Modern Maccabees in Seattle

A few days before the celebration of Hanukkah, tens of thousands of demonstrators in Seattle took up the modern banner of ancient guerrilla fighters. Though the terms of the struggle are different, it’s really the same battle that Jews will celebrate by lighting candles for eight days, starting tonight.

The struggle of Hanukkah was about the massive Greek empire and its Hellenistic culture that had taken over ancient Judea and attempted to subvert the independent right of the Jewish people to shape their own cultural, religious and political life.

The form of the empire has changed. Today, there are 50 multinational corporations that have gross incomes greater than that of many countries. Corporate power is able to dictate the terms of trade and shape the cultural and political life of many countries around the world.

The contemporary form of domination does not require colonial armies or imperialist interventions. The “free market” allows for the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few, and they in turn are able to dictate to governments and to peoples around the world.

Yet these corporations are not satisfied. They have created the World Trade Organization to extend their power into countries whose democratic processes have put environmental, labor and human rights constraints on the reckless pursuit of profits uber alles.

The plan is simple: Every country in the world will have to subordinate its own environmental, human rights and labor policies to that agreed upon by the WTO. And the WTO, in turn, sees as its highest goal the creation of unimpeded “free trade”--unimpeded by environmental, labor or human rights concerns. So, when called on to adjudicate disputes, it always sides with corporate interests seeking to maximize trade and minimize moral or ecological constraints.

The WTO’s goal is to put severe controls upon nations and citizens that try to protect the safety of the environment, their jobs, their food, their rights. If the WTO has its way, even local rules restricting the cutting of forests or fishing for endangered species could be stopped by a foreign corporation, as could any attempts to require that profits be reinvested locally or requirements to hire local workers.

Most Americans oppose the substance of what the WTO seeks to establish, but they have no effective political leadership ready to say so because our system of government requires that politicians amass huge campaign moneys from the very elites of wealth and power who benefit from the WTO. That’s why many Americans, including central elements of the labor and environmental movements, felt they had no alternative but to take to the streets in Seattle. They do not oppose increasing trade, but they insist that trade be conducted in ways that ensure environmental restraint, respect for the basic rights of working people and human rights.

The demonstrators had no intention of throwing roadblocks in front of the many Internet and new technology companies that could easily demonstrate corporate responsibility and whose entry into the world market would be a boon.

In response, the cheerleaders for the globalization of capital imagine that, by focusing on the violence of a few anarchists who broke shop windows, they can avoid the basic issue.

Rather than defend the policies of the WTO, they describe the protests as “silly” or “pointless.” Instead of opposing globalization, they caution, it is more rational to whisper into the ears of the powerful and hope to shame the major corporations into being more socially and ecologically responsible.

It was a similar argument that faced a small band of Jews when they decided to oppose Hellenistic power. Many of their fellow Jews were following the line: “There is no alternative, so let’s see what terms we can work out for ourselves if we cuddle up to the powerful Hellenists.”

As a result, the guerrilla struggle waged by Judah the Maccabee was not just a national liberation struggle, but also had a civil war dimension between the Jewish accommodators to “reality” and those who believed that there was a force in the world (they called it God) that made it possible to fight for what was right, even against overwhelming odds.

The miracle of Hanukkah was that this small band eventually prevailed. That kind of victory has happened throughout history when people realize that the spirit is greater than the wealth and power of the arrogant elites.

It may take many generations here, too, but the demonstrators in Seattle have kindled a light of hope by taking a first step toward the modern miracle that will eventually lead to serious constraints on corporate domination.

Don’t let that light go out.