From press accounts, the Jackson Hole conferees seemed divided themselves on how much respect they should pay to protesters. If the elites are genuinely worried about the popular rebellion, maybe next year the Federal Reserve should invite some real-life turtles and Teamsters to the Jackson Hole campfire. In the meantime, think of the UN as a promising new front. The Millennium Summit in New York in September illustrated the possibilities. In some ways, despite its many incapacities, the UN could be a better battleground for dissenters in the globalization debates than international agencies like the WTO or IMF, which dutifully adhere to business and financial interests.
Some activists already see the possibilities.
Otherwise, it will simply make the rich richer and the poor poorer. The UN, she suggested, might be rescued from its debilitated condition by this issue. The only hope that remains for the UN is for it to be given back its power to act as a watchdog to protect human rights for others. Otherwise, it's a fig leaf. One other new front for fruitful agitation was opened this summer.