabric, by creating a new 'citizen soldier' track for college students who want to serve their country without necessarily choosing a military career. The new, short-term enlistment option would help the military meet its recruiting goals while ensuring that more of America's future leaders will have military experience.
"Third, at a time when many Americans are asking what they can do to help make our nation safer and stronger, the Bayh-McCain plan offers an answer. It would yoke national service firmly to homeland defense, requiring that half the new funding be dedicated to domestic security or public safety. In addition to the vital tasks already performed by AmeriCorps members -- tutoring children, helping the frail elderly, building homes, conserving natural resources and responding to emergencies of all kinds -- national servers could also help police our borders, guard nuclear power plants, water supplies and other key facilities, inoculate people against anthrax or related threats, and generally beef up our public health services.
"Fourth, the bill marks a new stage in the politics of national service. Throughout the 1990s, Congressional Republicans opposed and repeatedly tried to defund the AmeriCorps program, which was one of President Clinton's signature 'New Democrat' initiatives. As leading conservatives like Sen. McCain and many GOP governors embrace national service, they also bring new ideas and emphases to this evolving civic enterprise. In PPI's view, national service embodies a new synthesis of progressive and conservative values that transcends the old left-right debate.
"In 1910, William James first proposed a system of national service to 'inflame the civic temper' and serve as 'the moral equivalent of war' in uniting Americans around common purposes and service to their country. Now, as America wages a real war against global terrorism, our citizens are yearning for a summons to service and sacrifice in our nation's cause. The Bayh-McCain bill issues such a call, and points us toward a higher politics of national purpose."
