Activists will teach students about 'fair trade'

JESSICA DIMSON/YH Stephen Osserman, DC '02, Michelle Kennedy, BK '01, and Ozan Isler, CC '03, who helped organize Teach-in at Yale, hope the event will help unite campus social justice groups.

For many Yale students, the letters "WTO" have no meaning. However, from Tues., Oct. 5 through Thurs., Oct. 7, a student-organized teach-in on the Yale campus will try to change that fact. Social justice and corporate reform groups at the University have united to organize three days of panels, debates, films, and concerts to educate students about the practices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and promote changes in the international body.

The project will officially begin on Tues., Oct. 5 at noon with a festival on Cross Campus. The teach-in will introduce a concept which its advocates have come to call fair trade—the restriction of trade practices on the basis of social and environmental considerations—a proposed alternative to free trade.

The political debate over free trade and fair trade has been a longstanding and controversial one. Founded in 1995, the WTO officially replaced the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) organization. Since then, the member countries of the WTO have focused on "freer trade through negotiation, more predictable trade policies around the world through the disciplines of the WTO agreements, and better allocations of resources," according to the WTO website, www.wto.org.

However, some social activists claim the WTO has used its power to overturn socially responsible environmental and public health laws by utilizing sanctions of member nations. In 1995, for example, the WTO reversed a U.S. law that banned the sale of tuna caught with fishing nets that endanger dolphins. "The WTO affects our entire future because of its power over things like the environment, democracy, workers' rights, human rights, fair trade, and so on," organizer Ozan Isler, CC '03, said in a press release.

During the three days of this month's Teach-In at Yale, students will hear from a range of labor organizers, former factory workers, and environmental law experts on the role of the WTO and free trade in the world. Campus organizations including the Student Alliance to Reform Corporations, Amnesty International, Students Against Sweatshops, the Yale Environment Law Association, and the Liberal Party are all sponsoring events. A New Haven fair-trade merchant—10,000 Villages—will sell fair-trade crafts and provide information about alternatives to free trade. Teach-It will also include a performance by the Yale folk music group Tangled Up in Blue.

Teach-In at Yale is also an effort to build solidarity across college campuses nationwide before the upcoming protest at the WTO's Third Ministerial Conference in Seattle from Sat., Nov. 30 through Wed., Dec. 3. During the week of Tues., Oct. 5 through Thurs., Oct. 7, events like the one organized at Yale will occur across the United States as part of the national effort known as the "180/ Movement for Democracy in Education." Organizer Stephen Osserman, DC '02, sees this as an example of a new initiative to unite social justice groups that share similar goals. "All the groups that are doing similar things in different places have found a way to unite," he said. Reaching a large audience and providing a means for concrete action are the two main goals of the event.

According to a source inside the fair trade organization Global Exchange, the "Woodstock of people's globalization" will come when the WTO holds its Third Ministerial Conference in Seattle. From Sat., Oct. 30 through Wed., Nov. 3, national and international grass-roots organizations will be protesting outside these closed doors. Osserman described Seattle as "a meeting place where humans rights organizations, labor and corporate reform groups, and environmental advocates can organize into one force." Organizers of the Yale teach-in hope that their event will inaugurate a similar consolidation of socially concerned organizations on a smaller scale. As teach-in organizer David Corson-Knowles, TC '03, explained, "Our goal is to make the event a lot of fun, and then we can reach a lot of people."

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