Global Exchange

Founded in 1988 by Kevin Danaher and Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange promotes social, economic, and environmental justice. Headquartered in San Francisco, the membership-based organization objects to the model of “elite globalization” for empowering multinational corporations and augmenting reliance on military authority. Dedicated to the recognition of both the economic rights and political liberties enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the group opposes slavery and champions fair trade.

Global Exchange has called for renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). By stimulating the privatization of formerly state-leased property in Mexico, the group maintains, NAFTA has exacerbated poverty and fueled migration. Global Exchange has supported an open-border policy and promotes the rights of migrants to join or form unions, to participate in National Labor Relations Board representation elections, to bargain collectively, and to strike.

Global Exchange has criticized the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank for enabling U.S. banks and transnational corporations to exploit the resources and markets of financially disadvantaged countries. The group advocates a tax on corporate profits to create an international development fund, combined with debt forgiveness.

Global Exchange has undertaken educational efforts to show how the WTO bars environmental, human rights, or labor considerations as criteria in awarding public contracts and how its intellectual property provisions limit the availability of generic drugs. The group opposed the Free Trade Area of the Americas, arguing that corporate influence over the agreement presaged severe social and environmental damage throughout the hemisphere.

Global Exchange has sponsored green festivals to promote environmentally aware companies, health foods, and alternative medicines. Its craft stores for fairly traded housewares, clothing, chocolates, coffee, and tea generate income for artisans' and farmers' communities in various countries. In 1989, the group began offering Reality Tours: travel packages and internships focusing on social and environmental politics in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Venezuela.

Global Exchange has organized U.S. delegations to the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of peace activists, environmentalists, and advocates of indigenous, workers', and women's rights. The group was prominent at the November 1999 Battle of Seattle, where tens of thousands of people converged on the WTO's Third Ministerial to protest its potential to augment corporate control over the world's lifeforms, food, and water. Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange was among several people from non-governmental organizations who, before being arrested, took the stage to introduce a draft consensus agreement about globalization.

Some activists regard Global Exchange as mainstream due to its pacifist stance. Benjamin has defended nonviolence, however, as proof of dissenters' ability to form a principled mass movement.