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Globalisation, and counter globalisation seems all the rage, and I culled a few interesting articles from the foreign press regarding the phenomenon. It appears just as likely that dissenters come from countries and or regions that are benefiting most as those that globalisation is likely to harm.

From India, a prime beneficiary of globalisation comes this article via The Times.

An interesting bit:

Save the planet, start a Bush-fire

ERRATICA/BACHI KARKARIA

[ SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2004 12:00:32 AM ]

Always in Mumbai, ?It?s the time to disco?. The recent rave party of 'Bhujbal A-Go-Go' has just been upstaged by the newest hip and happening place, 'NGO A-Go-Go', alternatively known as the World Social Forum.

This latest disco is bound to be a success because it has rounded up the usual suspects: media hype, music, dancing, frenetic firangs, and our own designer do-gooders. Since Friday, the Forum has been rocking to Patkar Beats and Tandava Shiva, the doughty divas of Indian activism.

The permanently aggrieved have repositioned themselves as a continuous carnival. Adivasis have been re-incorporated as indigenous peoples.

Sporting branded commitment-chic, members of the Bleeding-Heart Board stride from greenroom negotiations to greenhouse think-tanks. A new multinational culture is born.

The crowd of registered do-gooders and unregistering do-gawkers has rivalled the Shiv Sena rally, the Phalguni Pathak dandiya, and the 8.14 Churchgate Fast.

So, naturally, ordinary folks are asking, "What this WSF is? Who are all these goras in Goregaon? And why some people are shouting slogans against American Imperialism over Iraq in Japanese, which neither Bush nor the Baghdadis can understand? They are mad or what?"

I try to explain the noble motivation of these anti-globalisation gurus who have braved Alan Greenbacks, Pascal Lamy's banana-diet-boosted WTO stamina, and their own sloganitis to save the world from neo-imperialists hell-bent on genetically modifying the world economy.

These are the Supermen of the Small Voice (and the Resident Goddess of Small Things), who have slain the WEF Goliath at Davos.

But the Bai from Borivali and the Bhai from Bhayander look as blank as a book on Shivaji after all his followers have finished wiping out all the variously objectionable passages. Much more at link

There is plenty of ammunition for these committed people to draw inspiration from. The environmental lack of leadership shown by the U.S. and the Neo-con's excellent Iraqi adventure are but two concerns that idealists place above their own financial well-being. Bravo to all divas!!

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Continuing our globalisation theme, more on the WSF:

World Social Forum declares war on globalisation

BOMBAY (Reuters) - Thousands of dancing, singing and debating activists from across the world declared war on big business at an anti-globalisation meet in India's corporate capital on Saturday.

Labour leaders from South Korea joined Indian farmers, American volunteers and Afghan women to denounce multinational companies as more than 100,000 activists assembled in a Bombay suburb for the six-day World Social Forum which began on Friday.

"Nestle, Coca Cola quit our countries. Give us our rights," Jose Bove, a French sheep farmer who has become a flag-bearer in the challenge to "economic imperialism", told a cheering crowd packed in an auditorium in the northeastern suburb of Goregaon.

Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi and Joseph Stiglitz, and Bove, best remembered for demolishing a half-built McDonald's outlet in France nearly four years ago, are among a dozen prominent names at the fourth World Social Forum (WSF), being held in Asia for the first time.

As tribals with painted torsos danced vigorously carrying anti-globalisation banners, singers skipped down another lane belting out criticism of big business while another group performed skits about the exploitation of impoverished farmers.

Bove said global firms producing packaged food and beverages should be shunned and urged that agriculture be taken out of the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

"WTO has to get out of agriculture. It's policies are threatening our future," said Bove.

"Seeds are being patented and are controlled by big industries. This means farmers cannot use their own seeds and they will be out of work. Patenting of seeds has to stop."Much more at link

It should be clear that the WSF is the intellectual, and ideological counter to the WTO. I am a firm believer in direct action, as long as it is of a non-violent nature. As I told a pollster the other day, I consider myself more of an anarchist than anything else politically.

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One last article from the Pakistan Daily Times. It seems a very good paper..well, at least the online edition.

WSF in full swing in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Thousands of social justice activists, anti globalisation organisations and like-minded people have descended on Mumbai for the World Social forum mass gathering.

It has rapidly turned red with hammers and sickles sprouting on every lamppost and slogans denouncing multinationals and some denouncing the WSF itself sprayed across the walls of Mumbai.

The official slogan of the mega talkfest is 'Another World is Possible' and 1,200 plus seminars will discuss a range of issues from Palestine and Iraq to crimes against women to racism, caste, unemployment and communalism.

The city has responded positively to the invasion.

The drivers of auto-rickshaws and taxis are happy with the extra business from the otherwise bewildered foreigners offloading at the Goregaon, the main venue for the event. The morning commuters of the city train to work are confused by the sudden activity and hundreds of foreigners from nearly 80 countries.

At the Goregaon each participant is greeted by activists with leaflets and announcements of seminars, symposiums, meetings, songs and dances and exhibitions at hundreds of sites while a hundred languages and nationalities are visible.

Held together by a motley mass of grassroots groups, labour unions, non-government organisations and artists, it seeks to throw up responses not just to globalisation but also to sectarian violence and war, like the war on Iraq. In fact, opposition to the war in Iraq and US militarism is the dominant theme, culminating in a massive rally next week against the US, said organisers. Much more at link

I'm really intrigued by the harsh contrasts between the response that WTO dissenters are treated in 'the land of the free,' - see Michelle Goldberg's Excellent, "This is not America" piece she did for Salon - and the way that they are being welcomed in other countries. American democracy in the early 21st century is looking more like totalitarinism.