Critics of International Economic Liberalism and Economic Globalization 357The World Trade Or ga ni za tion has also become a lightning rod for domestic groups
from many countries. They feel that the WTO, a symbol of economic globalization, is
usurping local decisions and degrading the welfare of individuals. NGOs are some of
the major critics of WTO activities. Some of them oppose the idea that the WTO has
the power to make regulations and settle disputes in high- handed ways that intrude
on or jeopardize national sovereignty. Still others fear that promotion of un regu la ted
free trade undermines the application of labor and environmental standards; they believe
that the WTO sets economic liberalization above other social values.
Some of the challenges to economic globalization and the triumph of economic lib-
eralism have developed at the local level. In 1994, for example, an army of peasant guer-
rillas seized towns in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to protest against an economic
and po liti cal system that they viewed as biased against them. The date of the protest
coincided with the beginning of NAFTA. Feeling that economic decisions were beyond
their control, the peasants protested against the structures of the international market,
the state, and economic globalization. This rebellion alerted the world to the challenges
of globalization. The protesters were able to tell their side of the story, ironically enough,
through the Internet, one of the by- products of the globalization they opposed.
A wider antiglobalization movement has grown in response to several issues, one
being labor mobility. At the outset, the EU had adopted the goal of free movement
Farmers in Manila protest the WTO’s regulation of agricultural trade in advance of a speech by
WTO secretary general Roberto Azavedo. The liberalization of agricultural markets has been a
major point of contention between developed and emerging economies in recent rounds of
trade negotiation.