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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2001Column: Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry and Mary Holmes
WTO protests continue
The World Trade Organization (WTO) held its ministerial level meeting in
November, the first since the last one collapsed in Seattle in 1999. The mass,
diverse anti-globalization movement that emerged two years ago was absent this
time, largely due to the meeting's location in inaccessible Doha, Qatar, which
operated in a state of virtual lockdown. Non-governmental "observers"
to the 144-nation gathering were limited to 650 organizations and were stacked
with capitalist lobbyists. Grassroots organizations representing workers,
non-corporate farmers, environmentalists and the poor were shut out.The U.S. trade representative claimed the Doha meeting had "removed the stain of Seattle," but the anti-globalization movement is still vigorous. A series of worldwide anti-WTO demonstrations were held simultaneously with Doha. Some 20,000 students and workers marched in Seoul, South Korea, and farmers battled police there in a later demonstration. In India, around 15,000 workers, farmers, women and dalits gathered in Delhi to protest the government's policies of appeasing IMF and World Bank economic demands. |
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