Her attempt to form a union was met with retaliation, and she lost her job. Even women who have not been employed by transnational corporations are affected by the WTO rules. Elizabeth Charles, a banana farmer from St. Lucia in the Caribbean, spoke of how the farmers of that region are losing their livelihoods. Unable to compete with Chiquita and Dole, farms that sustained generations of owners are being lost. Vicky Corpuz, speaking on behalf of the indigenous women of the Philippines, expressed dismay at the loss of her community's culture and way of life as transnational corporations acquire land for mineral rights or plantations devoted to cash crops for export.
Roses are more profitable than rice, and indigenous people's culture has no dollar value.
These are just a few examples of the topics addressed by women from the developing countries. While the trade ministers attempted to conduct their meeting in the midst of chaos, without agreement on so much as an agenda, these speakers were very clear about what the WTO means to them. It was very exciting to have so many women sharing experiences and discussing strategies. It was staggering to look at the enormity of the problem and know that very few women would actually have their lives improved by all our attentive listening and modest proposals. Most disappointing to me was that there was no clear plan for continued networking and communication between these very diverse groups of women.