We asked the following people, speaking from different vantage points, to highlight some of the issues we face in a global economy.
Former chief economist at the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz is currently a professor of economics at Stanford.
Han Shan is program director for the Ruckus Society, an activist organization that has trained and assisted hundreds of activists in the use of nonviolent civil disobedience.
What is the history and formation of the World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank?
Joseph Stiglitz: Before World War II there had been a great depression that had an enormous devastating effect on the world's economies. There were three organizations set up in the aftermath of World War II to deal with what were viewed to be the economic problems that were likely to face the world in years following. The International Monetary Fund, the IMF, was established to provide for global stability, economic stability -- to provide funds to countries that were facing an economic downturn. The World Bank's original purpose was to help reconstruct Europe after World War II. After the Marshall Plan and the reconstruction of Europe, development became its primary function, although it still plays a role in reconstruction of war-torn areas. The WTO was established in 1995 following what was called GATT, the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs. That was intended to try to create a more integrated world economy, allowing for the flow of goods and services across different countries.
Why have these organizations been such lightning rods for protests?
Han Shan: Well, corporate globalization and the agents of corporate globalization, like the World Trade Organization, like the International Monetary Fund, like the World Bank, are totally nontransparent, nondemocratic, unaccountable to you or I, making decisions behind closed doors, in Geneva and Washington and on Wall Street that affect people profoundly. We found that whether you are talking about the environment, access to health care, jobs, human rights, social justice, labor standards, child welfare standards -- all these things are founded upon an economic root; there is an economic paradigm upon which all this stuff is based. So the disparity between the rich and poor is growing, the environment in the global south is being decimated by huge multinational corporations. In whose interests? The WTO, the World Bank, the IMF-- they are working for their corporations, not people. That's what it essentially comes down to.
What are the most valid concerns of this coalition of global protestors?
Joseph Stiglitz: The most important concern that they're raising is that these institutions are not really representative, are not speaking for the vast set of concerns that people in these countries have. They are not really fully democratic. They are not transparent, not open, and therefore other voices have difficulty coming in. Voting rights in the IMF and the WTO are not allocated on the principles of any democratic society. The more money you have, the more votes you have. But it's worse than that, because it's based on the wealth of 1944, at the time when they were established. Poor countries, who at the time were colonies, are vastly under-represented. But there are concerns like the poor, poverty, that are now being heard, because they are responding to the street protests issues that were not given sufficient attention in the past because the people did not have a seat at the table.
The World Bank is an institution devoted to reducing poverty. You need an international organization focusing on that. I think there are some very important NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] doing that. But it needs to be a global effort. And everything you can do to marshal resources to that end is important. The world is going to have crises no matter what one does. That's the nature of capitalism. You need to have some institution to try to address it. The problem is not abolishing these institutions, but reforming them.
Should we be managing and monitoring globalization or trying to stop it?
Han Shan: I have certainly heard people say that globalization is as benign and inevitable as the rising of the sun. And my response to that is, "Fine, so globalization, interaction between people around the world, communication between people around the world, solidarity between people around the world -- I want those things." But economic, corporate-led globalization, well, not only is it not inevitable, it is inevitable that we have to stop it, that we have to rise up and confront it. [What] the Ruckus society is dedicated to doing is just instilling in people the understanding that they have power, that there are a million things they can do in their everyday lives to confront corporate power at its root. We are talking about democracy, we are talking about where these things intersect, where they overlap, and all these concerns overlap for most of us where corporate power has superceded people's voices in being represented by our government. So we are just trying to empower people with the skills they need to make democracy happen in their communities.
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Stanford economic professor, Joseph Stiglitz
Han Shan, program director for the Ruckus Society
WTO protests
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