Lindy Bill,
That's an interesting article. Evidently Americans are not the only peoples of the earth who dislike the effects of globalization. In fact, multi-national corps(Pres Bush's friends) are the only ones happy with globalization because it makes them even more obscenely wealthy:
Anti-Globalization Forum Starts in Bombay Thursday, 15-Jan-2004 2:30PM Story from AP / RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press (via ClariNet)
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BOMBAY, India (AP) -- Artists touched up anti-war exhibits and food stalls barred multinational brands like Coke and Pepsi as tens of thousands of people assembled Friday for the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of peace and anti-globalization activists.
The six-day event in a Bombay suburb aims to help activist groups connect and develop alternatives to free trade policies that many say are harming poor countries.
Workers at the event took the anti-globalization theme to heart, keeping big-industry brands out of vending booths and running computers on Linux -- a free software that rivals Microsoft's Windows.
"This forum will blow up the myth that there is no alternative," said W.R. Varada Rajan, a trade union leader. "It will also explode the myth that this model of globalization has universal acceptance."
About 100,000 activists, political workers and intellectuals from 130 countries are expected to attend the event, which is being held for the first time outside Brazil.
"Brazil was such a big success that we couldn't stop it. We felt we must repeat it all over the world," said Chico Whitaker, who was a key organizer for the forum's first three annual meetings in Brazil.
India was chosen for this year's meeting to ensure greater participation from Africa and Asia.
Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and Joseph Stiglitz are among the speakers at the event, which lists more than 1,000 seminars, workshops and cultural programs on militarism and peace, religious fanaticism, unfair global trade, poverty and the rights of women, children and animals.
The war in Iraq is expected to be the focus.
"We can't talk about globalization without talking about war, racism and oppression," said Diane Nette of World March of Women, a Canada-based women's group. "The war in Iraq has seen social movements across the world coming together, and we hope to continue with it," she said.
The forum is a counterpoint to the meeting of business and government leaders at the World Economic Forum, held annually in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. This year's meeting in Davos is scheduled for Jan. 21-25. |
