Thousands join anti-globalisation protest in Hong Kong

About 4,000 anti-globalisation activists – some carrying a giant spider and others wheeling along statues of emaciated people – marched today in the first mass protest against the World Trade Organisation’s summit in Hong Kong.

The demonstrators, who have been flooding into Hong Kong from around the world ahead of the WTO meeting on December 13-18, marched from Hong Kong’s downtown Victoria Park to the government’s main office.

“Junk WTO,” chanted the protesters. “Our world is not for sale.”

Police have been busy securing neighbourhoods around the meeting venue, putting up mesh on buildings and blocking off streets to prevent the violence that has marred past WTO summits.

Members of the militant Korean Peasants League held up a banner that said: “This hamburger is made of people’s meat. Can you enjoy it?” The sign showed a hamburger made of hands and feet.

The group opposes further opening South Korea’s market to agricultural imports.

British activist Tom Grundy was dressed like a chicken and held a sign that said, “WTO: more dangerous than chicken flu.”

“We need to raise awareness of the true intention of the WTO. It’s undemocratically elected. It undermines and overrides any law a country wants to bring to protect workers and the environment,” he said.

Activists with the Indonesian Migrants’ Workers Union were carrying a giant red and brown spider with a monster’s head, which they said symbolised the WTO. They chanted “Sink WTO now!” Other demonstrators pounded on drums and clanged cymbals.

One Hong Kong protester posed as a slave master with a whip, while another wore a pig’s mask to portray an exploitative employer.

Another group wheeled along life-size statues of emaciated people, trying to make the point that farm subsidies in wealthy countries contribute to world hunger by keeping poor nations from selling their farm goods, according to a leaflet from a group that called itself the Danish Association for International Co-operation.

Members of the Indian farmers’ group Tamil Nadu Dalit Women’s Movement chanted: “WTO out of agriculture.” The group’s spokeswoman, Fatima Bernad, said that opening India’s market to imports would be devastating for farmers.

“We don’t want the WTO to reach any agreement on agriculture. It’s spoiling our industry,” she said.

Protesters also came from India, Pakistan, Japan, Thailand, the US and South Africa.

The 149-member WTO, which set rules for global commerce, is a champion of free trade, which it says brings global economic prosperity.

But many protesters say globalisation favours the rich and robs workers of their jobs.

“It’s going to destroy jobs and increase the gap between the rich and poor countries and the rich and poor people in a country,” said Carla Coletti, a spokeswoman of the Geneva-based International Metal Workers Union, which represents 25 million workers in 100 countries.

Two months ago, WTO chief Pascal Lamy acknowledged in a speech in Hong Kong that free trade hurts some people – particularly those in poorer nations. But he said those who benefit are in the majority.

“It is an irrefutable truth that no poor nation has ever become rich without trade,” Lamy said.