Proponets of free trade present free trade as a laisse-faire policy that reduces state power. In fact, free trade is just a different form of state intervention. Free trade in actual practice means state intervention to protect the rich, market discipline for ordinary people. Powerfull countries implement free trade to open up the economies of weaker countries to exploitation by companies from the powerfull countries. Multinational corporations can then invest and sell their products in weaker countries, enabling them to run less developed periphery companies out of business and dominate their economy. Those industries from powerful nations that can't compete with weaker nations' industries are protected by the state so as to ensure that they can out compete third-world industries. "Third world" elites often go along with this because they also benefit from it, though not as much as "first world" elites. It is primarily ordinary people who bear the brunt of these policies.
Capitalism itself is based on state intervention. It requires a huge government bureaucracy, including courts, and armies of police to enforce private property. When the US steel industry faced troubles the Bush administration (a big proponent of free trade) implemented tariffs so as to protect US industries. Free trade prevents "third world" countries from doing the same thing when one of their industries is unable to compete. Western countries give major subsidies to domestic agriculture, which floods the markets of "third world" countries driving "third world" farmers out of business. The only areas of the economy that are liberalized are those in which the dominant countries can out compete their opponents, in other areas state protection reigns.
American industries which are the most competitive internationally are also highly subsidized - biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, high-tech industry, etc. These subsidized industries are then easily able to out compete unsubsidized competitors in the rest of the world. For historical reasons in the US this subsidy is done largely through the military. The state pays for research and development and if the results of that research (such as the internet) prove profitable the private sector takes it over and reaps the profit. The public pays the cost, a small group of capitalists reap the benefits. Free trade does not mean the shrinking of the state, it means changing the state to benefit the corporate elite, to be even more oppressive. "Big business" and "big government" are in bed with each other.
All of this is not an abberation of an otherwise functional system, but is the logical outcome of capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system based on wage-labor. Under capitalism a small elite, the capitalist class, monopolizes the means of production and the majority of the population must sell their labor to that elite in order to survive. The capitalist class uses its' control over economic rescources to give itself greater wealth and privledges than the rest of the population. They live in mansions while millions live in poverty. The capitalist class and the rest of the population are in constant conflict - a class war. Free trade is an offensive by the capitalists in the class war, an attempt by it to reorganize society so as to increase it's power and share of wealth while screwing over everyone else.
Attempts to reform capitalism, such as by replacing free trade with "fair trade," only treat the symptoms, not the disease itself. Reforms have been attempted for over a century, none of them have been able to really fix these probelsm because they are inehrent in capitalism. So long as society is divided into classes there will be conflict between those classes. So long as a small elite controls the economy it will use that control to benefit itself and there will be pushes for things like free trade. "Fair trade" is just free trade modified to be slightly less exploitative. It is possible to force the capitalist class to grant concessions, like "fair trade," if the amount of unrest is high enough but this will only be temporary. As soon as unrest has decreased the capitalist class will again launch a new offensive and begin to undue whatever concessions were given. Such concessions do not actually change the underlying social structure and so capitalists will continue to dominate and exploit the majority of the population even if granting a few concessions.
Opposition to free trade is not limited to the "first world" but is actually must larger in the "third world." There have been major rebellions against free trade in Ecuador, Mexico, Bolivia, India and many other countries. In December 2001 rebellions erupted against the government of
Argentina over it's support for free trade. The government declared a state of emergency, effectively attempting to impose a dictatorship. Further rebellions erupted and forced the end of the state of emergency and causing the President to resign. The continuing unrest that followed caused four presidents to resign in a row in less than a month. Argentines formed neighborhood assemblies, where neighbors would come together to discuss the crisis and organize their struggle. These operated on the principle of direct democracy. There were also worker assemblies where workers in a workplace would coordinate their struggle against the capitalists. The unemployed also formed assemblies. These assemblies began to form networks to coordinate with each other. Workers started taking over their workplaces, putting them under the control of the worker assemblies. At present over 100 workplaces in Argentina are in worker self-management.
This rebellion in Argentina shows the outlines of an alternative system, of an anarchist society. The media likes to smear anarchism as being about choas, destruction, etc. but nothing could be further from the truth. An anarchist society would be organized by voluntary non-hierarchical associations, like the assemblies in argentina, instead of by hierarchical organizatins such as corporations and states. The control over the means of production should by the capitalist class should be abolished. If we are to have an industrial economy then the factories should be run by the workers. The factory to the worker, the land to the peasants. The means of production should be accessable to all.
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