| US: Seattle WTO Protests Mark New Activist Age by Luis Cabrera, Associated Press November 25th, 2000 The protests that all but shut down last year's World Trade Organization meeting may have been a surprise, but they were no fluke, organizers and observers say. |
| BRUNEI: Clinton Urges Economic Globalization by Dirk Beveridge, Associated Press November 15th, 2000 President Clinton sought to nudge economic globalization forward Wednesday by calling for new world trade negotiations by 2001 -- a deadline developing nations are resisting. |
| Canada: Arctic Pollution Linked to Industrial Plants and Incinerators by Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service October 3rd, 2000 Toxic pollution that has mysteriously entered Canada's pristine Arctic region has now been linked to air emissions from specific municipal waste incinerators, cement kilns and industrial plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to a new study released Tuesday. |
| US: Roundup of Student Activism Against Sweatshops by Keith Meatto, Mother Jones October 1st, 2000 This year's cause celebre was the campaign to end the use of sweatshop labor by the $2.5-billion collegiate apparel industry. Undergraduates nationwide demanded their colleges quit the Fair Labor Association (FLA) -- an industry-backed watchdog that opponents liken to a fox guarding the hen house -- and join the Worker Rights Consortium. Founded by students, academics, and labor unions last October, the WRC promises strict workplace oversight, free from industry influence. |
| AUSTRALIA: U.S. Soccer Players Confront Nike Protestors Times of India September 12th, 2000 This was Sunday, the day before the start of the three-day World Economic Forum in Melbourne, the same type of meeting that sparked riots in Seattle last year. The two players just happened to pass one of the demonstrations at a park. |
| Australia: Anti-Globalization Protestors Claim Victory Agence France Presse September 11th, 2000 Anti-globalisation campaigners claimed victory Monday after blockading a major international economic conference in a pitched battle with police in which scores of people were hurt. |
| USA: Billion Dollar NAFTA Challenge to California MTBE Ban by Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service September 11th, 2000 The Canadian challenger, Methanex Corporation, has argued that a plan to remove the toxic chemical MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) from California's gasoline violates the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). |
| MEXICO: Country Ordered to Pay US Company $17 Million for NAFTA Violations by Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service August 31st, 2000 An international trade tribunal based here has ruled that Mexico violated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and ordered the government to pay 16.7 million dollars to a US company. |
| NICARAGUA: US Retailers Contract with Sweatshops by Carrie Antlfinger, Associated Press August 22nd, 2000 Gonzalez was one of two workers invited Monday to recount conditions at two Nicaraguan factories that human rights, religious and labor groups claim supply Kohl's Department Stores with cheap garments. |
| SWITZERLAND: Report Calls WTO 'Nightmare' by Robert Evans, Reuters August 11th, 2000 A United Nations-appointed study team has labeled the World Trade Organization a ''nightmare'' for developing countries and suggested the body should be brought under the U.N.'s purview. |
| CHINA: China WTO Deal Imminent Associated Press August 1st, 2000 Mexico expects to sign an agreement with China ''very soon'' on the communist nation's entry into the World Trade Organization, Mexico's foreign minister said Tuesday. |
| FRANCE: José Bové a 'French Gandhi'? by Charles Bremner, Times of London July 1st, 2000 The anti-capitalist campaigner José Bové compared himself to Gandhi when he went on trial yesterday for demolishing a McDonald's restaurant in a southern French market town. |
| US: High Court Considers Massachusetts Anti-Burma Law by Steven Mufson, Washington Post March 23rd, 2000 Tearing a page from the anti-apartheid movement, the two drew up legislation that penalized companies with ties to Burma when those firms competed for Massachusetts state contracts. Using the draft of an anti-apartheid bill, they crossed out South Africa and inserted Burma. Two years later, the measure became law. |
| CARIBBEAN: Banana Producers Fear Falling Victim to US-EU Trade War by Brian Kenety, Inter Press Service March 16th, 2000 A group of Caribbean banana-producing states fear that a prolonged lull in negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the United States over the EU's banana import regime could work against them. |
| USA: Clinton Backs Multinationals Against States in Challenge to Burma Sanctions by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service February 16th, 2000 In a major boost for the forces of economic globalisation, US President Bill Clinton has decided to back multinational corporations in a key court challenge to a Massachusetts law designed to promote democracy in Burma. |
| JAPAN: Officials Blamed for Promoting Toxic Incinerators in Thailand Environment News Service February 9th, 2000 Japan is using official lending agencies which provide development aid to promote the export of Japanese incinerators to Thailand, Greenpeace alleges. |
| WORLD: Critics Fear New Treaty Subordinates Biosafety to Trade by Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service February 1st, 2000 Environmental groups, while praising aspects of the first worldwide treaty governing trade in genetically modified organisms (GMO), criticise the scope of the agreement and worry it could be subverted by powerful free trade interests. |
| USA: Seattle Dismisses 280 WTO-related Cases Associated Press January 4th, 2000 Citing lack of evidence, the city attorney said Monday he was dropping about 280 cases against demonstrators who blocked the streets and demonstrated against the recent World Trade Organization meetings. |
| Bordering Injustice by Traci Griggs and Martha Valds, La Jornada December 9th, 1998 Non-profit environmental justice groups such as the San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), are trying to remove the rose colored glasses and expose the harsh reality of the U.S/Mexico border in an attempt to protect public and environmental health. EHC's battle against an abandoned maquiladora turned toxic dump, serves as a microcosm of what's wrong with border health and how NAFTA, for the most part, has exacerbated the problem. |
| Double Standards: Notes for a Border Screenplay by Debbie Nathan, Texas Observer June 6th, 1997 The case had been settled only minutes ago, and now jurors for Mendoza v. Contico were seated in a room outfitted with movie theater chairs and plugs for devices like VCRs. They were in the ''Ceremonial Court'' in El Paso, where victorious lawyers often hold post-trial press conferences. |