Rosewicket Wicca Coven

I'll be upfront--I know about the WTO from sophomore World History class, Starhawks Webs of Power, and the movie 'Battle in Seattle'.  And my World History class took a pretty obvious anti-WTO outlook as we discussed it, so I'm completely biased, don't have all the nitty-gritty facts, and am still going to write about why for the love of goddess and Mother Earth you should not support the WTO. 

The WTO stands for World Trade Organization.  It's not related to the World Trade Centers that were in New York, if you're wondering that.  It was replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), though kept the same basic framework.  The WTO is made up of many, many different countries.  The goal of the WTO is to watch over and liberalize international trade, as well as seeking complete globalization.  In layman's terms: business without borders.  Companies and big business can go where ever they want to get materials and workers, unrestricted by any sort of border.

Now, I'm automatically uncomfortable with this sort of concept, but for those reading who are not, I'll try to inform you why the WTO is a damaging organization.

First off, big business has only one goal in mind: profit.  That is it.  We must remember that businesses are not people and should not be afforded civil or human-like rights (I'm referencing the Supreme Court's decision on whether or not business' can have a voice/are entitled to free speech here, in case you don't know about that little debacle).  The people running them may have a conscience...or they might not.  And, as we've seen time and time again, most of the time big business CEOs are lacking the sort of consciousness to human and environmental rights that most people possess.

If some are you are wondering how this ties into the WTO, I'll explain further...

The WTO seeks to bring down not only borders between countries, but labor laws, environmental regulations, and established human rights.  The WTO has repeatedly kept countries from enforcing environmental regulations (the famous turtle exclusion devices on fishing nets are an example of this) as well as from protecting their own citizens (like forcing genetically modified beef onto European consumers).  The WTO is an organization that cares about business and what is best for those who already have power and money.  It aids companies and developed nations in taking advantage of those that are developing, whose resources are precious and whose labor laws are slack.  They have and will continue to put big business before anything else. 

This affects you.  You, the consumer.  You, the person eating genetically modified food that doesn't have to be labeled as such.  It affects every single one of us.  The WTO controls 97% of the worlds trade.  Every time they decide to keep a country from enforcing its own labor laws or creating more humane ones, it affects you. 

So what can you do about it?

Buy fair trade products, not free trade.  Buy local food, and try to find shops run by locals with local products.  Try to buy dolphin and turtle-safe seafood.  Begin really questioning where your food, your hair care products, everything you use and buy comes from.  How did it get to be in your possession?  Who made it?  How was it made?  Speak out against the WTO and globalization as well as privatization.  Learn how to support yourself through gardening, making your own clothes, cooking and crafting.  Join any groups that promote local food or trade and get involved in your community.

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My mother and I were talking, after we watched 'Battle in Seattle', about why the police were so brutal and violent. 

"They had to be if they wanted to keep order.  With that many people, the only thing they could do was beat people and hope to scare the rest away."

Because, as my mother later explained, the saying 'the people united will never be defeated' is more than just a catchy phrase.  In the face of a real revolution, a real rebellion, even military force will fail.  It is with groups, large groups, that change is made, because not only is the voice louder, it is harder to extinguish.  A dissenting voice will always be heard, most especially when speaking for the oppressed, and violence is the only way to keep it silent.  Fear is the way rebellion is quelled, but (in a country such as the US) we must remember we consent to be governed.  If the people truly wished rebellion, if everyone took to the streets and said, 'No, we will not follow these laws', the police could beat as many of us as they wanted, they could shoot us, but we would outnumber them, and our voice would still be heard.  People individually break the law all the time, but when civil disobedience is performed in large groups, it becomes more than loonies or freaks that can be brushed off by society, it becomes a message. 

And that's why we should also remember (as my mother informed me today--thank goodness she's read up on law), that international law is really shakey and doesn't mean a whole lot.  Even with the WTO.  A country could easily say, 'No, we are not going to comply with your demands to lower our standards'.  The only way the WTO could react, and its member countries, would be to declare war.  International courts don't hold that much power over individual countries; there's simply no way of properly enforcing the laws...without violence.  And that's the key to this; violence.  Scaring people enough so that they will not dissent, so they will accept any laws no matter how inhumane, so they will keep their heads down and not speak up for fear they will be beaten, or murdered, or humiliated, or exiled...

The WTO is a damaging organization, for everyone except big business.  Don't support them, especially if you love the planet.  There is a way out of the WTO chokehold.  Protests have already occured, the most famous US protest being in Seattle where the WTO was shut down due to the protests.  Chose sustainability and humanity, and fight against the WTO and globalization.

I agree with you on many points, Mesiskos. I don't believe that I can say the World Trade Organization is 100% 'bad', as I don't have all the facts, but I don't like what they're doing one bit. It's much like my stance on GMOs - in essence they don't seem that bad, but we are using them in a terrible way, and it needs to end. The concept of business without borders is a scary thing, especially considering the people who run it.

If you don't oppose it because of what it's doing to the earth, then oppose it for the way it treats people, ignores labor laws, and damages small businesses. If hurting the earth isn't enough proof, it is really hurting people as well.

I would like to say though, that for those of you who don't want to invest much energy into searching our Fair Trade products, or going to an all organic market like Whole Foods (also reffered to as Whole Paycheck, for obvious reasons), there are other ways to support the cause.

You can donate to groups. Ask your favorite coffee brand if they have fair trade shade grown coffee (many large brands do. Tully's does, in case you're a bug coffee drinker, I think starbucks might but I'm not sure). And, at least in the northern hemisphere - It's summer! There are all sorts of local famer's markets out there, and most of them are organic! They happen in all sorts of towns and cities - Where I live, you're never more than a 15 minute drive to a summer market. I don't know about anyone else, but I can sometimes taste the difference between a good locally grown strawberry and one that was shipped in from far away - The ones that were imported have gone through a process of being sprayed, coated with wax, picked to early to ripen in storage, being driven in a truck and then being shipped to a store - They taste like blocks of wood, even after you try to scrub all the crud off the surface. And on that note, at summer markets organic produce is very cheap, and you can haggle. Eating seasonally is also very important, so I suggest you stock up on summer berries and melons to freeze for the wintertime so you don't end up buying overpriced summer fruits from elsewhere in the winter.