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WSF seeks to bypass WTO after Cancun talks
Anti-globalisation activists on Saturday called for the setting up of alternatives in the developing world to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Boosted by the Cancun talks failure, anti-globalisation activists on Saturday called for the setting up of alternatives in the developing world to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
"The WTO is completely dishonest, deceitful and against human life," Vandana Shiva, a leading Indian ecologist, told a seminar at the World Social Forum, the anti-globalisation movement's annual convention.
Shiva said the breakdown of WTO negotiations in September in Cancun showed a growing resistance to the global trade body from the developing world.
"It is clear now that what we will eat, produce and live for will be controlled by corporates benefitting from WTO," said Shiva, who has led high-profile campaigns in India against genetically modified food and the privatisation of natural resources.
The Cancun talks, meant to breathe life into the stalled trade liberalisation process, fell apart amid developing countries' portests against rich nations' farm subsidies and tariffs on agricultural imports.
Shiva said prices for farmers had dropped as large corporations slashed costs for consumers on products from cookies to potato chips.
She also blasted talk of setting up patents for natural resources such as seeds or varieties of wheat.
"We are not going to allow them to patent wheat to sell crisp cookies at the cost of our chapatis," she said, referring to north India's traditional bread.
Brazilian trade unionist Rafael Freire Neto also called for increased cooperation from the so-called G-21 group of developing countries, which include Brazil and India, to counter rich countries.
"At Cancun the G-21 was one at least in showing the power of participation for one cause. It should now be more aggressive," Freire Neto said.
"Our challenge is now to build campaigns against the WTO, and also against neo-liberalism that is spreading across the world. What we did at Cancun we should do everywhere."
Nearly 10,000 anti-globalisation activists led protests in Cancun to oppose the WTO talks, adding pressure on negotiators from developing countries.
"We saw 6,000 policemen stopping us from reaching the gates of the building where the talks were held. Imagine the pressure that was there at Cancun. We can do it anywhere," Freire Neto said.
