Amid the chaos and the posturing, Vandana Shiva, an Indian ecologist, professor of physics and critic of the WTO, is watching the scurrying and politicking in the convention hall with wry amusement. Ms Shiva has given four or five talks a day to packed halls or rallies of workers, environmentalists, farmers, students and demonstrators. She has marched, sat down, been gassed and detained and will take on any industrialist or mainstream politician in debate. They keep well clear. But step outside the convention hall and the negotiations and you see there is really no problem at all.
People are out there, in the city, in countries all around the world, fighting at every level.
The WTO, she says, is being rejected around the world as people recognise the face of unacceptable governance and undemocratic law-making. People have seen through it. The discussions go faster and faster even as governments see people rejecting it. They are really just confirming the undemocratic and underground nature of these talks. They won't stop for riots.