Global Trade

New York City police commish Ray Kelly may be congratulating his Shea-honed troops on ''a tough job well done,'' but several activists and attorneys say policing of the World Economic Forum protests last week was a civil rights disaster. They cite baseless arrests, punitive detentions, and surveillance so aggressive it may have crossed the line even in this Ashcroft era. Read More

The European Commission today approved a German request for several sectors to be exempted from its national energy tax program, ending long running negotiations between EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti and Germany's Finance Minister Hans Eichel. Read More

The only way to really describe the World Social Forum that just ended in Brazil is a global political ''carnaval.'' Read More

The first week of February posed a test to the anti-corporate globalization movement and its targets. Local NY organizers got an A for attitude. The police passed. The WEF -- they flunked as usual. Read More

France's highest court upheld on Wednesday a three-month jail sentence for anti-globalization activist Jose Bove over his ransacking of a McDonald's restaurant to protest U.S. trade barriers. Read More

NEW YORK -- Presidents, kings and moguls wrapped up five days of swanky parties, serious elbow-rubbing and weighty discussions on how to stop terrorism, resolve long-standing international conflicts and ease grinding poverty as the World Economic Forum came to an end on Monday. Read More

Tobacco companies are jeopardizing the health of Third World tobacco farmers who are required to use dangerous pesticides under exclusive contracts that hook them to company credits, according to a report released Monday by a major development group. Read More

This paper was circulated prior to the Second World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil in February 2002. It was used as a point of departure to spark debate during a panel on transnational corporations, that CorpWatch co-chaired with Global Exchange, another San Francisco-based group. Read More

Under a strong summer sun and a broad political proclamation that "Another world is possible," tens of thousands of activists from around the world are arriving here for the second annual World Social Forum. The host, like last year, is Brazil's southernmost major city, capital of the state of Rio Grande de Sul. Read More

Will demonstrators show that anti-corporate sentiment is alive and well? We look at the issues raised by the World Economic Forum in New York and the World Social Forum in Brazil. Read More