The opening session of the fifth ministerial summit of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Cancún, Mexico was interrupted this morning when between thirty and forty activists from different countries around the world stood en masse, placed black tape over their mouths, and held up signs with messages such as "WTO Obsolete" and "WTO Undemocratic."

Their action, which took place during the opening address by WTO Director General Supachai Pantichpakdi, effectively dramatized the refusal by the WTO to attend to the voices and concerns of the bulk of the world's population. Although Supachai did not stop speaking, attention was effectively focused on the rejection of the WTO by people around the world.

A statement issued by the protesters said: "Our act of protest today is one that is meant to symbolize the fact that peoples throughout the world have turned their backs on an institution that has become a source of global poverty, inequality, disempowerment, and environmental crisis."

"Its actions over its eight years of existence have revealed it to be nothing but an instrument of corporate power," adds the statement.

Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange, one of the participants in the action, said he wanted to make plain the effective coup d'etat (or, in Spanish, golpe) that multinational corporations have performed to insure that the WTO's priorities are identical to their own.

Access to the opening ceremony was tightly controlled, with just 200 of the approximately 1000 non-governmental organizations registered allowed to send representatives. The number of reporters was similarly restricted, though the proceedings were televised in the media center. Several audience members from both NGOs and the press were said to have joined the standees once the action started.

According to Danaher, the activists were not immediately challenged by the abundant security personnel at the Centro de Convenciones de Cancún, who instead moved to block any others from approaching or joining the bloc. "They were a lot nicer than in Seattle," said Danaher, recalling the rough treatment meted out to three Global Exchange staffers, including himself, when they took the microphone on the main stage before the beginning of the famously-delayed opening session of the 1999 WTO ministerial summit. The relative docility of the Mexican security has yet to be tested by any attempts to take control of the public address system.

This morning's protesters, after standing for several minutes, proceeded out of the hall, with those who had freed themselves from the tape chanting, "Shame, shame!" and were met by an onslaught of world media. Many of the participants, including leading activists of the global justice movement such as Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South (Philippines/Thailand), who served as lead spokesperson, Marcello Furdato of Greenpeace Brazil, Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, Anuradha Mittal of Food First (USA/India), Lori Wallach of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch (USA), Susan George of ATTAC-France, and members of the Mexican "welcoming committee" found themselves trying to do several simultaneous interviews. The onslaught continued as the group made its way into the media center adjacent to the hall where the ceremony was continuing.

So the WTO, despite locating itself on a heavily-guarded peninsula, was unable to prevent the world from breaking into its ritual of self-congratulation. More surprises -- and days of hard-nosed negotiating by developing countries pledging to take a tougher, more united stand than ever before, await the trade barons of the wealthy countries.