With the 60th anniversary of both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank approaching this weekend, more than 80 students gathered last night to discuss such issues as globalization, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the negative effects of free trade.

The Teach-in on Globalization was organized by the Streets Project to provide several speakers to discuss what they see as the increasing dangers and implications of globalization.

The forum featured several faculty, student and community speakers, each addressing a specific concern regarding globalization.

Kidane Mengisteab, head of the Department of African and African American studies, spoke to the crowd about the controversial debate surrounding globalization.

Mengisteab focused the debate on the positive and negative implications of globalization. While proponents say it furthers trade and interconnectedness, critics contend globalization only weakens collective bargaining and intensifies inequality.

"Globalization promotes the spread of democracy worldwide, but we are faced with a paradox. Globalization supports the implementation of the formal institutions of democracy, but the gap between the interests of the citizens and the policy making actually intensifies," he said.

Samar Farage, a member of the sociology department, then took the podium to discuss the increasing globalization of the media.

The media is often overlooked as an institution of globalization but is actually crucial because it is the primary source to transmit and spread values, she said. The media is now concentrated in the hands of four or five global corporations, thus preventing any diversity of opinions, Farage said.

"If we have just a few people controlling what people think, feel, say, and act, local cultures will disappear in favor of one monoculture," she said.

Sajay Samuel, accounting instructor, also addressed the danger of a concentration of power under globalization, contending that organizations such as the WTO are actual tyrannies.

"The WTO makes the rules, they adjudicate the rules, and they execute the rules. This is the very definition of a tyranny," Samuel said. "The answer is not to address the effects of the WTO but to go after the core of the WTO as a political entity," he added.

Penn State sociology professor Sam Richards spoke to the crowd about increasing globalization and corporate growth.

Richards encouraged those in attendance to understand that it is physically impossible for all countries to sustain the same lifestyle as developed nations. "There are just not enough resources to support this lifestyle," he said.

He said one of the fundamental problems of globalization is that "we set the rules."

"We allow such organizations as the WTO and the World Bank to benefit us, first and foremost, and keep other countries down. We are not helping countries evolve and emerge, we are preventing equality," Richards said.

After each of the nine speakers spoke to the audience, those in attendance were encouraged to stay and participate in an open discussion and dialogue concerning the issues in the forum.

Following the program, student reaction to the teach-in was both positive and enthusiastic.

Frank Cichocki (senior-biotechnology) said he was not only encouraged by the speakers, but also by the students involved.

"I never really realized this type of movement was going on here at Penn State. I found it empowering to know that so many other people felt this way," he said.