New York demonstrations,Remained non-violent
Globalisation could backfire on the world economy, Kofi Annan warned today. The United Nations Secretary General told business leaders that they ignored the billions of poor in the world at their peril.
In a closing speech to the World Economic Forum in New York, he said that spending and investment had to address poverty and disease in the poorest of the poor nations, which also needed assistance to attract that investment.
Participants have spent four days discussing such issues as better market access for developing countries, official aid and the role of religion in combating terrorism at the annual session of the WEF. The Forum was moved from its traditional home of Davos in Switzerland this year in solidarity with New York in the wake of 11 September.
The final day's discussions were more centred on business. Ministers of trade and technology met businessmen "to discuss how poor countries can sharpen their competitiveness to attract investment," according to a WEF official Frederic Sicre.
Thousands of demonstrators rallied in the streets over the weekend near the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where the Forum has been taking place behind rows of police officers. The demonstrators demanded an end to corporate greed and worker exploitation.
Demonstrations have been high spirited and defiant, but non-violent, at this meeting, despite a number of arrests for unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The Forum was held five kilometres away from the former site of the World Trade Centre.
The alternative World Social Forum Peace Conference has drawn to a close in Porto Alegre in Brazil. Fierce criticism of US foreign policy has been prominent and the Forum's Peace Conference called for a democratic mediation mechanism to be created to deal with conflicts.
Argentina's economic and social crisis became a rallying point for the Brazilian Forum. Activists hold it up as a symbol of the harsh side of market-driven capitalism.
