A Better World is Possible
In the days leading up to the conference, the International Forum on Globalization sponsored a teach-in to help define the terms of the current battle and mobilize forces to block the corporate agendas pushed through downtown. Tony Clark of the Polaris Institute set the tone: "The world comes to South Africa to talk about sustainable development, but the model of corporate driven globalization is on a collision course with nature and people." Vandana Shiva noted that globalization "has created an interesting myth that wealth doesn't come from the earth, it comes from that casino game on Wall Street." Author Naomi Klein was blunt: "There is a name for what we are talking about here today, and it is called 'capitalism.' This is the globalization and turbo charging of a particular logic that feeds off growth, which needs infusions of growth to survive. And it can't think. That's the thing about this system. We think we can reason with it, but we can't reason with it, because it is the logic of a drug addict...We have won the arguments, but we have not won the war because you don't win the war through arguments, you win the war through mass struggle." Produced by Big Noise Tactical Media.
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Down To Earth
Ben Cashden and John Makeeta present three debates from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The debates cover three crucial issues: peoples' access to food, water and energy. The programs intercut sharp debate with short, pointed documentaries. Co-sponsored by FSTV, the African Broadcast Network, the European Union and the UN Environment Programme.

Debate 1 - Access to Food
In this first debate, the panelists and audience take a hard look at access to food in a world where upwards of 2 billion people live at starvations edge. We are able to put a space station in orbit around the earth, but can't feed the people who live on the earth. While delegates to the World Summit on Sustainable Development enjoy French champagne and Norwegian salmon, people in neighboring Alexandria township struggle to put a plate of maize on the table, and 13 million people in nearby Malawi suffer the country's worst ever famine. Some believe that the remedy lies in biotechnology. But is it really about more efficient (and perhaps dangerous genetically engineered) production? Or is it about who controls the resources and the enforced eradication of indigenous crop diversity? Should food be a commodity, or a human right?
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Our World Is Not For Sale
South Africa itself, the site of the WSSD, is a horrible but hopeful example of the perversity of the capitalist mode of production, the preverications of its governors and the struggle it gives rise to among its victims. In preparation for the WSSD, the South African government evicted thousands of poor blacks from their settlements and tore them down so when visitors came to South Africa they could see that "there were no squatter camps in Soweto" anymore. Several people interviewed in this report say that the life of Black South Africans is worse now than under apartheid. "This is not the South Africa we fought for. This is the South Africa we fought against." In Alexandria Township near (but out of sight of) the WSS, residents learn first hand the meaning of "trickle down" economics. The SA constitution says it's illegal to deprive people of water. So the government and the corporations trying to privatize water installed regulators in the pipes that permit only a trickle of water into people's homes. Our report shows a delightful, humorous and effective "trickle up" of people's direct action response. People are not waiting for the government to "turn on the tap" anymore, to make good on their promises. As Naomi Klein put it: "It's about concrete collective actions that are building the world we want." And this engaging report by Big Noise Tactical Media shows the people doing it at the WSSD.
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The Cost of Cool
Designed to demonstrate to American teenagers the cost of being "cool." It looks at everyday items, from t-shirts to sneakers and tracks their impact on the world's resources. The consumer cost is compared to their actual environmental costs.
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