[RRE]Paul Hawken’s essay on the WTO protests in Seattle

“This was to have been a celebration,

a victory, one of the crowning achievements to showcase the Clinton

administration, the moment when it would consolidate its centrist

free trade policies, allowing the Democrats to show multinational

corporations that they could deliver the goods. This was to have been

Barshevsky’s moment, an event that would give her the inside track to

become Secretary of Commerce in the Gore Administration. This was to

have been Michael Moore’s moment, reviving what had been a mediocre

political ascendancy in New Zealand. To say nothing of Monsanto’s

moment. If the as-yet unapproved draft agenda were ever ratified,

the Europeans could no longer block or demand labeling on genetically

modified crops without being slapped with punitive lawsuits and

tariffs. The draft also contained provisions that would allow all

water in the world to be privatized. It would allow corporations

patent protection on all forms of life, even genetic material in

cultural use for thousands of years. Farmers who have spent thousands

of years growing crops in a valley in India could, within a decade,

be required to pay for their water. They could also find that

they would have to purchase seeds containing genetic traits their

ancestors developed, from companies that have engineered the seeds

not to reproduce unless the farmer annually buys expensive chemicals

to restore seed viability. If this happens, the CEOs of Novartis and

Enron, two of the companies creating the seeds and privatizing the

water, will have more money. What will Indian farmers have?

But the perfect moment for Barshevsky, Moore and Monsanto didn’t

arrive. The meeting couldn’t start. Demonstrators were everywhere.” Courtesy of Phil Agre’s important and idiosyncratic Red Rock Eaters’ mailing list.