Anti-globalization

Anti-globalization is a term most commonly used to describe the political stance of the grouping of social movements which are prominent in protests against global trade agreements and the negative consequences for the poor, for the environment and for peace which they claim follow from them. Participants in these movements often reject the term "anti-globalization", preferring to describe themselves as the Global Justice Movement, the Movement of Movements, the alter-globalization movement or the Anti-corporate Movement.

"Anti-Empire" Development

In 2003, the movement showed wide and deep global opposition to the war in Iraq. Its participants were among those 10 million or more protesters that on the weekend of February 15 participated in global protests against war on Iraq and were dubbed by the New York Times as the "world's second superpower". Other pacifist appointments were organized by the antiglobalization movement as such: see for example the big demonstration against the war (at the time only planned) that closed the first European Social Forum on November 2002 in Florence, Italy.

Related Topics:
2003 - War in Iraq - February 15 - Global protests against war on Iraq - New York Times - Second superpower - European Social Forum - 2002 - Florence - Italy

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Antiglobalization militants saw a confirmation for their preoccupation on the proper functioning of democratic institutions in the fact that the leaders of many democratic countries (Spain, Italy, Poland) were acting against the wishes of the majorities of their populations in supporting the war. Noam Chomsky pointed out that these leaders "showed their contempt for democracy". Critics of this type of argument have tended to point out that this is just a standard criticism of representative democracy — a democratically elected government will not always act in the direction of greatest current public support — and that, therefore, there is no inconsistency in the leaders' positions given that these countries are parliamentary democracies.

Related Topics:
Spain - Italy - Poland - Noam Chomsky - Representative democracy - Parliamentary democracies

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To show how closely linked the economic and military issues are in the eyes of some in the movement, a new statement of human rights aims was written as We Stand for Peace & Justice http://www.zmag.org/wspj/index.cfm, leading in the USA to the start of the movement known as United for Peace and Justice http://unitedforpeace.org/.

Related Topics:
Economic - Military - Human rights - USA - United for Peace and Justice

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