by Hans Riebsamen
Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungMarch 6, 2002
The young volunteers in the stylish, environmentally friendly building in Verden an der Aller, a small town between Bremen and Hannover, have long given up pinning Attac flags on the map of Germany as each new local group is formed.
Anti-globalization activists have set up local units in the depths of the countryside and in major cities like Hamburg, Berlin and Cologne. Attac now has 70 groups in Germany, and claims a further 30 in formation.
Sven Giegold keeps in contact with Attac affiliates abroad from the organization's coordinating office in Verden, a town that is mainly known as an equestrian center. Attac, an international alliance founded in France in 1998 with independent organizations in about 40 countries, says it is not against globalization per se. Attac -- the acronym for the Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens -- opposes the trend in globalization that is dominated by neoliberal economics and social welfare cutbacks, Mr. Giegold says.
"Genoa was a turning point," he observes, "and a high point." Far from harming the globalization critics, extensive media coverage of the riots in the northern Italian port during last July's G-8 summit of the seven leading industrial nations and Russia made the movement better known than ever before. Since Genoa, the handful of volunteers at the Attac office here has been busy registering new members and supplying mushrooming local groups with informational material.
Even Sept. 11 dealt only a temporary setback to the network's explosive growth. Indeed, Attac's argument that combating poverty is the best way to prevent terrorism reflects a quite widely held opinion, so it was soon able to go back on the offensive.
Unsurprisingly, political parties and established organizations are somewhat envious of a political movement whose membership has grown from 400 to 4,700 in just over six months. Alliance 90/The Greens, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Party of Democratic Socialism have been keen to associate themselves with Attac's success for some time now. The youth groups of the Greens and SPD and, recently, even the latter party's tradition-steeped branch in the state of Hesse have all joined the alliance.
So are party officials about to take over the organization? Martin Herndlhofer of the Catholic organization Pax Christi, a gray-haired former monk who is now a leading member of Attac, shakes his head. "That mustn't be allowed to happen," he warns. As a longtime peace campaigner, he recognizes the danger associated with building direct ties to the government, but he believes that the Attac alliance's much-trumpeted "openness" is the antidote.
"It is the enemy of any kind of infiltration," he says.
Attac supporters believe in the basic goodness of humanity, but are also alert to human shortcomings. As a precaution, they have amended their articles of association so that, in the future, members of political parties may only join this alliance of Third World organizations, environmental associations and "groups critical of capitalism," as supporters without voting rights.
Members like Mr. Giegold and Mr. Herndlhofer stress repeatedly that they definitely do not want Attac to become a political party.
That is not the only quandary its organizers face. Attac's leadership fears that the organization could become part of the establishment. They have also been distrustful of more established organizations. Yet the globalization critics at Attac are seeking closer relationships with some of these organizations, and in a move that raised eyebrows the group recently reached out to make an alliance with Germany's powerful labor unions in a move reminiscent of the anti-globalization movement in the United States, which has for several years now been aligned with unions there.
"We didn't approach Attac, Attac approached us," says Jan Engehardt, who heads the youth section of IG Metall, Germany's biggest industrial union.
A week before Germany's national elections, members of IG Metall's youth wing and their counterparts in the white-collar, media, public service, transport, construction, railroad and food workers' unions will join Attac in a day of action on Sept. 14 in Cologne. Tens of thousands are expected to demonstrate for "political change."
Unions staged a similar event before the last general election four years ago, albeit against the previous government headed by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and without Attac.
The point of the cooperation, Mr. Engehardt says, is to exchange views with intelligent people and, naturally, to unite forces pursuing the same goal. "Deregulation mania has to be stopped," he explains.
The IG Metall chairman, Klaus Zwickel, and his deputy, Jürgen Peters, wrote to all the union's administrative centers, district executives and training establishments in early February. "Dear colleagues, we are writing to encourage you to cooperate with Attac," the letter began. The union leaders informed their subordinates that, in terms of content, the globalization critics' demands largely matched IG Metall's. The union, too, rejects the neoliberal globalization credo, questions the distribution of economic power, and campaigns for economic and human rights worldwide. The union first made the gesture to cooperate with Attac after receiving repeat queries from younger members, who were asking: "Why aren't you working with Attac?"
"It's a risk for both sides," Mr. Herndlhofer admits. Still, he says he is optimistic that Attac's openness will help shake up his own organization.
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