ABSTRACT
In 1992, the Earth Summit in Rio marked the maturing of ecological awareness on a global scale. The world was poised to make a shift to ecological sustainability. However, the Rio process and the sustainability agenda were subverted by the free trade agenda. In 1993 the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was completed; in 1995 the World Trade Organization (WTO) was established and world affairs started to be dictated by trade and commerce. The normative political commitment to sustainability and justice was replaced by the rule of trade and the elevation of exploitation, greed and profit maximization as the organizing principles of the market, the state and society. Instead of the state regulating the market for the good of society, global economic powers and commercial forces are now regulating the state and society for the benefit of corporations. Instead of commerce being accountable to state and society, economic globalization is making citizens and their governments accountable to corporations and global economic bodies.
