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.

Ideology and Causes within the Movement

The anti-globalization movement developed in the late twentieth century to combat the globalization of corporate economic activity and the free trade with developing nations that might result from such activity. Anti-globalizationists are sometimes perceived to be marginalized by mainstream media and governments because of their strongly anti-business views. Activists claim that most media across the world are owned by wealthy individuals or large corporations, who therefore have have conflicting interests with the activists.

Related Topics:
Twentieth century - Free trade - Developing nations - Media - Government

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Although adherents of the movement often work together, the movement itself is heterogeneous. It includes diverse and sometimes opposing understandings of the globalization process, and incorporates alternative visions, strategies and tactics. The groups and organizations that are considered part of the movement and participate in its initiatives, more or less frequently, were not founded as antiglobalist (with the possible exception of ATTAC), but have their roots in various pre-existing social and political movements. The anti-globalization movement has its precursors in such movements as the 1968 movement in Europe and the protest against the Vietnam War in the United States. The anti-globalization movement as it is now known stems from the convergence of these different political experiences when their members began to demonstrate together at international meetings such as the Seattle WTO meeting of 1999 or Genoa G/8 summit in 2001.

Related Topics:
Heterogeneous - ATTAC - 1968 movement - Vietnam War - United States - WTO meeting of 1999 - Genoa G/8 summit

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Members of the anti-globalization movement generally advocate socialist or social democratic alternatives to capitalist economics, and seek to protect the world's population and ecosystem from what they believe to be the damaging effects of globalization. Support for human rights NGOs is another cornerstone of the anti-globalization movement's platform. They advocate for labor rights, environmentalism, feminism, freedom of migration, preservation of the cultures of indigenous peoples, biodiversity, cultural diversity, food safety, and ending or reforming capitalism. Many of the protesters are veterans of single-issue campaigns, including anti-logging activism, living wage, labor union organizing, and anti-sweatshop campaigns. Although movement members see most or all of the aforementioned goals as complementary to one another, the number of different (and sometimes contradictory) issues has been a point of annoyance for the people they are protesting against. Critics claim many views are inconsistent or unrealistic.

Related Topics:
Socialist - Social democratic - Capitalist - Economics - Ecosystem - Human rights - NGO - Labor rights - Environmentalism - Feminism - Migration - Indigenous people - Biodiversity - Cultural diversity - Food safety - Single-issue campaign - Logging - Living wage - Labor union - Sweatshop

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Several influential critical works have inspired the anti-globalization movement. No Logo, the book by the Canadian journalist Naomi Klein which criticized the production practices of multinational corporations and the omnipresence of brand-driven marketing in popular culture, has become a "manifesto" of the movement, presenting in a simple way themes more accurately developed in other works. In India some intellectual references of the movement can be found in the works of Vandana Shiva, a scientist, ecologist and feminist, who in her book Biopiracy documents the way that the natural capital of indigenous peoples and ecoregions is converted into forms of intellectual capital, which are then recognized as commercial property without sharing the private utility thus derived. The writer Arundhati Roy is famous for her anti-nuclear position and her crusade against India's massive hydroelectric dam project, sponsored by the World Bank. In France the authoritative monthly paper Le Monde Diplomatique has embraced the antiglobalization cause and an editorial of its director Ignacio Ramonet brought about the foundation of the association ATTAC. The works of Jean Ziegler and Immanuel Wallerstein has contributed regarding underdevelopment and dependence in a world ruled by capitalist system. Pacifist and anti-imperialist traditions have strongly influenced the movement. Critics of American foreign policy such as Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, and anti-globalist prankers The Yes Men are widely accepted inside the movement.

Related Topics:
No Logo - Naomi Klein - Popular culture - Vandana Shiva - Biopiracy - Natural capital - Indigenous peoples - Ecoregions - Intellectual capital - Arundhati Roy - World Bank - Le Monde Diplomatique - Ignacio Ramonet - ATTAC - Jean Ziegler - Immanuel Wallerstein - Critics of American foreign policy - Noam Chomsky - Susan Sontag - The Yes Men

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Although they may not recognize themselves as antiglobalists and are pro-capitalism, some economists who don't share the neoliberal approach of international economic institutions have strongly influenced the movement. Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom (winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences, 1999), observes that third world development must be understood as the expansion of human capability, not simply the increase in national income per capita, and thus requires policies attuned to health and education, not simply GDP. The Nobel Prize in Economics James Tobin's proposal for a Tax on financial transactions (called, after him, the Tobin Tax) has become part of the agenda of the movement.

Related Topics:
Amartya Sen - Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences - 1999 - The Nobel Prize in Economics - James Tobin - Tobin Tax

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George Soros, Joseph E. Stiglitz (another Nobel prize, formerly of the World Bank, author of Globalization and Its Discontents) and David Korten have made strong arguments for drastically improving transparency, for debt relief, land reform, and restructuring corporate accountability systems. Korten and Stiglitz's contribution to the movement include involvement in direct actions and street protest.

Related Topics:
George Soros - Joseph E. Stiglitz - Globalization and Its Discontents - David Korten - Transparency - Debt relief - Land reform - Corporate accountability - Direct action

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In some Roman Catholic countries such as Italy there have even been religious influences, especially from missionaries who have spent a long time in the Third World (the most famous being Alex Zanotelli). The confluence between this tradition and post-communist tradition is often perceived as odd, but not completely at odds.

Related Topics:
Italy - Third World - Alex Zanotelli

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Internet sources and free-information websites, such as Indymedia, are a powerful means of diffusion of the movement's ideas.

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The vast array of material on spiritual movements, anarchism, libertarian socialism and the Green Movement that is now available on the Internet has been perhaps more influential than any printed book. The previously obscure works of Arundhati Roy, Starhawk, and John Zerzan, in particular, inspired a critique favoring feminism, consensus process and political secession.

Related Topics:
Anarchism - Libertarian socialism - Green Movement - Arundhati Roy - Starhawk - John Zerzan - Feminism - Consensus process - Political secession

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