The demonstrations in Seattle, Prague and Genoa were an expression of the increasing anxiety at grass-roots level about the consequences of globalisation. This massive popular reaction shows that even the regulations of the WTO are socially unacceptable. The demonstrations, which were attended by demonstrators from around the world, were one of the deciding factors in bringing down the talks. The WTO, the main objective of which is to fully liberalise trade, is basically promoting a process of neo-colonialism and is now one of the mainstays of the new world order. The rules of the WTO serve to promote the interests of dominant multinational companies which already monopolise certain international markets and are therefore the stuff of nightmares for developing countries and workers as they watch their rights being eroded. The large countries are promoting the interests of their multinationals, at the expense of the less developed countries, without so much as a word about the long-standing request of these countries to have their debts cancelled. In the agricultural sector, rapid restructuring is being called for in order to concentrate the land in a few hands and forge another link in the chain controlled by the network of multinationals. Furthermore, the liberalisation of trade and the abolition of duty and subsidies have hit agricultural production directly, reducing farmers' incomes, decimating farming and increasing unemployment. Agricultural production in Greece – and elsewhere – is being sacrificed in order to protect and corner a larger share of the international market for processed products from central and northern Europe. We believe that, rather than defending the interests of the people, the EU will again endeavour at the new round of talks to stake a bigger claim for the European monopolies, in competition with the other imperialist centres, i.e. the USA and Japan. The rules which govern international economic relations and trade should serve the interests of the workers, leave their fundamental social rights untouched, help to develop less developed countries, respect the environment and respect the rights of all nations to exercise control and decide on their future themselves. The WTO is, by its very nature, an imperialist structure interested in the maximum possible return on capital and more secure, flexible and unimpeded ways of moving capital, especially from trade and the stock exchange, impoverishing huge swathes of the world's population and contaminating and destroying more and more of the natural environment in the process. Under this new world order, which uses every possible means to impose the law of the jungle and where might is right, people are beginning to understand that the only solution is resistance and counterattack. The movement against globalisation and the WTO may be uncoordinated and disparate, but it is the first counterattack on the dictatorship of the monopolies and economies of interest. It is sending out a message of resistance and counterattack to the millions of workers, unemployed, small and medium-sized farmers and other victims of the capitalist world order which the WTO is trying to impose. The MEPs of the Communist Party of Greece voted against the motion because most of it sides with the major corporations planning to bring about unbridled liberalisation, plunder even more poor countries, wipe out farming and attack the achievements of the workers and the rights of the people throughout the world.

Political group: GUE-NGL