After planting the seeds of a revived anti-globalization movement in more than 60 cities across Canada, two caravans protesting the World Trade Organization pulled into U of T last Thursday, the final stop of their month-long tour.

Via a cell-phone propped up to the microphone, Maude Barlow told the crowd of more than 200 of her experiences at the recent World Trade Organization summit, held in the obscure mid-east country of Qatar, where almost all protest could be limited.

“It was just the most undemocratic process you could ever imagine,” said Barlow, who told of decadent overpriced meals for ministers and overly abundant security. “We were just totally and completely marganalized.”

Aside from the lack of citizen input—only business reps and government officials know exactly what goes on during the meetings—those on the caravan are also angry at the amount of power the WTO gives big business.

“Almost every aspect of our lives is coming under the grip of this new world government,” asserted Tony Clark, co-chair of Common Front against WTO (CFWTO), which organized the caravans. He said the resistance movement needed to be revived post-Sept. 11.

The CFWTO’s main concern is over the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which was created during the WTO’s Uruguay Round and took effect in 1995.

The mandate of the GATS is to increase international competition in the services sector by reducing government barriers and promoting non-discrimination amongst member countries.

Recently distinguished trade lawyers have said this could open up Canada’s education and health sector to wholesale privatization.

At the event, Namby Mandinga of the Social Movement of Black Communities in Colombia spoke of the atrocities occurring in her country. She said that in one year the same number of people were killed in Colombia as during General Pinochet’s entire rule in Chile. “The US media presents this war as one of drugs, but this war in Colombia is directly linked to the process of globalization,” she said.

Jean Harry Clerveau of the Federation of Power Workers in Haiti spoke of economic changes which he says are being “imposed on [the] country,” such as the International Monetary Fund’s recommendation to devalue Haiti’s currency in an attempt to improve its economy in the long run. U of T Progressive Conservative Association President Alex Lalka sympathized with the cause, but didn’t see its aims as realistic. “The protests in general are founded on good intentions about concern for the world’s poor but…history clearly demonstrates the growth of world trade is the best means by which to alleviate poverty at both home and abroad,” he commented.

SAC president Alex Kerner raised concern over the effects of the WTO on post-secondary education. “It will open up the door to privatization and corporatization of campuses, and I think that’s something that should be of concern to the student body.”

The spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade was unavailable for comment but has stated in the past that health and education are adequately protected.