The massive protests during the WTO ministerial conference in Seattle in November and December proved that activists in the U.S. were ready to join the international movement against rapacious corporate capitalism. The April protests in Washington, DC show that Seattle was not just a bump on the road to corporate domination; that the U.S. and the world now face a major social movement, one that crosses borders and will not be stopped until justice is achieved.

With the moratorium in effect, there will be less chance of distraction from the protest by claims that discussions of minor reforms are a reasonable alternative to protest; instead attention will be focused solely on our calls for fundamental transformation.

Don't be fooled by the title of this new book from the World Bank. It contains useful documentation of the symptoms of global poverty, but it fails to address the causal roots of inequality...

On the occasion of the first meetings of the governing bodies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the 21st century, we call for the immediate suspension of the policies and practices that have caused widespread poverty, inequality, and suffering among the world's peoples and damage to the world's environment. We assert the responsibility of these anti-democratic institutions, together with the World Trade Organization, for an unjust world economic system. We note that these institutions are controlled by wealthy governments, and that their policies have benefited international private sector financiers, transnational corporations, and corrupt officials.

Had it not been for the solidarity and strength of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada movement, NBA) led by Medha Patkar, a true people's movement made up of project affected persons, villagers, and their supporters, the SSP dam may have been just another dam in India, displacing thousands without resettlement or compensation. Their non-violent, Gandhian-style struggle brought international attention to the dam, forcing the World Bank, which was funding the US$450 million project, to institute an independent review. The resulting report exposed the lack of resettlement plans, environmental impact assessments, and confirmed that the cost-benefit analysis was highly skewed. The World Bank subsequently withdrew from the project, a first in its history.

The following open letter appeared in the Jakarta Post on February 18, 2000.

It is imperative that U.S. people of color join the battle for immediate debt cancellation in the Third World . We should do so for two reasons. First, for reasons of cultural and historical solidarity. Our cultural and historical origins in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (or as the original inhabitants of the "Americas" in the case of Native peoples) means we are joining forces with our relatives when we join all international efforts to obtain economic and social justice for the poor majorities in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

To many partisans of a more equitable global economic system, the tenth conference of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was, on balance, a disappointment. In the wake of the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial in Seattle, one would have expected UNCTAD to more aggressively assert its role in framing the rules of global governance in trade and financial issues. After all, despite its lack of resources, UNCTAD has something that neither the IMF nor the WTO has: legitimacy.