In The News

Globalization Hurts USA

John Sweeney October 2, 2003
With the US economy in a slump, American labor leaders are calling for a change in US trade policy. John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest union in America, argues that globalization, at least as it relates to trade policy, has failed both working Americans and poor workers in developing countries. Because world trade agreements encourage American manufacturing companies to take...

Why is Zimbabwe Overlooked By SA's Sunshine Advocates?

Goko September 26, 2003
With an Islamic appeals court's acquittal of Amina Lawal, the Nigerian woman who was sentenced to death for having sex out of wedlock, feminist activists from around the world are celebrating a victory against conservative Shari 'a law. However, as the editorial in this Johannesburg daily points out , violations of women's rights are common in many parts of Africa – Muslim,...

U.N. Official Plans to Urge U.S. to Reconsider Farm Subsidies

Elizabeth Becker September 24, 2003
The director of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) may find his message to Washington falls on deaf ears. With the 2004 presidential election on the line (and agribusiness's lucrative campaign donations very much in every politician's mind), congressmen and White House officials alike hesitate to believe that the $22 billion in subsidies offered to American farmers is a cause...

Russia Must Not Slip into Autocracy

James Woolsey September 24, 2003
Russia is officially a democratic country, but recent political shifts have made it seem otherwise. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to crack down on corruption, but the latest prosecution efforts have been tainted with corruption themselves. Freedom of the press is largely nonexistent, and journalists who criticize human rights violations in Chechnya have been persecuted. And the...

E.U. Looks at Travel Policy for Gay Couples

September 23, 2003
Free movement of labor between EU countries is, in the words of one EU official, "key for Europe's competitiveness". Yet, each nation's policy towards same-sex relationships complicates this freedom of movement. As of now, a spouse can immigrate with ease, whereas a domestic partner – same sex or otherwise – has difficulty moving into some EU countries but not others. As...

Protests Greet Yet Another WTO Meeting

Pranab Bardhan September 8, 2003
As the World Trade Organization prepares to meet in Cancun, Mexico, backers and detractors of globalization are clashing again, with each side claiming to represent the interests of the world's poor. Those opposed to globalization in its current form point to an increase in inequality and poverty in countries that have opened up to international capital and corporations, while supporters...

As China Gallops, Mexico Sees Factory Jobs Slip Away

Juan Forero September 3, 2003
The search for profit drives companies to look for the lowest production costs possible, and that search is taking more and more American companies from factories in Mexico to factories in China. America's southern neighbor received a boom in employment after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s, but China's rise as a supplier of cheap labor is now...