Anti Globalization - A Growing Sentiment

It doesn't take much looking around to see the local effect of globalization. For instance, in Buffalo, New York, the only local comedy club packed up and moved to Aruba to cash-in on the tourism industry. Foreign competition and European technological advancement after WWII led to the shutdown of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and the joblessness of more than 7,000 workers. Trico, Zenith and Fischer-Price have all moved to Mexico. General Motors closed one of its auto plants due to foreign competition, laying off $1,700. Buffalo, once the heart of thriving economic growth, is now in a state of disrepair and economic depression, and it's only one of many cases around the United States. Anti globalization activists also remind us of the larger scope in the globalization debate: the exploitation around the world by money-grubbing tycoons.

In 2000, Cambodian garment workers making clothes for The Gap and Ralph Lauren went on strike, demanding that their monthly pay be increased from $40 to $70. Forty percent of the country still lives on less than $1 per day, so one would think that foreign investors are providing worthwhile jobs for the populace. However, many workers are finding they can't pay for medicine. Also consider that if they had been working in the United States - say, in the lowest paid state, New Mexico, where minimum wage is just $5.15 per hour, they would have made a minimum of $1153 for the same work! The Cambodian workers wanted a reduction of hours from 48 to 44 per week (of which they're paid no over-time rate). Anti globalization experts remind that even with a 50% drop in sales, The Gap still had a net profit of $128 Million, after wages and taxes in just one quarter of the year.

Another reason to be anti globalization is the potential impact it has on the environment. With an increase in global warming and companies making use of lax restrictions or enforcements in other countries, there is much to be concerned about, some argue. The World Trade Organization has done little to enforce environmental mandates and instead, actually votes on the side of pro globalization. Take, for instance, the time the US banned shrimp from countries that weren't protecting sea turtles or banned tuna from countries that caught dolphins in their nets. The WTO ruled against both bans. In New Delhi, India, lax auto restrictions and a growing upper class is resulting in drastic spikes in air pollution. Pro globalization experts hope that with the spread of higher education, more people will begin to naturally "do the right thing" and environmental protection will, over time, increase.