The Big Data Putsch has failed – E-commerce camp sent to the corner

What a week for the WTO. Starting with the scandalous blacklisting of civil society representatives and trade unions by the Argentinian government, the WTO Ministerial ends with no Ministerial Declaration and a strong signal to the WTO to think again.

E-commerce Failure – But…

I didn’t have the energy to write this blog post last night as I returned to the hotel. Felt flat and somehow drained. Having hovered around the negotiation hotel most of the afternoon and evening, I think the witnessing of global power games and frustrated negotiators had got to me.

Divides deepen – blog 6 from WTO

Am comfortably benched with lounge music in the background in the hotel bar writing this post as the first full day of WTO negotiations wraps up. On reflection the keyword of the day is: division. On the one hand we have dedicated, committed, well-informed and knowledgeable NGO and union…

Isolating our voice – why distance matters

Placing us at a “safe” distance from the negotiation venue simply means that very few delegates have time to drop by and hear the voice of workers and civil society. This is yet another attack on us, and one that is hard to swallow. But so it is, and we are finding ways around this. Because, lets…

United We Stand – blog 4 from WTO Ministerial

Saturday started early with morning briefings, emails to Head Office and then the start of a 10 hour strategy workshop with NGOs and unions from all over the world. But Friday night saw another major crisis at the borders as security services blocked the entry of a renowned journalist from the UK.…

Myths of the free flow of data

Whilst a Norwegian activist was denied entry to Argentina last night and roughly sent on the first plane out of the country before lawyers had time to act, Buenos Aires is filling up with delegations, security staff and police. I now have my official badge and should be allowed entry to various…

UNI to address e-commerce today

Together with experts Deborah James, from CEPR and Valeria Milanés from ADC Argentina Christina Colclough will today discuss how the e-commerce agenda is being pushed in multiple fora. From plurilateral trade agreements such as TiSA, NAFTA, EU-Japan and TPPA to international bodies such as the OECD…

UNI Global in Buenos Aires for scandal-ridden WTO Ministerial

Over the next 10 days, UNI will be writing articles from what has already turned into a scandal-ridden WTO Ministerial. Christina Colclough, UNI Global Union’s trade expert, is on site together with a UNI-Americas team. Christina will be speaking at several events, mainly on the topic of e-commerce.

A new frontier

Fighting inequality was one reoccurring theme of the summit. Konstantinos Karachalios, Managing Director of the IEEE-SA, said: “ There are credible analyses showing that the era of digitization, starting in the 1970s, has not improved social justice and equality, neither at national nor at cross…

UNI finding solutions

The UNI Leadership Summit on the Future World of Work, seeks to shed light on the challenges presented by the Future World of Work. The event is being held on Monday 9th October at UNI headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland and will help inform discussions of the UNI World Executive Board which meeting…