Criticisms of globalization: Difference between revisions

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Anti-globalization activists counter these claims by arguing that free trade policies create an environment for workers similar to the [[prisoner's dilemma]], in which workers in different countries are tempted to "defect" or "betray" other workers by undercutting standards on wages and work conditions. Therefore, the anti-globalization movement supports a strategy of cooperation for mutual benefit, and argues for [[fair trade]] - which is specifically aimed to provide third-world farmers with better terms of trade.

The book [[Globalization Unmasked]] claims that "the major adversaries of globalization in the dominated countries have been the peasant movements particularly in Latin America and parts of Asia." Some peasant farmers contend that free-trade policies merely aid a narrow stratum of cash-crop oriented agricultural firms in their own countries with links to multinational agribusiness, and subsidized agribusiness in developed countries. A report by Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, notes that "millions of farmers are losing their livelihoods in the developing countries, but small farmers in the northern countries are also suffering" and concludes that "the current inequities of the global trading system are being perpetuated rather than resolved under the WTO, given the unequal balance of power between member countries." [http://www.landaction.org/gallery/Zieglerpaper.pdf]. Critics respond that it is only natural that there are relatively fewer jobs for farmers as a nation becomebecomes more industrialized and that actual statistics (see below) showsshow sharply reduced poverty in the Third World.

Another criticism against the movement is that, although it protests about things that are widely recognized as serious problems, such as [[human rights violations]], [[genocide]] and [[global warming]], it rarely proposes detailed solutions. Proponents of the movement point to the existence of web resources like the Philadelphia IMC alternatives site [http://www.phillyimc.org/alternatives] and the annual [[World Social Forum|World Social Fora]] where numerous solutions are proposed and debated and empirical data on social experiments are exchanged.