In the meantime, think of the UN as a promising new front. The Millennium Summit in New York in September illustrated the possibilities. Some leaders from poorer countries observed that modern globalization reminds them of the old colonialism; indeed, the same powerful countries are dominating the process.

In some ways, despite its many incapacities, the UN could be a better battleground for dissenters in the globalization debates than international agencies like the WTO or IMF, which dutifully adhere to business and financial interests. The UN has no power whatever, of course, but at least it provides an international forum for all voices, rich and poor. In any long-term vision for global reform, the UN will itself have to be rehabilitated and restructured and eventually empowered to challenge the corporate-led agencies on behalf of people and human values.

Indeed, a few weeks after Annan cozied up to the multinationals, a study team appointed by a UN human rights subcommission issued a withering report that describes the WTO as a "veritable nightmare" for developing countries. In particular, it was accused of imposing rigid intellectual-property rules on poor nations, farmers and indigenous people on behalf of the multinationals (the same complaint that US and foreign activists are making). "What is required," the study said, "is nothing less than a radical review of the whole system of trade liberalization and a critical consideration of the extent to which it is genuinely equitable and geared toward shared benefits for rich and poor countries alike."

Some activists already see the possibilities. Victor Menotti of the International Forum on Globalization described Annan's compact as "a feeble and cynical attempt" to help the multinationals defuse the backlash against them, but Menotti also envisions a revival of the UN's original role as representative and defender of human rights--economic as well as political. "The UN repositions us back on what's supposed to be our turf but which has been taken away from us by corporate institutions like the IMF," Menotti said. "We need to create some dogfights within the international system and make people ask, Who is subordinate to whom?"

Food First has proposed that the landmark covenants produced in the UN's early years be revived and restored to viability now that the cold war is over. One covenant, as co-director Anuradha Mittal explained, is devoted to "civil and political rights" and was promoted by the Western democracies, including the United States, while the other, on "economic, social and cultural rights," was advanced by the Communist sphere. The economic rights covenant--including the right to food, shelter and an adequate standard of living--has never been ratified by the United States, alone among the G-7 nations, though it was belatedly signed by President Carter two decades ago.

"What we are saying," Mittal said, "is that these covenants have to be the litmus test for globalization--any trade agreement must be able to meet those principles to be acceptable to us. Otherwise, it will simply make the rich richer and the poor poorer."

The UN, she suggested, might be rescued from its debilitated condition by this issue. "We are told to follow trade agreements so strictly and even have courts like the WTO to enforce them, but why can't we have good, effective courts where people can go with human rights complaints? The only hope that remains for the UN is for it to be given back its power to act as a watchdog to protect human rights for others. Otherwise, it's a fig leaf." The vision of a revived UN opens up another hard political struggle, but one not necessarily more difficult than reforming the WTO or the IMF.

One other new front for fruitful agitation was opened this summer. Two members of Congress, Representatives Cynthia McKinney and Bernie Sanders, introduced parallel measures to impose new standards on the global system and accountability on US multinationals in their behavior overseas. McKinney's HR 4596, with Sanders and a handful of others as co-sponsors, describes a "corporate code of conduct" that would be enforceable by US law and through civil-damage lawsuits in federal courts. Sanders's "Global Sustainable Development Resolution" (H.Res. 479) speaks more broadly to reforming the international institutions and trade agreements, as well as to corporate accountability.

Naturally, it's a long slog ahead for either proposal to be taken seriously in Washington, but both represent a promising starting point. The next time you hear a US Representative uttering the usual bromides about globalization, interrupt to ask where he or she stands on McKinney-Sanders.

• « Previous
• 1
• 2

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.