BY JAKE GARVEY
This column is written and edited by the Young Socialists (YS), an international organization of young workers, students, and other youth fighting for socialism. For more information about the YS write to: Young Socialists, 1573 N. Milwaukee, P.O. Box #478, Chicago, Ill. 60622. Tel: (773) 772-0551. Compuserve: 105162,605

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Some 100 youth met here November 7-11 to discuss what the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) - an 18-country trade forum that will hold a summit here November 19-24 - means for youth and working people around the world.

The APEC Youth Forum was aimed at students and activists aged 16-19 interested in finding out more about APEC. Most came from across Canada, but around 15 came from other countries that participate in APEC, including Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papau New Guinea, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The forum focused on jobs, education, and the environment.

The youth meeting was part of the broader APEC People's Summit, a series of forums and workshops running throughout November in Vancouver. The People's Summit, organized by groups such as the Canadian Labor Congress and nongovernment organizations, is among the many conferences, protests, and other actions responding to the APEC summit. At that meeting, government officials and business representatives from the region will negotiate the deepening of exploitative trade relations between imperialist nations of the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand on the one hand and the region's semicolonial countries on the other.

Virtually all presentations at the youth forum put forward the view that APEC is about trade liberalization, or free trade, and serves the interests of "multinational corporations," particularly those from the United States. Keynote speaker David Orchard of Citizens Concerned about Free Trade, for example, asserted that "Canada is a semicolony of the United States, like Mexico." During the question period, Young Socialist delegate Vuk Grkavac, 17, challenged this view. "Canada is an imperialist power that oppresses Quebecois, Native people, and people around the world," he said.

Orchard and other speakers also based their opposition to APEC on the loss of "Canadian jobs" to other countries with cheaper labor markets. Young Socialists explained that this stance undermines international solidarity among working people. "The bosses are only committed to the labor they can exploit and profit the most from," said Grkavac. "It's not like they care about Canadian jobs or American jobs. They would love to pay workers in Canada $2 an hour, which is what they're imposing on the semicolonial world. It's essential for the workers in imperialist countries to unite with those in exploited nations."

Delegates from Papau New Guinea said that it isn't enough to reform the imperialist trade block, explaining why they oppose it altogether. "We're just a source of raw material for APEC," Catherine Sasa told the Militant. "APEC gives free license for corporations to rape and pillage, for them to cut down all the trees, take all the gold, and kill all the fish so there's nothing left for the local people."

Another guest speaker, Libby Davies of the social-democratic New Democratic Party, advocated pressuring the Canadian government to "put human rights on the APEC agenda."

Keynote speaker Raymond Chan, the Canadian Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific), promoted APEC, saying that the Canadian government plays a progressive role in the economic and political development of the region. As an example, he said, "Canadian troops played an important role in Korea." Chan's presentation was attacked by many delegates during the question period. Grkavac responded, "Canadian troops intervened in Korea against the struggle of the Korean people for self- determination." He added, "Ottawa is trying to impose what you call `solutions' on Asian countries in the interests of the banks and corporations."

Presenters and organizers advocated letter-writing campaigns, boycotts, and reliance on governments to "improve" APEC. For example, one resolution from the forum's steering committee states "APEC countries should abide by common rules dedicated to trade, human rights and our environment. If any one of these rules are violated, that country would have their membership revoked."

Discussions on human rights at the forum tended to focus on abuses in the semicolonial countries such as Indonesia and the workers state in China, with little mention of the role of the imperialist governments who install and profit from dictatorial regimes to protect their prerogatives. As a young woman from the Philippines explained in response to Chan's presentation, "It's hypocritical to talk about developing countries' human rights violations without talking about Canada's."

Jake Garvey is a member of the Young Socialists in Vancouver.  
 
 
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