*{Addressing the Backlash against Globalization [http://www.weforum.org/site/knowledgenavigator.nsf/Content/Addressing%20the%20Backlash%20against%20Globalization?open&topic_id=300250000&theme_id=300]

            28.01.2001

            Annual Meeting 2001}

            *partie=titre A Poet on a Full Stomach *partie=nil

            Marilyn C. Nelson, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Carlson Companies, USA, began the session she chaired by calling for the term "backlash" to be replaced by "dialogue and inclusion," and urged that the "voices outside of Davos must be heard." She asked panellists not simply to state a point of view but to show how they themselves are raising standards in their own organizations to encourage dialogue and inclusion.

            The comments by John J. Sweeney, President, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), USA, set the tone for many panellists. "We witness not a backlash, but the pangs of birth," he told participants. "We witness a new internationalism," bottom-up driven, and located in the public square rather than the boardroom. He pointed to student movements against sweatshops and in favour of workplace rights everywhere. "Seattle should be celebrated for calling the WTO to account," he said. "We’ve been able to transform the agendas of various organizations including this one," and now is the time for actions such as debt forgiveness, increased aid and greater World Bank support for education and health.

            "I think the point Mr Sweeney is making is the correct one," Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa began. "The new internationalism is basically the challenge." He continued by noting that his view is that of someone coming from Africa, "a poor and marginalized continent" struggling under debt and asking for relief. "We’re told, ‘That’s globalization,’" he said. But the problems of the poor are not theirs alone. It would serve corporate interests, he proposed, to write off debts and open their markets to commodities and products from the development world. Perhaps then Africans could consume in their home countries, do what they want at home "and not cross borders in sealed trucks," seeking better lives as illegal immigrants.

            Charles O. Holliday Jr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DuPont, USA, equated sustainable development with corporate responsibility. "Globalization equals the free flow of goods, technology and, now, ideas. Like a river it does good things but it also has hazards." Holliday stated that the UN Global Compact is a good start in accelerating cooperation between the private sector, national governments and civil society. DuPont, he said, believes in a learning-by-doing process and he cited a recent joint effort involving senior DuPont executives and leading NGOs to come up with common, concrete, useful solutions.

            Vandana Shiva, Director, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India, also began by agreeing with John Sweeney and declared: "We are not the backlash. We want to see put in place the promises for rights." Very large protests in India are also taking place in an attempt to defend society and communities against the assault from globalization. Rules on paper, she said, have not envisioned the violence they imply in real lives, specifically intellectual property laws that prevent the distribution of inexpensive medicine to poor populations and patent indigenous knowledge, turning it into exclusive monopoly rights.

            James D. Wolfensohn, President, World Bank, Washington DC, began by telling participants: "I agree with John Sweeney that we should welcome the dialogue." But, he cautioned, forces for globalization have been around a long time and future growth in the world’s population, nearly all of it in developing countries, is an issue for us all. The world needs to address poverty, equality and equity issues. But calls to redress these issues do not mean a reason to stop technology and trade flows.

            Questions, which were accepted via the Internet from the general public as well as from participants, indicated considerable interest in the issue: Are country policies driven by values or power? What do the panellists think of "cherry picking" of skilled labour from poor countries? Aren’t meetings like Davos evidence that inclusion doesn’t occur before violence or action takes place? Would there be a negative environmental impact if the poor were made more rich? To the last question, Mbeki replied: "It’s better to be a poet on a full stomach."                  

                  *{Contributors:       Holliday Charles O.
                  Mbeki Thabo
                  Nelson Marilyn C.
                  Shiva Vandana
                  Sweeney John J.
                  Wolfensohn James D.}