WTO Protests in Seattle

Re “Protest Delays Start of World Trade Summit,” Dec. 1: Once again, in the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization, the media ignore the political issues involved. It is a question of who controls the world’s resources, the people or the corporations. The protesters are not against free trade so much as the rules by which it is conducted.

As the child of the world’s richest corporations, the WTO gives itself vast powers to adjust and regulate not only trade relations but also the regulations of local and national governments. Its deliberations are conducted in secret. In effect, it is a form of world government that is not accountable to anyone. No wonder that so many see “free trade” as the strategic attempt by corporations to dominate and control the world’s resources. The chaos in Seattle is but a reflection of the imbalance and corruption of the byzantine structure of the WTO.

It also is a statement by the peoples of the world who have stepped forward to assert their sovereignty over their lives and the resources of their own environment. The chaos will continue until the WTO can open its structure to the processes of democracy.

WILLIAM H. DuBAY

Costa Mesa

* I believe in free trade. But free trade is not enforced trade. When I walk past a row of shops, I as a consumer get to choose where I want to shop. If the shop is dirty or the owner a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, I can take my business elsewhere. World trade is no different; people and communities must have the right to decide where they want to take their business.

That, in turn, forces businesses (and countries) to think about how best to attract and keep customers. The WTO needs to understand that the communities’ reactions to business practices (including child labor, human rights abuses, environmental destruction) are part of the nature of doing business. That is true “free trade.”

REBEKAH JORGENSEN

Pacific Palisades

* For those of us who can remember the antiwar protests of 30 years ago, there is something very haunting about the images of protests in Seattle. Like the early anti-Vietnam demonstrations, these are being portrayed by the TV media as the acts of young hoodlums. There are momentous social issues to be examined, yet the TV news organizations are going for eye-candy footage.

When idealistic youth and organized labor are in agreement on such powerful issues, the press should at least air their position. The WTO is an organization that is stacking the deck against a hard-working middle class--not just in America but worldwide. The American Dream--an ideal that transcends borders--is not a handout, it is opportunity, and the WTO destroys opportunity for millions by linking big business with big government.

There is nothing wrong with the rich getting richer, but consider this: The United States, the economic model to the world, will inexorably become a land of haves and have-nots if current trends continue. Today, corporations have more rights and privileges than people, but have no ethic which respects human dignity. This problem is compounded by their ability to subvert even “democratic” governments through powerful organizations--the WTO being the flagship example.

STU O’GUINN

Huntington Beach

* Your cartoonist Michael Ramirez thinks that only kooks exercise their democratic rights (Commentary, Nov. 30). Were he to look into who is doing the protesting at the WTO meeting in Seattle, he would find that our most thoughtful, intelligent and well-informed citizens are involved in this activity. Their efforts serve to protect the rights of all of us--including Ramirez.

EUGENE KUSMIAK

Fallbrook

* Re “Bottom Line on WTO Still Shaky for U.S.,” Nov. 29: The WTO is beneficial solely to corporations, and that is easily provable. It makes it easy for American businesses to move factories overseas with little red tape, as easy as it used to be for a business to move from New York to Pennsylvania. That corporations take advantage of this is proven by the fact that U.S.-based Mattel Toys (the largest toy maker in the world), which makes millions from American consumers, does not have a single manufacturing facility in the U.S.

I also find it amazing that the 22,000-page WTO agreement couldn’t find one page to prohibit slave labor and child labor. This is supposedly because it interferes with a nation’s “sovereignty,” but putting poisons in the air and water is not considered interfering with a nation’s sovereignty.

JAMES VAN HISE

Yucca Valley

* Regarding your Nov. 29 report from Seattle, all I can say is “same old, same old.” Hostility toward free trade and capitalism is the norm among most intellectuals throughout academe and the media. It’s always something about capitalism--it’s never good enough, and although the other systems literally kill millions and millions of people, while capitalism tends, in the main, to produce prosperity for most who are touched by it, the whiners are always there to besmirch it. Their goal is clear--to control people’s economic affairs, to regiment them, pretending it is little children they care about. Give me a break.

TIBOR MACHAN

Silverado