Meena Menon, Focus on the Global South

(Presentation at the Conference on “Regional Integration: an
Opportunity Presented by the Crisis”, Asuncion, Paraguay, July 21-22,
2009.)

Almost all regional formations: e.g. SAARC, ASEAN, SADC, Mercosur,
have cooperation and peace as important components of its stated
objectives. The fulfillment of these objectives are limited in many of
these blocs,  but the experience of new formations like ALBA have
shown that there are possibilities in regional association for an
agenda of fighting hegemony, both regional as well as global, both
economic and political.  Of late progressive social movements and
campaigners have started engaging with this idea more than before. The
objective is to a) look at the possibilities in regional work to fight
hegemony b) to look critically at the experience o the current
regional associations and blocs. c) to build peoples links at regional
level to explore points of conflict and find solutions based on
dialogue and cooperation.

Peace and democracy are critical to a people’s agenda for regional
alternatives. Since most current regional formations are political in
nature, not just economic, there is a geo-political, social and also
security component in most of their charters. Another important factor
is that conflict and security issues are often the most significant
obstacles in the process of regional integration or regional
cooperation. SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation)
for instance, is hostage to the vicissitudes of the India- Pakistan
relationship.

Human security
In SAARC, as in many current regional formations, the chief security
concern is the GWOT (Global war on terror) which is just another term
for defending US interests and security since 9/11, although many fail
to see this in the midst of a justified indignation regarding violent
terror attacks in the region. However, security from a people’s
perspective is part of a broader concept, more comprehensive than
physical security. We need to build on the idea of human security
which has to be central in the kind of regional alternatives we wish
to build. This can be the basis for a lasting and genuine peace.

Human security includes:
a)      Physical security: War & militarization, natural and man made disasters
b)      Political security: human rights, migrants issues, electoral and
other democratic `rights
c)      Health
d)      Economic and Food sovereignty: hunger and deprivation
e)      Climate security

Human security can best be guaranteed and accessed at the national
level where states are more amenable to popular pressure. However in a
globalised world, most of these issues have a global and even regional
scope and are enmeshed in conflicts and controls which require a
broader engagement. Where solutions lie in fighting the global elite,
and keeping out the aid and interference from imperialist powers,
regional cooperation helps because individual countries are far more
vulnerable to such intervention especially in the case of smaller and
weaker states. This involves cooperation and resolution of differences
through various channels between countries in the region on the one
hand and on the other, the preparedness to stand up against imperial
hegemony. This is, without doubt, truly effective only when the
governments in the region are pro-people and progressive. But it is
also possible, as we have seen in the case of anti-WTO campaign, for
people to pressurize their governments to take a stand by banding
together in blocs of nations. When countries work together or are
forced by popular pressure to work together on resolving conflict
issues and issues of human security they often do manage to take
anti-imperial positions. It is also easier for people of the various
countries in the region to pressurize them at the regional level.

While regional formations would normally be geographically contiguous,
have shared economic and political interest, a common history and
culture, this need not be part of its definition. Countries can come
together on common economic political, cultural interest outside their
own regions too. In the case of ALBA which is based on cooperation and
complementarities, it is possible for countries out side the region
also to sign up.

What is most critical is that regional alternatives would necessarily
have a comprehensive approach to human security at its core.

Regional conflicts
Conflicts are a major channel for imperialist interference and war
mongering. The US has been fishing for years in troubled regional
waters, selling arms, escalating conflict, toppling and instating
friendly (and mostly fascist) governments in order to maintain and
extend its influence. But most of the time, this is facilitated
because of regional conflicts which allow themselves to be blown up to
insoluble proportions in course of time.

Regional conflicts can arise from many factors: conflicts over natural
resources, markets, sovereignty, democracy, inequality, historical
enmity, etc. Although wars break out over these or other issues,
people have real stake in peace with neighbours: communities and
social movements, even local business. Often this is lost in the
nationalism and chauvinism whipped up by right wing governments and
parties. Peoples interests are more important than, and need to be
privileged over, national borders and elite interests. Conflicts have
to be replaced by cooperation- this means much pressure has to be
exerted by those who have the biggest stake in peace and human
security- ie the people of the countries in the region. When there are
mechanisms for solving local regional differences through
institutional as well as people- to- people channels it is less likely
that conflicts flare up into war or are deliberately fanned by various
vested interests.

