To get better access to the World Trade Organization's ministerial summit in Cancún in September, free trade critic Lori Wallach pitched a story about the conference to Harper's Bazaar magazine and managed to get inside with a press pass.
That kind of scrappiness has propelled Wallach, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, to the forefront of the anti-free trade movement.
Preferring business suits to bandannas and attacking the system from within, Wallach, a Harvard-trained lawyer, has been a constant adversary -- and depending on whom you ask, headache -- to free trade supporters.
Wallach, 39, will be among thousands of protesters expected to descend on Miami next week as finance ministers from 34 nations meet to discuss establishing the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Joining together every nation in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba, the FTAA would be the world's largest free trade agreement.
The protesters will be as varied as the causes they represent, including labor, environment, public health and corporate concerns. In the crowd will be anarchists, Greenpeace, undocumented migrants and more.
Wallach will be arriving in Miami on Sunday night, just as some of the first protests will be beginning.
She and her colleagues expect a week packed with activities and meetings, on the streets and in the suites.
''We don't like corporate globalization, which threatens to turn us into one globalized glob of homogenized sameness,'' says Wallach, who warns that free trade agreements will curb the authorities of local government.
``This is not about trade. It has to do with conforming your domestic laws with the rules . . . about who can own and control domestic services and investment and expenditure of tax dollars and how governments can regulate those industries.''
At Public Citizen, a group formed in 1971 by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, Wallach has made a name for herself criticizing the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement and World Trade Organization policies. She is known for close, tough readings of trade documents -- and for crisscrossing the country meeting with editorial boards to warn them of the effects of proposed treaties. She has attended many international trade summits in Qatar, Seattle, Geneva, Quito, Quebec and other places.
''She's a unique blend of thought and action, a nearly invincible debater, and comfortable talking to the streets or advocating in the suites,'' said former Green Party presidential candidate Nader.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Wallach joined Public Citizen in 1990 and, along with labor and environmental leaders, was a founder of the Citizens Trade Campaign.
''She grew up with a pet piranha in her house. The family had it for 20 years,'' Nader said. ``She must have learned some of the ferocity of her righteous advocacies from that pet piranha.''
Wallach, who grew up in rural Wisconsin, says the piranha story is true -- but that the fish was a vegetarian.
''He lived to be 30 years old,'' Wallach said.
In Miami, Wallach will make several public appearances.
On Wednesday night, she will be speaking at the People's Gala at the outdoor amphitheater in Bayside. On Thursday evening, she has organized a debate on the effects of 10 years of NAFTA at the First United Methodist Church at 400 Biscayne Blvd.
Many of those who disagree with Wallach say they respect her skills as a lobbyist and adversary.
''She is very, very well informed. She knows the issues very thoroughly. You're talking about a very competent person,'' said Carl A. Cira, director of the Summit of the Americas Center at Florida International University.
``The issues that she raises are correct issues, but I think that she exaggerates for effect.''
Wallach's response to her critics: ``Unfortunately, we've been right a lot. Every time somebody says that what I'm saying is crazy, under my breath I'm saying I hope they are right.''
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