Sir, - Post Genoa, I feel it is important to set out clearly the principles and motives behind the protesters. Anti-globalisation is about Third World debt and neo-liberalism; it is about the use of that debt to force the developing world to sell their public services to multinationals and spend loans on infrastructure for these multinationals.
It is about the WTO overruling national legislation to protect the rights of multinationals, and taking poor countries to court for having "prohibitive" environmental or labour regulations. It is about the inordinate power that corporations have, threatening our democracy, through aggressive lobbying, funding of parties and places on government advisory panels.
It is about the continual destruction of the environment due to the lust for short-term profits and economic gain, through global warming, the search for oil, development of the countryside etc. It is about the constant exploitation of cheap labour in Third World countries and the consequent growth of "branding" and aggressive marketing. To a lesser extent it is about the creeping Americanisation, "Coca-Colonisation" of the world.
We are surrounded by a constant barrage of messages, telling us what to buy and how to live our lives by companies which, behind the billboards, aren't exactly models of integrity. Finally, it is about the erosion of "traditional" values; community, respect, fraternity, integrity in this dog-eat-dog world. I would hope that the violent minority will not overshadow these principles. - Yours etc.
Carl Cullinane, Drogheda, Co Meath.