Three Tasks for the Global Justice Movement--and the Peace Movement

"In the wake of last September's horrific attacks, both the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, DC and the massive protests planned around them were cancelled. To the best of my knowledge, no one suggested that this marked the demise of the two international financial institutions, but pundits were quick to declare the global justice movement yet another casualty of terror. As Naomi Klein has pointed out, this movement (perhaps better described as a confluence of movements) has been declared dead with some regularity since it was first "spotted" in Seattle, and it is not clear that the diagnosis is any more fitting this time than it has been in the past.

"At the time of this writing, however, it does seem clear that we in this movement face a new set of challenges after Sept. 11th. When almost anyone who suggests that US government policies are unjust is open to charges of "being unpatriotic" or even "condoning terrorism," some of us wonder whether we should reframe our critique of corporate-driven economic and foreign policy. Congress has already passed "anti-terrorism" legislation that gives government new powers to crack down on dissent.

It appears that the risks associated with direct action may have increased dramatically, and those risks could preclude an even greater number of people from taking part. At least one Arab-American immigrant with whom I have worked closely is now afraid that any association with our relatively tame group may result in deportation. The U.S. military response has provoked wildly different reactions within different sectors of our movement, exacerbating pre-existing tensions. In the face of these challenges, the question of strategy--how to move forward--looms large."

--Justin Ruben is a graduate student at Yale and an active member of GLOBE, a New Haven,CT global action group.

"In the middle of the Anti-Capitalist Convergence march in Washington, DC last month, I found myself nose to nose with a line of police attempting to push the crowd back.  I was facing an angry but very short policewoman so in my case it was actually nightstick to bosom.  "Get back, get back!" she was shouting, but our line was not giving ground.  I explained to her, calmly and I thought, quite reasonably, that we were not going to get back, because there was nowhere for us to go.

"I think of that moment now as a metaphor for where what I like to call the Global Justice movement is today.  We are facing an array of forces telling us to get back, to disperse, to leave the scene.  The forces of the state, the media, all the powers that support global corporate capitalism would like to see us go away.

"But we have nowhere to go.

"We have nowhere to go because the conditions we have been fighting have not gone away.  The disparity between rich and poor has not grown less, the attempts of the corporate powers to consolidate their hegemony have not ceased, the environment has not miraculously repaired itself, and our economic and social systems have not suddenly become sustainable. We're on the Titanic; our efforts to turn the course of the ship have just been hijacked, and we're churning full steam ahead into the iceberg.

"We don't have the luxury of defraying action to a more favorable moment."

--Starhawk. from "Only Poetry Can Address Grief," October 2001. This wonderful essay can be found at www.starhawk.org/ and will be published, Spring 2002,  in a collection of Starhawk's writings called Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising.

This article by Mike Prokosch is based on United for a Fair Economy's survey of the globalization movement since Sept. 11th. For a copy of "Where is the US globalization movement now?" see www.globalroots.net or contact Mike Prokosch <mprokosch@faireconomy.org> or 617/423-2148 x 24. "Globalroots" is a new website focusing on race, "localizing," and other challenges for the globalization movement. For another excellent survey of the movement, go to http://pantheon.yale.edu/jar67 or call 203/777-3327.

September 11th set back the globalization movement politically. At the same time, it opened ways to build a movement broad enough to succeed--a multiracial, cross-class movement that is many times larger than now, if it can:

1. Redefine the movement's work

"One part of the deep mourning I feel is for the global justice movements as they were before those planes crashed into the Twin Towers: steadily growing in scope and influence, increasingly occupying a central place on the global stage," says New York activist L. A. Kauffman. "We were blown off that stage on September 11, and the context for our ongoing activism is now utterly transformed."

But the movement can reshape its message for the new drama that the US public is intently watching. Some themes now are: What will make us safe? Not corporations and capitalism. Who drives US policies in the Mideast and around the world? Whom do these policies serve and whom do they hurt? Do they make us more or less secure? The globalization movement developed a powerful critique of corporate globalization, which has suddenly become urgent for every American. "This is one hell of a teachable moment. Globalization is on everyone's minds now," says Jerome Scott of Project South. Global activists can reach millions of new Americans if they reach out now.

