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impacts of wto
DRAWBACKS OF WTO
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The WTO riots commonly referred to as "The Battle in Seattle" had a very big impact on Seattle. The WTO riots pretty much shutdown downtown Seattle for 5 days. Businesses lost millions of dollars from lack of people and vandalism. People all over the world watched the WTO riots from there homes on television. Many people realized that if you want something to happen bad enough you can make it happen. There were further losses in tourism due to damaged reputation, and/or public anxiety in living or visiting Seattle.
The World Trade Organization was established on January 1st, 1995. There are 147 member countries as of April 23rd , 2004. The budget for the WTO is 162 million Swiss francs as of January 1st, 2004. The number of Secretariat staff members is 600. The head staff member is Supachai Panitchpakdi and he is a director-general.
The founding of the WTO primarily the interest of the United States. Just as it was the US which stopped the founding of the International Trade Organization (ITO) in 1948, when it felt that it would not provide an overwhelming economic dominance in the post-war world, so it was the US that became the leading campaigner for the Uruguay Round and the founding of the WTO, when it felt that more competitive global conditions had created a situation where its corporate interests now demanded an opposite stance.
The WTO performs various functions including administering WTO trade agreement, organizing forums for trade negotiations, handling trade disputes, monitoring national trade policies, providing technical assistance and training for developing countries, and cooperation with other international organizations.
On November 30, 1999, the World Trade Organization was going to hold a meeting in Seattle, Washington, for what was to be the launch of a new round of trade negotiations. The negotiations, which were very unsuccessful, were overshadowed by massive and controversial street protests outside the hotels and convention center. They were protesting the convening of the WTO because they believe the WTO puts profits above human rights and environmental concerns, and that its policies reflect the commercial interests of multinational companies. This is the cause of the WTO riots.
Planning for the demonstrations began months in advance and included local, national, and international organizations. Among the most notable participants were national and international non governmental organizations (especially those concerned with labor issues, the environment, and consumer protection), labor unions, student groups, religiously-based groups, and anarchists.
The strike was generally non-violent. The majority of the strikers were reformist, ("revolutionary socialism", which believes that there must be a revolution to fundamentally change a society.) not radical. They wanted to amend the system, not destroy it and build a new one.
As for the protest of the WTO it was a prime example of how not to organize and conduct a protest. Although no individuals were seriously hurt or killed, property damage and the shut down of the city cost millions. On the first two days of what was supposed to be a three day meeting of the WTO they were prevented from meeting by the protesters.
One example is that many Americans believed that if the Japanese were kicked out of America, it would give more job opportunities to them (Source 1). Since the boom of immigration and cheap labor caused the increase of jobs taken by the Japanese, there wasn’t enough jobs for Americans. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, many saw Japanese American internment as a good idea because it would make more jobs available for Americans. This led to many unemployed Americans to take sides with those who wanted the Japanese gone. Another example is that Americans would form anti-Asian associations to fight against cheap Japanese labor (Gale). With the shortage of jobs for Americans, many began to form associations that fought against cheap Asian labor so that they could get more jobs for Americans. This stemmed from the belief that cheap labor prevented American men to find work. Like most Americans, they believed that they could completely replace the Japanese in the economy. Even though some may think that kicking out the Japanese Americans to increase the amount of jobs for Americans is a good thing, the Americans relied on the Japanese Americans so much for their labor market that it severely suffered because of it. The need for more jobs greatly influenced the internment of Japanese
This strike involved the workers of General Motors and they were unhappy with how much they were getting payed in relation to how much profit General Motors was bringing in. They also were concerned with the notion of being fired with no warning and no help after they were layoff with no unemployment insurance. The workers that were still at the plants had no control over about of hours to be worked, or when the lines would speed up. With the workers at high tension they formed the Sit down strike (The 1937 Flint Sit- down Strike). The strike need to be this was for a few reasons, one, all the workers would not leave the building because if they held a normal strike then they would just all be fired and replaced with other people. Another reason was because although there was an early union that started in 1935, the United Automotive Workers (UAW), they are still a new union that did not have respect with he companies to negotiate with them. Also, by locking themselves inside with the machinery, the GM had to react in a peaceful way so that their machines would not be damaged(Rubenslein Ziewacz, 241). Another big step for Unions was on August 28, 1963. This was event was called the March on Washington and took place at our nations capital. Although many people now know the March on Washington to be about civil rights and freedom it was originally about Jobs and the rights of workers. My people gathered to hear Dr. King speak about freedom, but the Union officials were their as well supporting what they were fighting for as well (The 1937 Flint Sit- down
against their employers, employees were able to go on strike and prove a point. Some
...d knight of labor. When they are all fighting the workers are still in bad conditions and nothing gets done. In 1895, the Supreme Court declared that the government has power from the Constitution to remover obstruction from the highway (Document H). This really tells us that the government has all the power and can replace the strikers when they get in the way. Since the government is more powerful, they have more control over the activists outweighing them all. So, because the activists are busy fighting, the government can take over and so the poor are left where they are.
