A Critique of The Anti-Globalization Movement

"CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility".

-Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

On April 15, 2005 Reuters published an article entitled "Emerging Nations Push for More Say in Global Lenders" (www.nyt.com). The article quotes the chairman of the Group of Twenty-Four (an organization of poor Third World countries) on the appointment of Iraq War architect, neocon, and currently Defense Department Undersecretary Paul Wolfowitz to the position of World Bank President.

"I was not consulted as concerns the nomination of Mr. Wolfowitz, so I cannot say I am satisfied or happy about it" observed G24 chairman and Gabon's Finance Minister Paul Tongui dryly. "We want a multilateral system for international monetary cooperation in which everybody is represented in a fair and open way" added another G24 official.

Here on the front page of the New York Times, the unofficial newspaper of record for the nation, is at last a tacit recognition, however belated, of the concerns of the world's poor countries at being perpetually shut out of critically important decisions that directly affect their own people. And here in a nutshell in today's news are some of the central issues that have been fueling the so-called anti-globalization movement, which this paper will explore.

Both the strengths and weaknesses of this movement are discernable here. The power of it

. . .
on campaign spending several years ago, that was supposed to take the money out of politics. Political campaigns are money driven, partly because a nation which loves to boast about its democratic pretensions has never seen fit to give all candidates free and equal access to mass media, as Britain has done to some extent. Most of the money raised from well-heeled corporate lobbyists ends up being spent on corporate TV. In return for their contributions, the fat cats from the energy cartel and the other major corporate players who run the administration of George W. Bush get such things as tax credits for oil drilling, issuing stocks, or the depreciation of their production machinery. Or access to the enormous oil reserves of Iraq via an illegal, unjustified war hyped up by corporate media with a blizzard of unchallenged governmental/corporate lies. The recent passage of the bill in Congress making it much harder for the average citizen to declare bankruptcy was a sop to the credit card industry û a typical quid pro quo payback for their financial support of Republicans. Same with the bill to allow oil drilling in the last vestiges of wilderness in Alaska, or the lack of government oversight of the pharmaceutical, meat-packi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
French-speaking Quebecois, George Bush, World Bank, European Community, Third World, Social Forum, South Africa, World Bank/IMF's, Kyoto Protocol, Tom Hayden, anti-globalization movement, corporate media, third world, world bank, free trade, trade agreements, canadian dimension editorial, dimension editorial, mass media, transnational corporations, canadian dimension, current bush administration, information corporate media, source information corporate, north american free,
Approximate Word count = 4432
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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