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The Ever Lamenting Global Left Wing

© Jackson Murphy

In January the World Economic Forum's annual conference was held in Davos, Switzerland. At the same time a cobbled together group of naysayers from the left had their own conference, The World Social Forum, in Porto Alegro, Brazil.

The people who are going to conference in Brazil are the antithesis of those in Switzerland-the opposite of global capitalism. They argue that the main institutions of the global economy-the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, and World Economic Forum itself-are antidemocratic and leave out large parts of our civil society.

They forget that these organizations are the only forums in which there is a democratic presence. They are primarily made up of nation states' representatives who have been democratically elected in most cases-they seem to forget this. Who ever elected the representatives of Greenpeace or Amnesty International? Or rock group front man Bono? Who holds them accountable? I guess it depends on what your definition of the word 'democratic' is. Nevertheless, these prominent NGO's and people are present in Davos.

It is the frightening left wing elite that will be in Brazil. Canada's Maude Barlow and France's anti-McDonald's crusading cheese maker Jose Bove will be there. Another attendee, Naomi Klein, writes in the Globe and Mail Newspaper that "Compared to Davos, the World Social Forum promises to be sprawling, chaotic, even frustrating. I'm going anyway because, well, I'm invited. So is everyone else. And when it comes to global democracy, that gives Porto Alegro a distinct competitive advantage."

At the conference the left wing will enjoy timely lectures and seminars on topics such as "Why we need to shut down the World Bank and the IMF, how to do it, and what do we need instead" and "Neo-Humanism: Ecology, Spirituality, and Mental Expansion." Why would the rest of the world want to participate? The real leaders of dissent, the labor leaders like The president of the AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labour Congress, will be in Davos not soaking up the anti-establishment doctrine of Porto Alegro.

The logic of the modern Left wing completely escapes the viewer. Only they could assume that being on the other side of the world, talking amongst themselves would help their agenda. An agenda that is not for reforming the world but throwing us back to the Stone Age. They complain that they are not invited. No wonder when they are not willing to engage in any intellectual discourse on the reality of today-is that not what democracy is? These are the same ilk as those in Seattle and they don't want to discuss much of anything.