My local Loys soft drink deliverer tells of his fears that Schweppes will be swallowed up by Coca Cola and no more discounts will be available to home deliverers like himself. They went through the angst of losing the corner store thirty years or so ago, now they see they are losing everything that was home grown and familiar in which they had a stake. They feel disenfranchised, angry and diminished. They intend to make someone pay a price for that. They'll take their anger to the ballot box and heaven help the political Party which pleads globalisation as an excuse.
People are wary of change, especially when they are told they have no say in it.
The most profound change in the workings of international financial, trade, political and security relations is being passed off as 'inevitable'. There is no doubt that globalisation produces winners - those who have been able to manipulate it to increase their prosperity. Large corporations, some social movements and even countries have been particularly adept at realising this, and at reaping considerable rewards. But it also produces losers - those who pay, in every aspect of their lives, for the fortunes of others. Last year, as a Senate Committee heard submissions from around the nation, specifically in rural and regional areas, as part of an examination of the causes of unemployment and possible solutions.