As trade ministers struggled to find anything they could agree on inside the World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong this week, a motley union of non-governmental organisations outside managed to speak with a single voice.

The ragtag assembly of migrants, farmers, sex workers and women’s rights activists brought a bewildering variety of interests to the former British colony. “WTO out of agriculture!” screamed one sign in Victoria Park, the site of most of the rallies. “Services out of WTO!” shouted another. “Migrant workers sink WTO!” read a third.