With the collapse of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) September summit, Cancún looks destined to join Waterloo, Stalingrad, and Seattle as one of those place names that graduates to shorthand for a historic event.

The global economic system is wrought with great imbalances of power which the architects and the beneficiaries of the system seek to maintain a firm hold on. There are many mechanisms that are being employed to ensure the security of the status quo; these include regional and bi-lateral "free trade" agreements like the US-Chile Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and now, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

What a difference even one week can make! The World Bank and the IMF met the week after the collapse of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial in Cancún, and the obvious differences were not just the age of the organizations and the location - although there are plenty of similarities between Cancún and Dubai - but the structure and operating procedures of the WTO and the Bretton Woods Institutions.

This fall's "Season of Struggle" continues to present activists with numerous opportunities for organizing and mobilizing for global economic justice, civil liberties, and the right to organize.

As Bolivia has emerged as a poster-child of IMF/World Bank policies, the people have continued to slip further into poverty. The March/April 2000 uprising in the country's third-largest city, Cochabamba, against the World Bank/Bechtel Corporation plan to privatize water provision, not only succeeded in expelling Bechtel from the country, but put the issue of water privatization on the map, along with the potential of powerful resistance movements.

The World Bank's 2004 World Development Report (WDR), Making Services Work for Poor People, was released with relatively little fanfare, at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The WDR's authors pull their punches, eager to avoid being pinned down either as firm advocates of privatization or as believers in the potential of public ownership. It seems that actually advocating for public ownership is not an option at the World Bank just yet--this year's WDR is characterized by an indistinct tone and vague approach to the question of essential services.