ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the interactions between the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the environmental social movement (ESM). Specifically, it explores the demands made by environmentalists on the global economic institutions (GEIs) and the reaction of the GEIs to this new constituency. In the first part of the chapter the outlines of the environmental social movement are sketched. The aim of this section is to provide an introduction to the various actors which comprise the ESM, and also to raise some of the key issues attendant on the role played by non-state actors in global politics. The second part of the chapter focuses on the troubled history of the World Bank’s relationship with environmental activists. The third section of the chapter explores the demands made by environmentalists of the WTO and the organisation’s response. In both these sections the relationship between the GEIs and other social movements forms an important part of the context in which discussions between the international organisation and the ESM is conducted. The final part of the chapter attempts to derive some general conclusions about the relationships examined.
