The WTO is part of a far-reaching but still motley international effort to rewrite the rules of the world economy. Yet the WTO had barely been discussed in the US media until last week. This indicates how quietly and invisibly the redistribution of power over the world's resources had been proceeding previously.
Popular activism is critical for democracy.
Demonstrating in public defines basic democracy as much as voting. This essentially means lowering the cost of international operations for the economic actors who buy, sell, and otherwise move factors of production across national borders. The answers to all these questions are up in the air today. Though such economic interests are expressed through governments, we will not see ExxonMobile or CitiBank in party platforms or on ballots in November. Activist organizations like Students Against Sweatshops are making the politics of the world economy a public issue.