World Social Forum: Bush accused of bending trade rules to satisfy corporations

Anti-globalisation activists called on Sunday for unity against the United States and big business as 100,000 people from 130 countries met off a Bombay highway in the movement's first forum since the Iraq war.
The World Social Forum, billed as a counterweight to the World Economic Forum of business and political leaders, which opens on Wednesday in Switzerland, is holding discussions and demonstrations on issues from Iraq to child labour.
But the common thread for the diverse set of activists is opposition to US President George W. Bush, who is accused by forum leaders of endangering world security and bending trade rules to satisfy corporations.
"The world must stand up against the United States which is dominating the United Nations and has amassed more weapons than the rest of the world combined," said Ramsey Clark, a former US attorney general and long-time anti-war activist.
"We have to remove Bush. He has committed a war of aggression," Clark told a crowd of hundreds. "His shock and awe war campaign against Iraq is hi-tech terrorism."
Demonstrators paraded effigies of Bush portraying him as everything from a handcuffed war criminal to a Hindu demon as they packed a wooded exhibition grounds in Bombay.
US companies were not spared, with activists leading 200 villagers from the southern Indian state of Kerala in smashing up cans of Coca-Cola and accusing the beverage giant of taking resources in parched communities.
Amnesty International used the forum to launch a campaign for corporations to adopt global standards on human rights. The London-based group wants an eventual world-wide treaty governing corporate behaviour related to people's rights, particularly in areas of conflict.
"This would apply to all companies. They may or may not follow it, but it would apply to all of them and gives certainty as to what they are not supposed to do," Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan said.
Khan said she hoped the initiative would prevent abuses such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Amnesty says diamond companies have turned a blind eye to state security guards shooting dead unauthorised miners.
Campaigners from across continents danced to drums, bellowed out protest songs and handed out leaflets promoting panel talks and information booths on various topics.
Writer Arundhati Roy, one of India's best known activists, urged the diverse anti-globalisation movement to focus during the six-day conference on picking two US companies that benefited from the Iraq war and launching a campaign to shut them down.
Speaking on Sunday at the Mumbai Resistance, a nearby leftist gathering that believes the World Social Forum is too moderate, Roy said both meetings should work to "make it materially impossible for the empire to achieve its aims."