User:Gilles/BlogEntry: 2008 April 11 22:40:17 EAT

From KLAMediaWiki

The Wiki mode? An enormous potential! You may have heard of Wikipedia : A Web-based encyclopedia, to find almost anything you could think of, and in many languages ! Try the Web to learn about "Ramses II" egyptian pharaon and you get the Wikipedia full answer. Wish it were in esperanto ? Yes, it is also available.

This impressive achievement results from a collective, round the clock effort of countless volunteers worlwide.The Wikipedia knowledge-base expands continuously, wider than any commercial encyclopedia.

At the core is the "Wiki" free-software allowing distant people to contribute, discuss, amend and agree. Anybody can retrieve knowledge one day and contribute the other day to the community.

The Wiki-WTO project is to operate on the wiki-mode, overcoming distances and language barriers, to shape a worlwide project at virtually no cost.

What is and what does the WTO? Let us stay alert and informed. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization designed to supervise and liberalize international trade. It came into being in 1995, following the former General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) created in 1948. Wikipedia tells you the details.

What the WTO does, impacts on nations, on people, on the way the planet goes.

Although the stated aim of the WTO is to liberalize trade and stimulate economic growth, globally free trade results in the rich becoming richer, while the poor are getting poorer. The issues of labour and environment are steadfastly ignored. To the extent the WTO succeeds at promoting globalization, then in equal measure do the environment and labour rights suffer.

Despite of strong opposition from poor countries, the WTO continues encouraging harmful policies which would benefit the largest farmers, destroy nascent or fragile industries throughout the South and open public services everywhere to corporate takeover.

There is much to say about the decision making in the WTO: obscure, unrepresentative and non-inclusive. The Third World Network called the WTO "the most non-transparent of international organisations", because "the vast majority of developing countries have very little real say in the WTO system".

The ITO we could have had Soon after the Second World War, the economist John Maynard Keynes came with an innovative project for the future of world trade, which he called the International Trade Organisation (ITO).

It offers brilliant concepts as reported by Susan George in an inspiring article <link>: Yes, it is possible to construct a trading system serving the needs of people in both North and South. The Wiki-ITO is meant to follow this route and to shape an alternative International Trade Organisation: useful for people, careful for life and environment, while fostering fair trade practices.

The Wiki-ITO idea Would it be possible to revive the ITO, as a collective project driven by the civil society? Why not using the Internet tools? Look, the Wiki-ITO is already there, started as a local experiment. This is where we stand today.

What next? The idea is to build a community of interest, join forces and gain speed, until the Wiki-ITO becomes a knowledge base which no economist could ignore.

Thanks to a legitimate, representative and transparent operation, it would ideally grow strong enough to deprive the market-based WTO of its already undermined credibility.

Enough Websites oppose to the WTO already; why another one? Many NGOs do protest, fight against, oppose to. The Wiki-ITO complementary approach would be to positively build, elaborate, discuss until sound International trade rules are collectively agreed.

Would people from Asia, Africa, Australia, America...agree so easily on trade issues? We can see conflicting commercial interests everywhere. But where governments may fight, civil society reach the consensus, because people from widely differing cultures and economic standards still share universal values.

The Wiki-ITO will recognize the United Nations legal instruments, mandate cooperation with the International Labour Organisation...a solid and valid framework for everybody to adhere.

The Wiki-WTO will derive its proposals from uppermost values: Human Rights, Environmental Charter; it will put trade where it belongs - Economy is to serve mankind; it will stop the non-sense of biodiversity erosion for the sake of wrong macroeconomics.

Where to start? It make sense to create the Wiki-ITO as an activity of the World Social Forum (WSF), within the www.wsflibrary.org .This WSF Library website aims at creating a permanent link between libraries, librarians and the WSF, it has been created by the Kenya Library Association in connection with the WSF in Nairobi, January 2007.

Where to go? The 21 actionnable themes of the Worls Social Forum (WSF) seem relevant to start and address a broad spectrum: water, food security, health... In a cascading mode, each field may be worked out into progressive details, stepwise, until reaching an international consensus on trade rules for agriculture, industry, services.

Even if it means a long way to go, it will be dotted by victories, since it is of great value to internationally agree on sound principles (food security), on appropriate indicators (ecological footprint, human development index)...so much to learn and to share.

How to work collectively? The Wiki-WTO is a tool for a yet-to-be formed community. Now we should link, network and build this community of interest.

Also write our own rules (editing, checking; translations; moderation, administration). Common rules are needed for constructive interactions and by chance the Wikipedia example proposes a comprehensive and well-proven set of rules.

Language barriers? The wiki mode allows routinely duplicating a page in many languages. More than 30 translators from the Coorditrad networks are ready to support the project! Their fast response is an encouraging sign.

Where do we stand today? At www.wsflibrary.org, under "Belem 2009”�is the wiki-WTO Home page.

The Wiki-WTO Context, Objectives and Approach are documented in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese. That is like a seed.

The upcoming Attac European Summer University to be staged in Saarebr�ck, Germany, may gather enough impulse for kick-off.

The Wiki-WTO may become an activity of the next World Social Forum In Belem, 2009.

What we need is at present from volunteers is: •�Expertise: to develop the intellectual social contents •�Moderation: to guide the efforts •�Translation: to communicate everywhere •�Administration: to maintain a fast and robust platform. Once properly launched, a dedicated wiki-site will be set up.

It is still this is very uncertain whether the Wiki-WTO will raise interest and find support. 

But if the market-oriented WTO is to collapse soon from its internal contradictions, the situation will be no better. An international trade regulation is needed, and this makes alternative ITO proposals so more so desirable.