opposition to neoliberal capitalist globalization

would international contention of neoliberal capitalist globalization be persued more effectively by more rather than less engagement of social movements and advocacy groups with international institutions and more sympathetic members of state elites

Distinguishes between anti globalisation and alter globalisation

the world social forum "provides a framework in which a counter-hegemonic elite can develop its own power and influence in world affairs"

Globalization from below

based on the development of informal transnational economic networks and contraband trading

focuses on less threatening ways in which poor people participate in transnational economic networks that provide them with a livelhood by moving good across borders and selling branded and fake goods cheaply in popular markets that allow a broader range of people to participate in global consumption

grassroots economic networks are controled by making them illegal and branding the entrepreneurs and workers who participate in them as criminals

not anti-systemic, since they want to make money and get thier very modest share of the global economic cake

interesting similarities between the tactics that these networks use to subvert states' efforts to control them and those used by anti-globalization activists and occasional convergences too

"a new US-based form of imperial globality"

Facsist and militaristic

propogating an economic-military-ideological order that not only seeks to subordinate everyone and everywhere

even seeks to suppress the culture and knowledge of subaltern peoples

a new form of colonialism

transnational networks do not have to be based on links between movements in the global south and movements in the global north.

movements without links to the global north could enhance the possibilities of remaking the social worlds of the south in a more strongly alternative counter hegemonic way

may also be a way inwhic nation-states would not play the same dominant role in shaping patterns of national developments

imperial globality produces a new form of counter movement based on social movements networks that link transnationally

issues of the right to cultural difference have become central

place based movements have become empowered through the transnational connections that develop around them

demand both socio economic equality and respect for difference

ways through which a richer array of alternative kinds of local and regional kinds of social worlds can be imagined throughout the network

The concept of the "Third World" is now less relevant

because of the reconfiguration of social and political forces opposed to the currently hegemonic model of capitalist globalisation

a new kind of third world exists; all those that have been impoverished and ghettoized by neoliberal capitalist development

whose lives are often marked by violence and insecurity

presented ideologically by the imperial machine as pathological' through the idioms of crime and terrorism and the pervasive racialization of poverty

demands a different kind of thinking, since they do not fit into the frameworks of identity politics and local self-determination that guide movements for indigenous rights, for example

The problem of translation?

Globalization was only an effective frame for bringing different movements and actors with different kinds of discontents together at a particular moment of time

could be combined with anti-americanism, given that US hegemony could be seen as the root of a whole series of different problems

difficult to forge a unifying new global collective identity beyond this because north south tension continued to exist within the anti-globalisation movement itself

Looks at different possible patterns of international contention that can arise through different sorts of relations between social movements, NGO's, national states, foreign states and international agenencies like the world bank

the strongest challenges to global inequality maybe expected to come from organizations and movements located in the countries that have benefited most from existing global inequalities

Southern Movements that find northern hegemony irksome will actually do better to negotiate with them rather than withdraw from these international networks.

alliances must be strengthened between "southerners who have a capacity for collective action on the ground" and "northerners who have a capacity for influence within instituitions"

protests will become less effective if elites "draw away from involvement with non-state actors"

A strongly reformist approach to alter-globalisation

ATTAC

founded in 1998 by french newspaper le monde diplomatique

advocates an international tax on currency speculation, the Tobin tax

a general reform of global economic system

regulate financial capital

cancel third world dedt

reform or abolition of WTO

behind the creation of the world socail forum

Hope to reform rather than undermine the capitalist system

Call for Global Justice

Products of capitalist globalization

developed in reaction to its human consequences

depend to a great extent on the technologies that capitalist globalization has fostered ie the internet

Advocating "other forms of globalization"

even when demanding local forms of social and economic life should not be destroyed

or that cultural differences and the right to local autonomy and self determination should be respected

Convergence Space

alter globalisation movements make it possible to persue political action at different scales despite the fact that the elements that make up the network are socially and often politically heterogeneous

various kinds of practical limitations exist on this process

Even with effective virtual communication between people who can't afford to travel, convergence space seems to create various kinds of exclusions and inequalities

how representative are leadersw of grass-roots movements who are promoted to participate in international spheres?

Localized Global Action

when events like demonstrations bring together different issues and movements within a common frame of opposition to the status quo in which the claims of one movement strengthens that of another

Globalized Local Action

when local movements are incorporated into multi-scalar network organizations

Many advantages exist eg furthering their cause and reducing likelhood of local repression

Politics of Articulation

different visions have to be articulated into some kind of colective, shared vision

in transnation, multi-scalar networks it is problematic to try to get everyone to agree to common principles that are declared universal becuase many of these principle are in danger of being seen as eurocentric, exclusionary or politically contentious

movements are often pricesly about gaining respect for the right to be different

War against terron complicated life for anti-globalisation movements by distracting public attention and providing new propoganda arguements about the need to defend northern instituitions

Prefigurative Polotics

opted for by more successful alter-globalisation networks or coalitions

If you want to create a new kind of society and politics you have to start by organising yourselves in a way that corresponds to the type of inclusive, pluralistic and democratic system that you want to create

classic Marxist revolutionary politics and democratic systems often did the opposite- there would eventually be democracy, but not until the proletariat was secure in power

about achieving a minimal consensus on what everybody will accept for the moment

the objective is to create a culture of democracy and come to provisional, momentary consensus

Agree on what to do now; understanding that people will continue to have different ideas and that all those ideas may change in the future

Two strong points in its favour

Offers a way of dealing with the problem that alterglobalization networks are never likely to be able to sustain mobilization aroound common collective identities

a way inwhich collective mobilization maybe based around not only identities that are different but respect in thier difference

transcends the problems of social movement polotics that are grounded in identities

Marianne Maeckelberg

Apparent hostility to the emergence of hierarchies

Anthropologist and active anarchist anti-globalization militant

Jose Bove

criticised for succumbing to capitalist order rather than cultivating autonomy from the power structure

a self-conscious critical reflection on how power might ensnare them again, without, of course, ever being able to become totally free

The most militant activists of the larzac plateau therefore sought to cultivate and extend their autonomy through practices that tried to increase their freedom relative to prevailing economic and political structures of domination

the very meaning of activism itself became one of resisting the state and international power institutions such as the WTO