Views from the South

In December 1999, thousands of protestors took to the streets in the "Battle in Seattle." Their target was a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO). For all its talk of being dedicated to the welfare of the Third World and the global poor, WTO rules and agreements actually further a "new colonialism" and directly subvert the power and voice of the Third World. This results in damage to local and national economies, and destruction of natural resources, livelihoods, jobs, and culture. Views from the South is a rare collection of essays by Third World activists and scholars who describe in pointed detail the effects of the WTO and other Bretton Woods institutions. They demand profound changes of these bureaucracies if they are permitted to survive.