Oakland, CA -- Between July 2 and the end of 1997, the Thai currency fell by over 100 per cent relative to the dollar, and the stock market fell from an already low 800 points to below 400. At the top of the casualty list were the 50,000 employees of the 56 financial firms that had been shut down by the authorities at the urging of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). By September 1997, the country's Finance Minister had predicted that about one million Thais would lose their jobs in the coming recession.

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There is enough evidence on how policies of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have come to connote colonialism and a dominating world capitalist system for the Third World. The unregulated flow of global capital has placed the fate of developing economies at the mercy of Wall Street traders. However, nations of the South are not the only victims of this process. There is also a "South" in the North-right here in the United States, that is being harmed by domestic policies of the U.S.

February 19, 2010 |

By Anuradha Mittal*

November 1999

"[L]et’s take this plan to the WTO because this plan does exactly what has been advocated by the WTO – it eliminates subsidies, addresses the issue of overproduction and helps establish better prices for farmers around the world.”

--Larry Mitchell, CEO, American Corn Growers Association.

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Larry Mictchell of the American Corn Growers testified yesterday for a change of course away from the current failed U.S. farm and trade policy yesterday before the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management of the House Committee on Agriculture. He put forth the Food From Family Farms Act, which would reestablish a price floor based through re-enactment of a nonrecourse loan, strategic energy and food reserves, and international negotiations. This bill has been co-authored with ACGA and the National Family Farm Coalition, and its approach has been endorsed by over 60 groups that are part of the Building Sustainable Futures For Farmers Globally Campaign, which includes IATP.

By Walden Bello

By Siena Chrisman, WhyHunger

There are 2 million farmers and 300 million consumers in the U.S. Standing in the middle are a handful of corporations who control just about everything that happens to our food between the farm and our plate ... how much it costs, how it's grown, where it comes from, what's in it, and who sells it. Most of what probably matters to you about why food isn’t healthier, safer, tastier, or all around better is affected by that narrow bottleneck of power standing between producers and consumers.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA, is a proposed trade agreement between the U.S. government and five Central American countries: Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. CAFTA has been met by mass protests in Central America, and the Bush administration is having trouble garnering even Republican votes in the US Congress. Ratifying CAFTA promises to be a highly symbolic legislative struggle, with the potential to significantly stall the free trade agenda. Citizen pressure is working and needs to continue! Tell your Representative to publicly oppose CAFTA: see the action steps below.