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world trade organization by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - December 20, 2000 |
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| The new Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Mike Moore, is probably the leading contemporary candidate for 'Most Despised Man on Earth'. Moore leads an institution conceived in 1995 to promote free trade and sustainable development, the WTO rapidly became the victim of shifting post-Cold War socio-economic conditions. Its many critics have claimed that the WTO inappropriately intervenes in domestic and regional affairs in order to enforce international trade policy, undermining the democratic process and contributing to predatory multi-national corporations' strangle-hold over declining nation-states. Anti-WTO activists come from diverse backgrounds and have differing agendas, but many share an inherent distrust of mercantile capitalist globalization and rampant market-driven neo-liberalism. For many Left, Marxist, Socialist and Anarchist activists, the WTO is a convenient symbol for resisting 'one dimensional' capitalist consumer society: a symbol enabling new global networks to form and grassroots movements to regenerate themselves after enduring years of New Right wrath. Third World, Post-colonial, Feminist and Environmental perspectives have come to the fore in solidarity, highlighting how complex and multi-layered current debates are. Anti-WTO protest focuses on November 30 (N30), the international day of action which coincided in 1999 with the beginning of the WTO's 3rd Ministerial Conference, held in Seattle, WA. Over four days, 150 government officials met to discuss a new 'Multilateral Agreement on Investment' (MAI) draft and 'Millennium Round' trade talks. N30 activities designed to raise public awareness of long-term policy and systemic implications continue earlier autonomous protests including 'J18'(June 18)and Mayday. Despite claims that the WTO threatens the 'Open Society' and that an inevitable global crisis looms, Moore and his colleagues continue their research and application. Moore counters that the WTO is very transparent, upholds public protest rights and that fake web-sites like an RTMark spoof are a public disservice because they spread disinformation. The WTO site has published over 60,000 documents and enabled RealVideo monitoring of ministerial sessions for greater public accountability. Opinions are still divided even between many sociologists and economists. Anthony Giddens suggests that the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs and other Bretton-Woods institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, conceived to prevent the return of depression economics, assume a bi-polar geo-political outlook and are unduly influenced by Frederic Hayek's 'supply-side' economics. Giddens claims they generally have low environmental consciousness and are trying to implement a devastating linear modernity model. Giddens also claims that these debates fail to consider such shifting 'life conditions' as current circumstances, people, place or historical problems. Philanthropist and investor George Soros suggests that the free-market shifted into a new equilibrium resulting from the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis and that unforseen 'emergent properties' may arise from the increasingly inter-connected global system that GATT, IMF and WTO promote and try to implement for developing countries. Edward S. Hermann and Noam Chomsky have highlighted the tendency for WTO to support multi-national corporations in their monopolization of intellectual property and continue 'North-South' divisive US imperialistic foreign policy agendas. These frequently eye-opening debates in the 'Spectre of Marx' have led activists to promote visionary new alternatives like the 'participatory economics' model. The result of N30 and similar campaigns is that many ordinary citizens have been informed and empowered by non-profit organizations and streaming media real-time broadcasting. Group dynamics and techniques of civil disobedience protest have changed forever. N30 is ultimately a Conspiracy of Hope. |
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Listbot: November 30 International Day Of Action Home Page Eat The State! Labor and the WTO Vancouver Grassroots Alliance Seattle City-Wide Walkout Against WTO Trade & Development Center OneWorld.net: Campaigns: WTO In Seattle World Trade Organization/GATT Homepage NewsWatch Independent Media Center International Forum on Globalization The Global 500: What Should Be Done? Who Owns The WTO? Agency For International Trade Information & Co-operation WTO News: The Road To Seattle No WTO N30 In Deutschland Homepage Global Action San Francisco Art & Revolution Convergence Spackparade Gegen Umstruckturierung und Neo-liberalasmus People's Global Action Against 'Free' Trade! NO2WTO Cross-Canada WTO Caravan People's Global Action: Caravan NLG-WTO: Know Your Rights During The WTO Ministerial Spiral Dynamics: World Trade Organization/Seattle Hot-spot Forum World Trade Organization The 3rd WTO Ministerial Conference International Trade Center The World Bank Group International Monetary Fund WTOWatch Global Trade Watch Homepage World Trade Watch Radio Znet: World Trade Crisis Global Exchange The Participatory Economics Project AdBusters: The Big Question Oxfam Campaigns: Loaded Against The Poor Seattle WTO: Mobilization Against Corporate Globalization Democracy NOW! Food First: Institute For Food And Development Policy Charter 99: A Charter For Global Democracy |
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