By Matt Moore

‘New Kensington No Post Office’

'Think Globally, Act Locally'

It's a great slogan. Images of thousands of local struggles spring to mind, all working towards a common goal. Protests against water privatisation in Bolivia and against hospital closures in Wallasey, struggles for land in Brazil and for decent housing in Kensington. Wielding this slogan - and others - thousands of people will travel to Gleneagles in Scotland this summer to protest against the meeting of the G8. As they organise opposition to corporate globalisation many of these people will say 'think globally, act locally.'
Strange then that the chairman of Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN), Dr Klaus Zumwinkel, should choose to lead off his 2004 letter to shareholders with this:

"Think globally, act locally" - How often have we heard and read this message in various contexts? Nevertheless, for me it has not lost any of its relevance. In fact I believe that this message is now truer than ever.'

DPWN is the corporation behind Deutsche Post (Germany's biggest mail provider), global mail carrier DHL, Postbank (Germany's biggest retail bank), as well as private mail services in Britain, Spain, France, the US, the Netherlands and more. They have an annual turnover of over 40 billion euros, with operating profits of over 3 billion, and they employ almost 400,000 people worldwide. These are not members of any 'anarchist travelling circus', as Tony Blair describes global justice campaigners. Indeed, the chairman even describes his company as 'a driving force behind the process of globalisation … the carrier of this phenomenon.'

So why is he using 'our' slogan and what has any of this got to do with the G8? The answer is that the idea of thinking globally and acting locally is not restricted to the global justice movement; our corporate enemies understand the lesson just as well - if not better - than we do. Globalisation works on a local level; to function it has to touch the lives of every one of us. If we're going to resist it - as those protesting against the G8 wish to - we have to understand this, and exploit it.

One anonymous graffiti artist seemed to sum things up when they wrote on the boards sealing what had been Prescot Road post office: 'New Kensington, No Post Office'. The bright, happy scenes promised by the billboards, of a future Kensington apparently dominated by sunshine and smiles, seemed belied by the closure of a building essential to many locals. The regeneration scheme and the closure were not directly connected, but they did seem to have something in common: they weren't happening for the benefit of local people.

In the final analysis the post office was closed as a result of global negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In the current round of talks on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the postal services of member nations are on the table and in the process of being subjected to 'liberalisation'. In 2000, Labour introduced the Postal Services Act to ensure compliance with these future trade requirements. According to Postcomm - the regulator created by the Act - this piece of legislation was designed to 'subject Royal Mail to commercial disciplines … and to promote competition in the UK postal market'.

So far, these 'commercial disciplines' have led to the loss of 30,000 jobs, the closure of 3000 post offices, and massive cuts in services for private users. Business users on the other hand have seen their postage costs go down, as a range of suppliers - like DPWN, who acquired British company Speedmail International in 2004, cherry-pick business customers, using economies of scale and a casualised workforce to undercut Royal Mail, who are still obliged to provide a universal service to people like you and me. Businesses send 50% of Britain's mail. Before 'deregulation' (another code-word for selling off public assets), they paid more to subsidise the less profitable personal mail. Companies sending out millions of pieces of junk mail that no one wanted were forced to put at least some money back into the public system to fund essential services. Not any more. Companies like DPWN are making a fortune while services that people rely on every day are left to slowly rot.

Ultimately, the people of Kensington lost a public service they had enjoyed for many years so that transnational corporations could enjoy increased profits. This is just one example of globalisation acting locally. The rush to privatise our city centre and our hospitals, to sell off chunks of our public parks and so on is all the result of the corporate culture that neoliberal globalisation brings. The connections are often concrete and can be traced, as in the example of DPWN and post office 'deregulation', but even when the links are less concrete, numerous governments have proven time and again that their commitment is to the interests of transnational corporations and not the interests of ordinary people.

Global Problems, Local Resistance

These interconnections between the local and the global are among the most powerful features of globalisation. They're also its greatest vulnerability. In connecting the different aspects of its functioning, this system also connects us: those who would resist. The G8 is the moment where powerful elites gather together to create a united front in order to pursue their own interests. As we protest against it, we can take that moment and make it our own. We can show that across campaigns, across political differences and across the globe we are united in our opposition.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the Merseyside mobilisation against this summit. Trade unionists have worked alongside civil liberties campaigners, members of political parties alongside anarchists. Church groups and charities are sending coachloads of people to the Make Poverty History march in Edinburgh on July 2nd, and asylum rights campaigners are working to enable asylum seekers living on Merseyside to attend the protest at Dungavel detention centre on July 5th.

Whatever the issue, there is a connection to globalisation and to this G8 summit. Whatever makes you angry - be it global poverty or the closure of local services - the leaders who will gather in Gleneagles share the responsibility. This summit is a chance, over seven days of protest, to make our voices heard, to make the connections that those in power would seek to conceal. The people of Merseyside have many, many reasons to oppose this summit, let's make sure we let people know about them.