Globalisation protesters

Financial Times, Letter to the Editor, Published 9/12/01

Sir, As Martin Wolf’s column (9/12/01) illustrates, there is an emerging consensus among global thinkers that world leaders must respond to the issues being raised by those who protest at world meetings. Yet the proposals being floated – a Bretton Woods conference, formal discussion of the Tobin Tax, and even a World Bank/IMF dialogue with protesters – offer little hope of satisfying the protesters’ demands and thereby stemming the rising tide of demonstrations.

However, a carefully designed set of processes, with clear issue-specific goals, ground rules for participation, and the possibility of change-related outcomes, can create new mechanisms for input that would contribute to a “better globalisation.”

If the protesters are “anti-globalisation,” as they are typically referred to, then satisfaction of their demands would seem to require an end to globalisation. Since it would be impossible to stop the process of world economic integration we call globalisation, world leaders need to respond to protester demands in the context of the specific interests, values, and goals of the many splintered protest groups rather than respond to the protest movement as a unified force.

Multi-lateral organizations need to initiate learning conversations to enable people to move beyond sloganeering to learn of the difficult choices that must be made with regard to poverty relief. Some of the protesters have information, insights, and perspectives about particular issues like the environment, labor, and debt relief that would be refreshing and useful to multi-lateral financing organizations. Some of the protesters would be willing to grapple with the complexities involved in addressing their demands, including the conflicting interests among them. The World Bank acknowledges that it has erred in the past, which suggests a willingness to learn and ultimately, to replace outdated assumptions with those that incorporate the values, realities, and knowledge base of the 21st century.

Nuanced discussions on specific issues, with the prospect of reform and concrete action for a better globalisation, can ultimately provide a response to the protesters that will be met with more than a shrug or an attitude of “too little too late.”