Free and Fair Trade

MIT professor Noam Chomsky envisions the potential of “just globalization,” in an interview with Global Agenda, and raises concerns about the lack of truly free trade and evenhanded governance within the changing global business climate. Contending that everyone favors globalization, or “international integration,” he cautions about divisive applications that are detrimental to the rights of many marginalized peoples. Chomsky advocates true internationalism, and cites annual events such as the World Social Forum and other social justice gatherings as necessary complements to the work of economic power blocs. He criticizes powerful nations and corporations for manipulating globalization into a system that privileges the investor, promoting monopolies, protectionism and trade that is free only in name. Globalization that takes the form of concentrated, exclusive organizations, which do not prioritize the democratic rights of people or environmental protection – and lack public accountability – could degenerate into “tyranny.” –YaleGlobal