World Economic Forum In Whose Interests?
posted 4th September 2000

The World Economic Forum is an extremely powerful and unaccountable body who are making major decisions about what we will read in the media, what food we will eat, what we will study in school, where, when and in what conditions we will work; almost every aspect of our everyday life. On September 11-13th, the World Economic Forum (WEF) will hold its Asia-Pacific Economic Summit. Like the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the IMF/World Bank, the World Economic Forum is a means of promoting economic and social policies that will benefit the rich and the powerful at the expense of the majority of the world's people and the environment. The WEF is an exclusive, un-elected, invite-only organisation. It is a "think tank" and a driving force behind the global economy. Its members include the CEOs from the top 1000 multi-national corporations in the world.

A select list of academics, trade-ministers, heads of state, and elite media will also attend as guests. Participants are being lured to the summit with the opportunity to meet "at a time when the eyes of the world will be fixed on Australia, and coordinate their participation in the Summit with the Olympic Games." Members of the WEF include Amcor, BHP, BP, Boeing, Citibank, Commonwealth Bank, Cheveron, Dow Corning, Dupont, Exxon-Mobil, General Motors Holden, McDonald's,Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Monsanto, Nestle, Nike, Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd., Rio Tinto, Shell, Siemans, Westfield, Western Mining. The WEF holds its annual meeting in the small ski resort town of Davos in the Swiss Alps. According to the WEF this meeting is now considered the global summit that defines the political, economic and business agenda for the year. The WEF's summits allow the richest and most powerful corporations in the world to mingle with trade representatives from nations, and with each other, to make business deals and determine global political and economic policies.

According to the WEF, it initiated the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the focus of protest in Seattle last year. Its 1982 annual meeting in Davos brought together cabinet members of major countries with heads of international organisations, such as the World Bank, IMF, and GATT. This special Informal Gathering of Trade Ministers from 17 countries organised the launch of the Uruguay Round, which is where the WTO was founded. This is just one significant example of how the WEF, driven by its corporate agenda, shapes the political, economic and social landscape. The World Economic Forum is an extremely powerful and unaccountable body who are making major decisions about what we will read in the media, what food we will eat, what we will study in school, where, when and in what conditions we will work; almost every aspect of our everyday life. Those who act against the WEF are trying to communicate what the alternatives are to Global Inc.

A group called Linking Arms, s11, opposes the WEF. It is a network of organisations, affinity groups, and individuals that all share a common concern about the growth of corporate power and the direction of globalisation. It is one of the main groupings organising a week of cooperation, networking and protest action against the WEF and encourages everyone who is concerned about the direction of globalisation and the actions of the WEF to join the network and/or organise actions on and around September 11.n end to poverty. These foot-soldiers are mobilisi