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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Simon Greer

Aired February 02, 2002 - 12:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you heard from one of the group representatives. Well, some of the other groups out there protesting the World Economic Forum say they are not against globalization, but they would like to see better proposals for helping poor nations. Jobs With Justice is one such group. Simon Greer is representing the organization, and he joins us now from New York -- hi there, Mr. Greer.

SIMON GREER, JOBS WITH JUSTICE: Hi, Fredricka -- good to be with you.

WHITFIELD: Well, what exactly is the focus of your message out there?

GREER: I think our message is a simple one. We have more than 20 years of evidence now that the global economy is not working for working people. And so our proposals are that the rules that corporations wrote to create a global economy that would work for them be rewritten so that working people's interests, workers' rights, human rights and a clean environment are made central to all trade agreements.

WHITFIELD: So how does Jobs with Justice convey that message with the majority of the economic and political leaders inside the Waldorf Astoria and other facilities there in midtown Manhattan? How do you convey that message?

GREER: Well, Fredricka, we have done a number of different things to convey it. We had a large protest on Thursday afternoon in front of The Gap to try to highlight sweatshops as one of the key flaws in this current effort at corporate globalization by drawing attention to The Gap and their practices of using sweatshop labor to produce the garments they sell throughout Manhattan and around the country. We hope to highlight that the global economy isn't working for working people, and that dramatic steps need to be taken to change how the economy functions.

WHITFIELD: To make for an effective protest, one would think that, of course, you've got to get noticed. And we are seeing that at this World Economic Forum that some of the demonstrators are taking some rather creative measures. If they are not out there in silent protest or even making noise, then I have heard that there are some groups that are even -- there's a Spaniard out there -- a Spaniard group out there, which is dipping their bicycle wheels in paint and riding through the streets, so as to send a message of anti- globalization.

What are some of the other creative measures that you are under the impression of taking place out there?

GREER: I think people have used a lot of different, creative approaches to get the message out there. I think most important is that we convey a message that we are not an anti-globalization movement. Clearly, globalization is something we all live with every day, and what we hope to do is globalize justice. We hope to globalize health care access, and we hope to globalize good jobs and the right to organize a union in your workplace. We hope to globalize freedom from debt that will allow countries' economies to thrive and to develop.

And so I think people have used puppets and they have used forums and they have used rallies and stickers and picket signs, a whole range of techniques to try to convey what the kind of globalization we support would look like.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much, Simon Greer for joining us -- Jobs With Justice. That is their group that's being represented out there, along with hundreds of other groups that are demonstrating outside the World Economic Forum in New York today.

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