The WTO in Cancun

As usual, there are two different versions of what went on last month in Cancún. The first comes from the “mainstream media,” which reported that the latest meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) failed to accomplish its goals due to disagreement among the delegates, resulting in an even harder future for those who refused to go along. The second comes from independent journalists writing for small papers and Internet news sites, who acknowledge that the talks broke down, but insist that the future—at least in the long run—may be brighter as a result of affected countries holding the line, refusing to be steamrollered by their more powerful “partners.”

Led by China, Brazil, Chile and some others, the developing countries and the yet-to-be-developing countries broke with the “big four” (the U.S., the E.U., Canada and Japan) over many issues, with the big one being agricultural dumping by the haves, forcing farmers out of business in the have-nots.

The focus of the call for change was on corn farmers in Latin America and cotton farmers in Africa, unable to compete with government-subsidized first-world agricultural conglomerates such as our very own Cargill, and Archer-Daniels-Midland, who have been dumping excess—and often substandard—surplus supplies on the world market.

In the end, unable to put the issue on the agenda—the big four more or less taking the position of “vote for new trade rules now, and we’ll consider your complaints at some unspecified later date”—delegates from affected countries walked out.

Comparisons to Seattle by mainstream media never did take hold. Unlike Seattle, this conference was scuttled from inside, and while there were skirmishes between anti-WTO forces and security forces, there were few arrests, few serious injuries, and no breach of the walls of security set up by the thousands of police—including U.S. and Israeli anti-terrorist specialists—to insulate the delegates from the rabble. While there was some property damage—greedy Mexican businessmen, with the encouragement of the pro-WTO equivalent of the Chamber of Commerce inflated the figures considerably—it was nothing like the carnage created by visiting U.S. students every Easter.

Not reported by so-called publications of record such as the New York Times were the many activities going on all over downtown Cancún: an “alternative conference” to share information and plan strategy for a “people’s trade protocol” that rejects growth at the expense of social stability; a “fair trade” exposition and convention; and dozens of teach-ins and demonstrations by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), both national and international.

Underreported was the refusal of the Mexican government to issue visas to opposition leaders from several countries, the most prominent of which was Evo Morales, who came in second in the last Bolivian presidential election, and the “special entry tax” of $100 U.S. dollars charged non-delegates. José Bovey, the French farmer who led sometimes damaging actions against U.S. franchise giant MacDonald’s, was denied an exit visa by the French government, saving president Vicente Fox the embarrassment of denying him entry.

The day after the conference broke up, the Times summarized the conference in exactly the mode expected: The poorer nations, unable to handle “progress,” bit off their noses to spite their faces. The main assumption in this little bit of twisted logic is that there are only two choices available: take a few crumbs, or get no cake at all.

Meanwhile, NarcoNews (an Internet magazine at http://www.narconews.com devoted to exposing the ties between the war on drugs and the erosion of human rights and the collusion between the “free traders,” the drug prohibitionists, and the media) broke an important story that the mainstream media ignored:

While the WTO honchos were hunkered down in their embattled resort hotels, leaders of the other world, which contains the vast majority of the people on this planet—including the above-mentioned Evo Morales—were meeting in Caracas. The result of their confab is a call for a pan-Latin parley in the Venezuelan capital from the 11th through the 14th of October, to form a power bloc of indigenous, farmers and landless peasants for change. With the expected (though perhaps unofficial) support of the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela, this could become a force to be reckoned with. The meeting is sure to come up with a “people, not investments” economic agenda. It will become part of a larger global consensus that the vast majority of the world’s nations—along with the have-nots within the richest nations—have to develop counter strategies, together and individually, to save themselves, because the big four, rhetoric aside, has no good intentions for them.

Oh, by the way, you are paying—with your taxes—for the subsidies that allow U.S. companies to enrich themselves by impoverishing corn farmers down here where I live. Just thought you might like to know ...