Professor Kanbur s draft criticized free market reforms advocated by the Bank and the International Monetary Fund, saying they had harmed poor people in some countries. The final version of the report omits most of the sections describing the downside of market reforms and concentrates on their benefits for economic growth. According to Duncan Green, policy analyst at the Catholic Aid Agency, I d say this is a clear case of intellectual censorship. Globalizers have also tightened their grip on both the Republican and Democratic Parties where their joint commission has successfully excluded Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan from the Presidential debates ensuring that no critical opinions of globalization will reach the American electorate during the fall campaign. Whatever changes we have won in public perceptions, we have made no gains in the halls of power.
Neoliberals applying their Washington consensus are even more firmly entrenched than a year ago.
For all our public successes, protestors have not moved reform minded, international Keyensians any closer to holding the reigns of international economic policy than they were a year ago. As a matter of fact, critics close to power have been weeded out as neoliberal globalizers batten down the hatches and stonewall change while mouthing shamelessly insincere sweet talk about equity and inclusion. What remains absent from the mainstream media are stories pointing out that actual policies and the people responsible for them remain unchanged despite rhetorical genuflections in the direction of globalization s discontents. Nor will the mainstream media publish analyses pointing out that the adverse effects of corporate sponsored globalization are entirely predictable. The media can also be counted on to studiously avoid self-criticism and to vilify the heroes in their own story.