Corporate globalization in crisis
December 13th, 2005 by Jim JustFrom December 13 to 18, the World Trade Organization will hold its sixth ministerial meeting in Hong Kong to negotiate the fate of public services, the global food supply, and jobs and development. WTO proponents are attempting to portray an anticipated failure to reach consensus as a crisis. The real issue is that the WTO is in crisis because the model of corporate globalization has failed to produce economic growth or to alleviate poverty. The undemocratic WTO has had a destructive impact on communities, democracy, development, and the environment. As John Ralston Saul points out, the consequences of globalization have been less-than-average growth accompanied by a sharp increase in disparity of wealth: a small group of people are getting richer and a much larger group of people are getting poorer. The dominance of transnationals hasn’t led to free trade, but to a mercantilist international oligopoly/monopoly system.