[lbo-talk] US loses cotton subsidies fight

[Miles Jackson]

dredmond at efn.org wrote:
> On Tue, October 16, 2007 8:02 am, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
>   
>> Now, remind me, why do the lefties hate WTO?
>>     
>
> We don't. The one country, one vote structure of the WTO does give a bit
> of agency to the nations of the periphery, though the minutiae of trade
> deals is often highly toxic. That said, free and fair trade, a.k.a. equal
> exchange, is powerfully utopian. As a planet, we need more swapping and
> fairer swapping, not less.
>
> -- DRR
>
>   
Let's be clear here: the current global trade system is not a barter 
system.  It's a commodity system predicated on the accumulation of 
capital.  Thus the WTO is a mechanism for facilitating global 
capitalism.  Sure, many poor nations would be better off if they could 
freely compete in this global capitalist system, but that's equivalent 
to Joan Robinson's quip that the only thing worse than being exploited 
in a capitalist society is--not being exploited.  If we're really 
interested in creating "more and fairer swapping" that is not based on 
the circulation of commodities for profit, we need to dismantle 
organizations like the WTO.

Miles