Globalization from Below

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Globalization and Its Specter
2 The Power of Social Movements (and its Secret)
3 Two, Three, Many Levels
4 Handling Contradictions in the Movement
5 A World to Win-for What?
6 Draft of a Global Program
7 Self-Organization from Below
8 No Movement Is an Island
9 Fix It or Nix It
Conclusion

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Excerpt

Introduction

Corporations, markets, investors, and elites are going global. The globalization that is so often celebrated by economists, pundits, corporate executives, and the leaders of the world's richest nations is actually their "globalization from above."

Globalization from above can and should be contested by a "globalization from below" through which people at the grassroots around the world link up to impose their own needs and interests on the process of globalization. A movement embodying globalization from below is already emerging. Its global grassroots solidarity has the power to transform the world.

Globalization gets mixed reviews. Greater interconnectedness among the world's people seems to promise a "global village" in which the destructive antagonisms of the past can be left behind, replaced by global cooperation and enriching diversity. The advocates of a world without national economic barriers maintain that it will make everyone, including the people and countries at the bottom, better off.

But the actual experience of fin-de-millenium globalization has not fulfilled this promise. Instead, it has given us more poor people than the world has ever known and increased threats to the environmental conditions on which human life itself depends. It has led many to fear the loss of hard-won social and environmental protections and e...

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Praise

“Neophyte or social movement veteran, you need this succinct guide to avoid the pitfalls, ambushes, and ordinary stupidity ready to waylay the well-meaning activist. Thanks to Brecher, Costello, and Smith, we can put winning strategies in their place. We may even get it right this time-and, believe me, this time, it’s urgent. Bravo.”
—Susan George, author of A Fate Worse Than Debt

“Globalization from Below is a concise and very readable book that assists the reader in understanding the ‘new world order’ and its impact on society.”
—Edward Asner

“This lean, thoughtful, and incisive book examines the most important political question raised by the advent of globalization: will the growth of a broad grassroots protest movement grow, succeed in entering the political lists, and transform the corporate-led global agenda. A must read for political activists.”
—Professor Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York

“While the media portrays anti-corporate protesters as everything from protectionists to wacko Luddites, the authors of Globalization from Below clearly show that our movement is a profoundly humane response to a global economic system gone awry. Their Global Program articulates what we are for—democratic decision-making, fair distribution of wealth, environmental sustainability—and how we can continue to we...

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