A New Start in Cancún

A New Start in Cancún

The collapse of the WTO talks in Cancún is in fact a profoundly hopeful turn of events. The developing nations have found their voice–and power.

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The collapse of the WTO talks in Cancún is in fact a profoundly hopeful turn of events. The developing nations have found their voice–and power. Led by Brazil and including both India and China, the “Group of 22” made it clear that while they recognize the necessity of global rules on trade and investment, they want those rules written to benefit their citizens, not the multinationals that have virtually dictated trade policy for the past thirty years.

Cancún also marked another step in the development of global citizen activism. Farmers, students and union activists from Mexico and other parts of the global South were not only in the streets but in the seminars; showing a growing sophistication about tactics, they lobbied officials and educated the press.

We can expect the powerful, starting with the United States, to resist change aggressively. But politicians in the advanced countries should see what has happened as a chance to restart the process of globalization in a way that works for all. Many are ready to consider alternatives, according to Congressman Sherrod Brown, who points to the size of the no vote in the House in July on two bilateral free-trade pacts with Singapore and Chile. “There is a consensus that free trade is not working,” Brown said during a visit to the Nation offices on the day after the WTO collapse. The next big battleground will be the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement–opponents call it “NAFTA on steroids”–which the Administration wants approved next year.

Cancún, as Ecuadorean delegate Ivonne Juez de Baki observed, is “not the end,” as WTO supporters termed it. Instead, “it’s the beginning of a better future for everyone.”

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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