WTO Meets; Iraq Lost; Toxic Cola

WTO Meets; Iraq Lost; Toxic Cola

AlterNet Headlines for September 8, 2003 Top stories from the independent news & syndication service http://www.alternet.org

Tom Hayden, reporting from Cancun

The 1999 Seattle anti-WTO protests "looked like the bar scene from Star Wars" to the paranoid eyes of the WTO's director, Mike Moore (not to be confused with Michael Moore). As evidence of the impact of those protests, Moore's newly-published memoir features a cover photo of a puppet resembling himself with the placard, 'Michael Moore Starves the Poor".

Yet Moore, like the passive-aggressive WTO itself, stumbles on. The benefits of globalization, he insists, demand it. With free markets, Moore writes, "a Singapore-based expat investment banker can spend a weekend fired up on Ecstacy howling at the moon at a beach party in Goa, and be back in his office by Monday, not much the worse for wear." Sweatshop workers should be impressed.

Will these people never learn? We'll see. The next stop for the WTO, and for the global justice movement: Cancun, Mexico, Sept. 8-15. Thousands of protestors will be howling at the moon. Will the result be new momentum for the WTO, or a dramatic expansion of the global challenge to American corporate power?

*Beginning Wednesday, Sept. 10, follow Tom Hayden's daily columns from Cancun on Alternet. It's what history feels like.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LOSING THE WAR Jonathan Schell, The Nation and TomDispatch.com Relinquishing the fantasy of a victory in Iraq is the true moral mission of our time. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16720

THE JOY OF TOXIC COLA Miranda Kennedy, AlterNet Coke and Pepsi drinks in India are laced with toxic chemicals thanks to shamefully low standards for drinking water. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16717

MAD IN THE USA Stacy Mitchell, AlterNet Wal-Mart and its ilk are muscling small businesses aside. But mom and pop are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16685

POOR, RICH AFRICA Farai Chideya, AlterNet Africans are often cast as poor imbeciles in need of Western assistance. All that Africa needs to help itself is access to its own wealth. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16722

ONE DAY LEFT TO OPPOSE THE BIGGEST PAY CUT IN HISTORY Paul E. Almeida, AlterNet On Sept. 9, the U.S. Senate votes on whether to stop what could be the biggest pay cut in U.S. history. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16718

THE TORTOISE AND THE HUMMER Rob Ponce, AlterNet Arianna Huffington uses clever technology to one-up her SUV driving opponent in the California recall election. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16719

© Scoop Media