On the other hand, the farm worker’s movement started with disagreements among workers on the wages earned, harsh treatments and the conditions they worked in. As they grew tired of their situation, the workers attended meetings organized by the National Farm Workers Association(NFWA) to strike against the unjust labor conditions they faced. Primary leaders of the walkout, César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, instructed labor organizers to recruit more members, encouraging field workers, sometimes embarrassing them, to signing into the union. Thus, it created a strong unified stand and because they needed as much aid as they could get to fight against growers with power and money. Mexican Americans began to outcry in the fields, holding up signs to fight against their problems and hopefully negotiate with growers to solving their problems. As they protested, growers ignored their requests and brought more people in busloads from Mexico to replace the workers. Since Mexican American protesters were prohibited to enter the fields hence, they objected in front of markets where grapes were sold. They commenced to boycott grapes in public to aware people of their struggles in the fields by
In the mid-1880s, groups across the country went on strike in an effort to persuade employers to shift to eight hour workdays. On May 4, 1886, thousands of people gathered in Chicago to meet in a peaceful protest regarding an event that occurred the previous day in which some strikers were killed by police. The group met at a place known as the Haymarket Square. The event turned violent. Police fired into the crowd and someone set off a bomb. However, it is unclear as to which incident occurred first. What is known is that several people were killed and hundreds were injured.
5. Bronfenbrenner, Kate. Final Report : The Effects of Plant Closing or Threat of Plant Closing on the Right of Workers to Organize, Submitted to the North American Commission for Labor Cooperation, September 30, 1996.
Eventually the shirtwaist workers banded together and went on an impressive strike demanding for better conditions, this original strike began the process of public leaders caring about the workers plight, but the major catalyst came in the fire that occurred and the Triangle shirtwaist factory, which caused almost every important cog in New Yorks political wheel to take notice of the state of the working class even if they did not want to.
The 1999 Seattle protests brought the apparent proliferation of anti-globalization grassroot sociopolitical movements into the limelight of the world stage. Transnational social movements (TSMs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), as well as the loose transnational activist networks (TANs) that contain them—all these came to be seen as an angry and no less potent backlash that's directed at the powerful states and increasingly towering economic IGOs such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank. In the field of international relations, some regard this as a prophetic watershed event that signals the weakening and perhaps even collapsing of the state-centric system of international relations, while many others insist that Seattle is but an eventually insignificant episode in the book of globalization and state power, as evidenced by the Doha success.
The British West Indian Labour Unrest of 1934 to 1939 encompasses a series of disturbances, strikes and riots in the United Kingdom’s Caribbean colonies. These began as the Great Depression of 1929 wore on and ceased on the eve of World War II. In British Honduras February 1934 there was a labour agitation (which ended in a riot in September), which was the starting point for the cycle of the disturbances. In May to July 1934 sugar estate disturbances in Trinidad (involving 15,000 Indian estate labourers). In January 1935 Saint Kitts also had a sugar strike. In Jamaica labour protest broke out in May on the islands north coast, rioting among banana workers in the town of Oracabessa, and then succeeded by a strike of dockworkers in Falmouth, which ended in violence. In September and October there were riots on various sugar estates in Brit...
The World Health Organization, started in 1946, now comprises 194 member states and has nearly 150 country offices (Council on Foreign Relations, 2012). In both of these entities – and in others, such as the General Assembly of the United Nations – states have the power to debate and vote.... ... middle of paper ... ... Politics, Economics and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press). Holden C, Lee K, Gilmore A, Fooks G, Wander N. Trade Policy, Health, and Corporate.
The WTO isn’t a perfect organization by any means, but it does try to regulate tariffs and taxes and occasionally does end up helping a few poor countries out. Without the WTO, would the world be a different place? America needs it, this much we know, but do all the other countries? Many protestors would argue that no, the world does not need the WTO and everyone should stick to its own domestic issues. However, others might say yes, the WTO can be of some use when dealing with particularly remote countries that might not have a chance to trade with anyone else otherwise. In either case the facts have been shown on what the WTO is, why it is here, what it does and how it effects trading.
International organizations create space for its members to coordinate interests and actions which helps promote interdependent relationships among them and strengthens their legitimacy. As society has progressed, it has globalized, and in the past 50 years states have had to address their growing dependence, especially in the economic sector. The World Trade Organization (WTO), is an institution which has an immense impact on the international political economy and the way states function within the international system. It organizes agreements and treaties which govern how its members decide policies, tariffs, and keeps states accountable for their actions. For example, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), determines how states can regulate their import and exports. (Hurd 2014,