Global Policy Forum

By Matthew Green

Paris - Thousands of demonstrators marched through the heart of Paris on Saturday to demand the World Trade Organisation put people before profits at its meeting to promote free trade next week in Seattle. Fear that freer trade will lead to greater exploitation of the environment and less respect for human rights mingled with concerns closer to wallets as demonstrators said unfettered global capitalism would destroy French jobs.

"We don't want to demonise money, but it must be used to promote humanity's happiness," said Jacques Bezard, a 50-year-old Communist party member, over a cacophony of saxophones and drums. Brandishing banners that said "the world is not for sale," marchers headed for the site of the Bastille, hoping to recapture the idealistic zeal that led to the storming of the fortress in the 1789 French revolution. Equally rich in symbolism was the starting point of the march -- before the colonnades of the Paris Bourse, a focal point for fears that increased free trade will force job cuts among French companies competing to enrich their shareholders.

As the march began, the daily Le Monde appeared on newsstands with a front-page article by WTO chief Mike Moore saying that the organisation which governs free trade would defend poor countries' interests. "I am launching a call to ministers to announce in Seattle their intention of suppressing all the obstacles to imports from the least developed countries," he wrote. But concerns closer to the kitchen table ranked high on the protesters' agenda, from fears that the WTO will force France to allow imports of unsafe genetically modified food to worries that major food exporters will force cuts in farmers' subsidies. "What worries me, because I'm French, is that the WTO could say we can only have sterilised milk, then what will happen to French cheese?," said Johann Chemin, a 28-year-old computer programmer.

Farmers, political parties and environmentalists demonstrated across France, and police said there were 5,000 protesters in Paris, where the debate on globalisation was particularly lively. "I like business but we need rules to govern globalisation," said commercial manager Pierre Ygre, waving a cigar to emphasise his point as a student 40 years his junior struggled to get a word in edgeways. "The logic of capitalism means that even if you are a sympathetic boss, you will be forced to sack people anyway," student Guillaume Latil cut in, as he proferred a wad of socialist pamphlets to passersby.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.