ARTICLES ON GLOBALIZATION

FTAA Ship Runs Aground, But Party Goes On by Tom Hayden, AlterNet
A huge but empty trade agreement – widely described as "FTAA Lite" – was all the US could achieve after being buffeted for weeks by rising fair trade winds. But the jolly ship of neo-liberalism was salvaged in Miami rather than torpedoed, receiving life support from its most formidable critic, Brazil, and causing confusing challenges for the global justice movement in its wake. December 1, 2003

Porto Alegre II: Call of Social Movements In the face of continuing deterioration in the living conditions of people, we, social movements from all around the world, have come together in the tens of thousands at the second World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. We are here in spite of the attempts to break our solidarity. We come together again to continue our struggles against neoliberalism and war, to confirm the agreements of the last Forum and to reaffirm that another world is possible. February 2002

Energy Crisis: Deregulation and Privatization of Public Services under FTAA, by Global Exchange
In the midst of California’s energy crisis, the mainstream press is saturated with reports of exorbitant rates and rolling blackouts that have plagued the state in the years since its ill-fated move to deregulate and privatize utilities. Hardly a soul in Sacramento these days would dare subscribe to the notion that deregulation has been good for the California economy. And yet further deregulation and privatization of essential public services are exactly what the federal government has in store for us under the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). April 2001

Sector Analysis of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, by the Alliance for Responsible Trade
How the FTAA would impact labor, women, the Environment, Agriculture, consumers and food safety, the faith community, and immigrants. Spring, 2001.

The World Social Forum, by Naomi Klein  
If Seattle was the coming-out party of a resistance movement, then Porto Alegre heralded the beginning of serious thinking about alternatives. The emphasis was on alternatives coming from the countries experiencing most acutely the negative effects of globalization: mass migration of people, widening wealth disparities, weakening political power.  The Nation, March 19, 2001

Withstanding pressures for new round, a major challenge for South, by Martin Khor, Third World Nerwork
Withstanding pressures for a New Round of trade negotiations at the next WTO Ministerial meeting in Qatar in November is one of the major challenges and priorities for developing countries at the World Trade Organization, according to several Ambassadors from the South. March 15, 2001

Free Trade Area of the Americas: Negotiations at Key Juncture on eve of April Meetings A number of participants believe that a Free Trade Area of the Americas can be successfully concluded only if the key Western Hemisphere leaders demonstrate they have the political will to conclude the agreement. However, some participants believe the United States has been distracted from pursuing trade liberalization because it is without a domestic consensus on the benefits of free trade and the way in which to handle the overlap between trade and labor rights and the environment. U.S. General Accounting Office, March 2001

U.S. Trade Representative Sued for Hiding Documents
Withholding Could Hamper Protection of Domestic Environment and Health Laws
Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, March 7, 2001

The Free Trade Area of the Americas and the Threat to Social Programs, Envronmental Sustainability and Social Justice in Canada and the Americas, by Maude Barlow.
"Worldwide economic and cultural harmonization is the goal," says one top U.S. WTO official, who adds, "Basically, it won't stop until foreigners finally start to think like Americans, act like Americans and - most of all - shop like Americans."

Quebec City bans scarves during summit, fearing protests
Protesters at talks of the World Trade Organization in Seattle covered their faces. Quebec City and the suburb of Saint-Foy have passed an anti-scarf by-law as a security measure for the Summit of the Americas in April.  People in the Quebec City suburb of Saint-Foy could soon risk being arrested for wearing scarves or covering up their faces. February 26, 2001

Quebec City Crackdown
From April 20-22, Quebec City has the dubious honour of hosting the 3rd Summit of the Americas. The Summit will bring together 34 heads of state - every head of state in the Americas except Fidel Castro. And despite stringent security measures, including the largest police deployment in Canadian history, a tremendous contingency of anti-globalization protesters will be there to shake up the process. By Darryl Leroux, AlterNet, February 20, 2001.

Quebec summit security will be the tightest in Canada's history: police
The RCMP and other police forces hope that what they are calling the largest security operation in Canadian history will ensure Quebec City is as quiet as possible this April. As many as 5,000 police officers might be on hand to prevent the Summit of the Americas from being disrupted as were the talks in Seattle when it played host to international trade talks in 1999. By Alexander Panetta, Canadian Press, February 17, 2001

N30
Paul Hawken's dispatch from the WTO demonstrations in Seattle, November 30, 1999. (PDF format, requires Adobe Acrobat. Click here for free download.)

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