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Translated from Spanish original. Cancún, September 9. Four years after the Seattle rebellion, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the policies it promotes are in crisis, and consequently, a balance is indispensable, according to Jerry Mander, president of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), one of the most serious and respected groups of experts dedicated to analyzing and generating alternative proposals to the economic model promoted by international financial agencies. "Seattle was the first event where we saw a new alignment between the protestors in the streets and the inhabitants of less developed countries. This has expanded, and we will see a new stage here in Cancun," said Mander, who is participating in an international forum on alternatives to globalization organized by IFG the day before the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference begins. Walden Bello, president of Focus on the Global South, commented on the same topic: "The WTO is in crisis, and not only due to the conflict of interests stirring within it, but because it seriously lacks legitimacy." Since it was established in January of 1995, a significant portion of its power has changed course. Mander says it shifted away from the interests of countries, especially developing countries, and instead moved toward the large corporations. "The importance of the Seattle protest –at the end of 1999, a major protest blocked the WTO’s intention to convoke a new round of trade opening– was that civil society said ‘no’ to this attempt at transferring power to the large corporations. People said ‘we want something else and we’re going to achieve it.’" Changes are gradually taking place, he said, adding that they are occurring primarily in Latin America and in some African countries. "Something big is happening and it has to do with the world society’s rejection of the economic model that favors transnationals. This is a political change that has been expressed in Brazil, with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva coming to power. But it has also taken place in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Bolivia, and in a way, in Argentina and Venezuela. Nearly an entire continent is distancing itself from the policies promoted by the WTO," he stated. But it’s not just that the policies are rejected, he said. "The publicists with the World Trade Organization, in the press and in political circles, are trying to sell the idea that those who oppose the WTO are nothing more than vandals. That’s a stereotype. The violence comes from their side. The intention behind using this characterization is to undermine the true meaning of what was started in Seattle." Walden Bello, director of Focus on the Global South, mentioned several occurrences that have undermined the legitimacy of the economic model promoted by groups with political power which he says have dominated the WTO since it was established in 1995 as a substitute for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). According to Bello, the WTO was formed "at the height of the globalization project, with the aim of becoming the governing body for the economic model that favors the interests of large corporations." "The first difficult moment for those promoting this model was the crisis in Asia in 1997, which demonstrated that free trade accompanied by unrestricted capital flow provokes crises that impoverish broad segments of the population in developing countries. The second moment was the Seattle protest, which deepened the globalization crisis and made it more widespread. And the third event was the collapse of Wall Street after the speculative bubble created in the second half of the 1990s." Also attending the forum was activist Lori Wallach, director of Global Trade Watch, and one of the most outstanding individuals in the anti-globalization movement. She said that nearly nine years after its creation, the result from the policies promoted by the WTO "has been devastating." The movement that is increasingly linked to broad-based social sectors around the entire world which are beginning to demand accountability from their governments for the agreements reached in the WTO will make the "difference" in blocking attempts to place the interests of large corporations above those of peoples, she said. "There is greater unity among developing nations in opposing the policies promoted by the WTO than there was four years ago in Seattle. Civil society’s agenda is to change the current rules, and block the attempt by wealthy countries to expand the trade organization’s influence," she said. Government accused of sabotaging the forum Jerry Mander accused the Mexican government of blocking the international forum on globalization, scheduled for this Tuesday as one of the activities organized by independent groups in the context of the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference. Just over 500 people from different countries attended the event, but the most important nucleus of participants was unable to arrive at the Cancun theater, the site of the event, located in the hotel zone four kilometers from the city center, since security forces, which are blocking off the tourist area, prevented buses from getting through. "This is a beginning that doesn’t foresee anything positive," Mander said, adding that messages were broadcast on local radio that the forum had been canceled, without identifying where the messages came from. 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