We Need to Be More Fair; Labour's Heir apparent on what he and Blair and the world can all agree upon.(Cover story)

Byline: Gordon Brown

When I chaired a recent IMF meeting in Washington, demonstrators flooded the city to disrupt the talks. One placard stood out: WORLDWIDE CAMPAIGN AGAINST GLOBALIZATION.

The slogan reflected the contradictory attitudes of anti-globalization campaigners. What united the demonstrators was not what they were for, but what they were against. Some blamed rich countries for slowing development, others for moving it too fast. Some wanted the freedom to trade, others the freedom not to trade. Some were economic nationalists, seeking to shelter industries; others were anti-capitalists berating what they saw as rich-country colonialism.

Such protests do not represent a substantive alternative ideology. They are more an angry resistance to change--old-style Luddism, in other words. What's worrisome is that this new Luddism is gaining support among economic-interest groups that think they will be the losers in a globalized world. This fear fuelsanti-immigrant parties in many continents and protectionist parties in all.

Since 1997, Tony Blair and I have set out a progressive approach to reform in a more globalized world--an argument for free trade and for openness that he and I will continue to push forward. Those of us who want globalization to work must show that the route out of poverty lies not in isolationism and protectionism but in greater global economic integration. Look around the world today, and we see that poverty is best solved in outward-looking trading nations, not closed economies. The world needs more globalization, not less. More free trade and fairer trade. We need a manifesto for a global era that progressive business and globally minded governments can embrace.

Our task is to show globalization's critics that we can both maximize the opportunities of globalization and minimize its insecurities. How? Globalization broke down when there were no international mechanisms for dealing either with instability in emerging economies or with the fallout in the richest countries. So we must do things differently.

I believe that there is now enough common ground among political and business leaders of the world for such a consensus--one that defines globalization not simply as global flows of capital and goods but as trade justice on a global scale. In this new paradigm, low inflation and fiscal stability are, as Alan Greenspan taught us, the essential foundation for securing employment and growth. Along with this, free trade is an essential element of open markets.