Regional blocs and responses to war
Regional formations can significant in times of wars or genocide. In
Palestine, Srilanka, Afghanistan, or even the war on Iraq, and the
threat of war on Iran, peace movements have often found themselves
helpless to intervene in such a way as to be effective or to make a
direct impact on war mongers and hegemons. Often mammoth
demonstrations prove to be of limited use, although pressure is indeed
brought bear on local governments. To be really effective national
governments have to be pressurized to stop aiding and abetting
illegitimate wars and coup de etats. When resistance to war is
regional, when governments, particularly in the region come out
actively in support of peace, against aggression, the forces on the
side of peace are strengthened and maybe the forces preventing war and
intervention, or genocide can made more effective. Even serious
conflicts can perhaps be better dealt with by a regional response. In
the case of Palestine, or the war on Iraq, the disunity of the Arab
states has been a big obstacle to peace. Any serious attempt to bring
peace to the region would have to include putting pressure on the Arab
states to stand more unitedly and actively behind Palestine. In
Srilanka, the government’s brutal violence against unarmed Tamils as
part of its war against the Tigers, could have been stopped by a
serious intervention by governments in the region. This incidentally
does not mean a hegemonic intervention by the Indian government, but
instead a democratic alliance of the south Asian states, however
improbable that may sound in the current context. The same applies to
the troubles in Afghanistan. A country devastated by conflict over
years.

Needless to say, this kind of regional intervention for peace would
have to be based on democratic and collective decision-making in the
region, between various governments in the region and also in
consultation with the people, to make sure it is no excuse for
hegemonic intervention. Regional peacekeeping however is a possible
anti war that we must consider in a better world.  If we are to banish
war, regional force is an option that must be considered,
democratically controlled. This is not the same as imperialist
aggression. In the SAARC region this is something we could explore in
the context of the India -Pakistan- Afghanistan conflict and US
intervention there.

One argument that will be raised against such a framework would be the
one of the danger to national sovereignty. However these are not
normal circumstances that would justify such extreme steps.
Sovereignty cannot apply during times of major human and natural
catastrophe, or when there is genocide and armed assault against
unarmed people, or conflict which cause death and destruction of lives
and property of millions.

The importance of democracy
In order that regional alternatives are genuinely anti- hegemonic,
democracy would have to be a fundamental premise. Not only would it
have to be a regional integration that is democratic within, it would
also have to be firmly committed to the principles of democracy and to
democratic institutions, and making this a necessary concomitant to
participation.

Regional integration that is beneficial would need to be democratic at
all levels, providing more democracy as a result of integration, not
less. This means a) democracy within the country, b) for local
communities, c) between the countries, and d) with the rest of the
world. Hegemony both outside and inside the formation would have to be
resisted. Here the role of peoples movements becomes particularly
important, again especially in bigger stronger countries. Also
struggles for democracy have to be supported by the regional
formation.

The African Council’s decision to disallow members whose governments
have been established through coup-de etas and not electoral means has
had considerable impact in terms of discouraging that trend in the
continent. In the Honduras, the support of the local states to deposed
Zelaya is a big detriment to those espousing the coup. For the
situation in the Honduras to change, the governments in the region
would play a major role, in supporting the forces of democracy, and
opposing imperialist interference.

Another important guarantee for democracy within regional formations
will be for regional integration to be at more than one level: there
can be integration inside regional formations as well- for e.g. it is
possible that smaller countries inside a larger unity might come
together to protect their interests against the bigger regional
hegemon, for instance India, Brazil and South Africa in their
respective regions.

Regional responses have to be a bottom up rather than top down
process. Communities, social movements, trade unions, political
parties, human rights defenders, small businesses, progressive
bureaucrats, have to be involved in building a active stake in the
processes. Elite led governments, which are always under the pressure
of powerful economic and political vested interests will have to be
forced by the counter pressure of the common people towards human
security and peace.

People’s governments and people’s power:
For regional integration to be a real alternative participating
governments would have to be radical and people oriented. It is no
accident that ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and
the Caribbean) was initiated by the popular left government in
Venezuela headed by Hugo Chavez. Real change even regionally cannot
sustain without a change in the representation of corporate and elite
led governments. ALBA is the radical response to ALCA (Free Trade Area
of the Americas) and is based on complementarity rather than
competition, on social inclusion and justice rather than profit and
greed. Yet ALBA is essentially a political project, depending on the
alliance of Venezuela and Cuba and the other left governments in the
region. The struggle for a regional alternative that is genuinely
people centred also includes the struggle for changes in the system
and the balance of power in the different countries in the region.

ALBA represents the welcome winds of change sweeping the Latin
American region. In other parts of the world: in Asia, Africa, Europe
the project for alternative regionalism is still at the stage where
peoples movements will have to pressure governments to prevent them
from completely opening up their economies to corporate loot and
plunder. But as peoples power grows, we may foresee a positive agenda
of evolving alternative trade and foreign policy frameworks, and
regional blocs that are alternatives to capitalism and free trade all
over the world.

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