Capitalism revolves around the capitalist making money off the labor of the worker. You’ve probably heard the terms “bourgeoisie” and “proletariat” before. Well the bourgeoisie is the capitalist, and the proletariat is the worker. Here’s an example of capitalism and the WTO. Think of a steel mill. Okay so there is the guy that owns the steel mill. He’s the guy that hires the people who hires the people. He’s the guy who gets to make money off of people making money. Sounds like a pretty cushy job right? Then there is the guy that works in the steel mill. He’s the hired help. He’s the guy that has to be in the mill, sweaty and covered in soot. It’s a tough job, but he needs it. Then there is the city the mill is located in. They have the rivers the mill needs to run it’s operation. The rivers help ship the steel out and the resources in. The mill uses the river water to cool down the molten steel and to dump the waste.

Well suppose the City wants to clean up the rivers. Maybe there is too much waste in the water. Maybe the Smoke from the mill has made the city’s air thick and black from soot. So the City passes a few laws, and forces the mill to clean up it’s act. At first the mill complies, but as it gets harder and harder to keep things running cheaply under these new rules, the Capitalist gets upset. After all it’s the capitalist’s job to keep things running smoothly, but cheaply. The more expensive it is to run his mill, the less money he makes. In his world it’s better to have a fat wallet, rather than a clean city. So the mill starts shutting things down to keep the costs down, and the capitalist’s wallet fat. Now the workers start to complain. They are loosing their jobs. As hard as their jobs are they need them to help pay the bills. So they start striking. The capitalist doesn’t like this either. Listening to the labor unions means keeping the workers happy. It’s gonna take some more money out of the capitalist’s pocket. The capitalist doesn’t see keeping the environment clean or the workers happy as a good thing, because it’s gonna cost him. In the capitalist’s world, environmental and labor issues are barriers to be over come, not valid concerns of the citizens and labor force.

These are the “barriers” that the WTO wishes to do away with. Now take that example and expand on it. Instead of it being the still mill three towns over, it’s the still mill located in another country where the labor unions aren’t as powerful and the environmentalists aren’t listened to. Instead of it being a still mill, its a shoe company or a fast food corporation. Instead of it being working men and women, it’s children and sweat shop employees. Environmental concerns, out cries against sweat shop labor, organized labor unions… you and I view these things as ways of keeping corporations under control. As ways of keeping corporations within the boundaries of the law, not above them. The WTO views these as barriers to free trade, and aims to eliminate them. Before I started researching this, the WTO was something I struggled to understand. A good place to start though is with Paul Hawken. Read more about him at the link below.

by Jake Reinhart, Nov. 2003