The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is taking place in Manhattan. The WEF is a private-member organization of representatives from the world's largest corporations, but academics, trade ministers, heads of state and journalists are invited to meetings as \guests."" The meeting is considered the summit to define the global business, political and economic agenda for the year. It is also a chance for business and political leaders to schmooze and work out trade deals.
The WEF was incorporated in 1971 as a foundation, essentially a ""think tank,"" and identifies itself as ""independent, impartial and not-for-profit, tied to no political, partisan or national interests."" Its accomplishments include laying the foundation for forming the World Trade Organization. Given their apolitical status, it is telling that so many world leaders are eager to be their ""guests."" Among this year's 2,500 attendees are King Abdullah II of Jordan, Kofi Annon of the United Nations, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Mike Moore (head of the WTO) and leaders of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The chief executives of such member companies as Boeing, Dell, Microsoft (Bill Gates himself), Sony, Monsanto and General Motors will also attend. Until recently, Enron was also a member.
This is the first WEF meeting held in the United States. Previous meetings were held in Davos, Switzerland, but protesters at the meetings steadily grew in number and at a regional meeting in Melbourne, Australia, more than 50,000 protesters gathered. Though the WEF explains that the meeting was moved to show ""solidarity"" with New York, many claim it was a strategic move to avoid protests.
The WEF is a powerful, seemingly impenetrable institution. Despite defining global political and economic agendas, the WEF is a private entity accountable only to its members. Protests and street demonstrations, while a symbol of people's power to organize uniquely, still remain essentially an expression of an absence of representation and influence. If those whose lives were affected by the policies had a meaningful voice and some control in the meetings, demonstrations would be unnecessary. Protesters not only work to express their discontent with current power structures, they also look to create constructive alternatives to complement the movement against the neo-liberal model of ""corporatization.""
In addition to street demonstrations, an alternative forum entitled ""Globalizing Justice: WEF Counter-Summit, National Activist and Student Mobilization"" is taking place at Columbia University and Barnard College. On a global scale, The World Social Forum, an alternative gathering of labor activists, leaders of developing countries and humanitarian organizations is taking place concurrently in Brazil. The slogan for the forum is ""Another World is Possible.""
Several of the workshops at the WEF will address the issues of global poverty and also the role of severe poverty in leading to terrorism. It is ironic, given its partial focus on poverty, that annual membership dues for the WEF are $25,000 and only a quarter of the delegates are from developing countries. In contrast, the cost of attendance for the Globalizing Justice conference, and the chance to take part in mass demonstrations for democracy, is the cost of a bus ticket. Perhaps it would be more economical for the WEF to consider working for true equality.