You can do something. You can work in solidarity, across borders, with people who are trying to change the world and make it a more just place. You can support sweatshop workers' union drives in Bangladesh and force transnational mining companies to clean up their operations. You don't have to wait for the government. It isn't going to solve this problem anyway. You don't have to wait for corporations. You have less in common with them than with that sweatshop worker in Bangladesh. Only we can build the solidarity across borders that makes the world fair and secure.

Listen. Bring activists from abroad to your community and ask them why America is so mistrusted abroad. Better yet, ask immigrants. That will help build trust and undo racial fear. Both the peace movement and the globalization movement need to become internationalist, and the presence of immigrants throughout this country is too valuable a tool to let rust.

Framing is crucial for social movements in our media-driven society. It helps them reach the public, and it also brings together the different partners who make up a movement. Framing may be more critical for globalization than for other movements because it is such a scattered coalition with so few common campaigns or strategies. For example, the frame of "corporate globalization" helped unify labor, students, family farmers, and Greens.

2. Apply effective pressure

Global activists were applying very effective pressure on global governing institutions, transnational corporations, and governments before September 11. Those campaigns are still viable, so:

• Keep pressure on the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. Non-governmental organizations started the campaigns that exposed and delegitimated them, and they aren't stopping. Grassroots activists can join campaigns like the World Bank Bond Boycott in Cambridge (www.bostonglobalaction.net, noimfwb@yahoo.com, 617-525-5744). When the world settles down, maybe the movement--including organized labor--can organize new mass protests against the global governing institutions.
• Keep up anti-corporate campaigns. This keeps the heat on the institutions that drive the global economy. Ongoing campaigns against Citigroup, ExxonMobil, Staples, and other transnational corporations are showing thousands of people how the global economy works.
  

3. Build a movement that can win

Sept. 11th threw many young white activists (who are 'the movement' to the media) into a tailspin. One youth organizer noted the "hollowness" of their experience, analysis, and strategy and said that Sept. 11th "exposed the need for leadership" in the movement.

Meanwhile, young activists of color jumped into action and created mass antiwar-antiracist movements in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and New York. They are protesting the bombing of Afghanistan, supporting Muslims against racist attacks, and bringing a critique of global capital into peace work. This story contains at least two lessons.

First, which group is better qualified to lead the movement--white activists who are "the movement" to the media, or people of color whose communities have been wrestling with globalization for hundreds of years? White activists need to recognize the leadership of activists of color, not try to "integrate" the globalization movement. Many organizations of color already say they're in it.

Second, the peace and globalization movements need to broaden their analysis. "A mostly homogenous force will undoubtedly have significant holes in its ideology," says Colin Rajah of JustAct. If you put together globalization activists' critique of capitalism, peace activists' critique of US military and foreign policy, and a critique of racism, you begin to match the powerful analysis that's been developed by mass movements of the third world.

4. Build Bridges across fault lines

So while continuing to pressure the global governing institutions, the movement should broaden its leadership and analysis. It is up against global apartheid--a system that divides the world by race, class, gender, and place. To succeed, the movement must build bridges across all those fault lines.

• Oppose racism. "Racial targeting is a huge inroad" for the globalization movement, says Jerome Scott. "Among people of color, it makes this our issue." The peace and globalization movements can work with people of color to stop the attacks at home and the war abroad, which is structurally and culturally connected to the racist policies of the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and the US government.
• Deal with the recession. A quarter million workers have been laid off already, and community groups are suffering budget and service cuts. They need allies. Through Jobs with Justice and other organizations, global activists can "be there" for the people who are most affected by corporate globalization and who should be a bigger part of the movement. It is especially important to keep building partnerships with labor this way. Organized labor has more institutional power than any other partner in the US, and labor is not going to join a peace movement.
• Learn about globalization and gender. Global apartheid hits women hardest across race, class, and place. Learning about it is a step toward taking action. Contact Elisabeth Leonard <elisa_02128@yahoo.com> for workshop/trainings with education and action components aiming to integrate globalization teaching with the growing peace movement.
• Go global. In the developing world, opposition to capitalist globalization is much more developed than here. September 11 didn't stop the mass movements of the global South. Now the US movement can build working relationships with them and become as global as capital.
  

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