Global Justice Movement

The global justice movement is the broad globalized social movement opposing what is often known as “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.

A number of organisations and groups using this term have emerged at the beginning of this century - see links and references.

A movement of movements

The global justice movement describes the loose collection of individuals and groups—often referred to as a “movement of movements”—who advocate "fair trade" rules and are critical of current institutions of global economics such as the World Trade Organization. [Tom Mertes, "A Movement of Movements", New York: Verso, 2004] The movement is often labelled the anti-globalization movement by the mainstream media. Those involved, however, frequently deny that they are “anti-globalization,” insisting that they support the globalization of communication and people and oppose only the global expansion of corporate power. [della Porta, D. 2005. “The Social Bases of the Global Justice Movement: Some TheoreticalReflections and Empirical Evidence from the First European Social Forum.” Civil Societyand Social Movements Programme Paper No. 21.Geneva: UNRISD (United NationsResearch Institute for Social Development).] The term further indicates an anti-capitalist and universalist perspective on globalization, distinguishing the movement from those opponents of globalization whose politics are based on a conservative defence of national sovereignty. Participants include student groups, NGOs, trade unions, faith-based and peace groups throughout the world. However it is clear that the movement is overwhelmingly dominated by Northern NGOs and that there is a systemic marginalisation of popular organisations from the global South.Fact|date=November 2007

Massive protests

The movement is characterized by the massive citizen protests and alternative summits which have, for the last decade, accompanied most meetings of the G8, World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. The movement came to the attention of many in the US when activists successfully used protests to shut down the 1999 WTO Ministerial in Seattle. This represented, however, just one of a series of massive global justice protests that have included protests at the 1988 World Bank/IMF meetings in Germany, [ [http://www.daysofdissent.org.uk/berlin.htm Berlin 1988 IMF World Bank Conference protests ] ] "IMF riots" in Indonesia over the price of food in 1998, [Greg Palast interviewing Joseph Steiglitz, "IMF’s Four steps to Damnation" The Observer (London), 29 April, 2001: http://www.jubileeresearch.org/analysis/articles/IMF_Four_steps_Damnation.htm] and "water wars" in Bolivia over the implementation of World Bank recommended policies. [The Democracy Center, "Bechtel Vs. Bolivia: The Bolivian Water Revolt", http://www.democracyctr.org/bechtel/]

International solidarity

The global justice movement claims to place a significant emphasis on transnational solidarity uniting activists in the global South and global North. Some have argued that the World Social Forum is one excellent example of this emphasis, bringing activists together from around the world to focus on shared philosophy and campaigning. However others see the World Social Forum as dominated by Northern NGOs, donors and activists and argue that Southern representation is largely organized via Northern donors and their NGOs and that popular organizations in the global South are systematically marginalized or included in a deeply subordinated manner. [See for instances criticisms of how Northern donors and NGOs have determined African participation in the World Social Forum by Andile Mngxitama and David Ntseng at http://www.nigd.org/docs/nigd/docs/WSFAndileMngxitama and http://abahlali.org/node/845] For this reason many grassroots movements in the South boycott the forum and the NGOs that gatekeep representation at the forum or, in some instance, actively oppose it as just one more space of domination.

ee also

*Anti-globalization
*Alter-globalization
*Democratic globalization
*Global Citizens Movement
*Global justice
*Global Justice (organization)
*Just International
*Movement of Movements
*World Social Forum | European Social Forum

Notes

Further reading

* Alex Callinicos, "An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto". London: Polity, 2003.
* Notes from Nowhere, "We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism". London: Verso, 2003.
* Gelder, Melinda, "Meeting the Enemy, Becoming a Friend". Boulder: Bauu Press, 2006.
* David Solnit, "Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World'.' San Francisco: City Lights, 2003.
* Tom Mertes, "Movement of Movements". New York: Verso, 2004.
* Donatella della Porta, "The Global Justice Movement: Cross-national And Transnational Perspectives". New York: Paradigm, 2006.

External links

Articles

* [http://www.globaljusticemovement.net/home/seven-steps.htm "Seven Steps to Justice"] by Rodney Shakespeare & Peter Challen.
* [http://www.globaljusticemovement.org/thirdway.htm Summary of the Just Third Way.]
* [http://www.thenation.com/directory/global_justice_movement Nation articles on the global justice movement] , 1999-2006.
* [http://www.ips-dc.org/global_econ/movement.pdf What is the Global Justice Movement] by the Institute for Policy Studies (pdf), January 2002.
* [http://www.globaljusticemovement.net/home/origins.htm Origins of the Global Justice Movement] , (n.d.: November, 2002?).
* [http://www.starhawk.org/activism/activism-writings/trollstostone.html Turning the Trolls to Stone: Strategy for the Global Justice Movement] - by Starhawk, July 2003
* [http://www.scottishsocialistparty.org/international/esfssp2.html What is the global justice movement?] , (n.d.).
* [http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/criticsm/conformorreformsocialmovements.html Conform or Reform? Social Movements and the Mass Media] by Michael Barker at Fifth-Estate-Online - International Journal of Radical Mass Media Criticism. February 2007
* [http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=2007graeber-victory David Graeber's article on Infoshopnews, October 12, 2007]

Organizations

* [http://www.attac.org Attac]
* [http://www.canadians.org Council of Canadians]
* [http://www.focusweb.org Focus on the Global South] (Thailand)
* [http://www.foodfirst.org Food First] (USA)
* [http://www.foei.org Friends of the Earth International]
* [http://www.globaljusticenow.org Global Justice]
* [http://www.globaljusticemovement.net/ Global Justice Movement] (UK)
* [http://www.globaljusticemovement.org/ Global Justice Movement] (USA)
* [http://www.globalpolicy.org/ Global Policy Forum]
* [http://www.gtinitiative.org/ Great Transition Initiative]
* [http://www.iatp.org Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy] (USA)
* [http://www.ifg.org International Forum on Globalisation]
* [http://www.globalizethis.org Mobilization for Global Justice]
* [http://www.oxfam.org Oxfam International]
* [http://www.agp.org Peoples' Global Action]
* [http://www.citizen.org Public Citizen] (USA)
* [http://www.twnside.org.sg Third World Network] (Malaysia)
* [http://www.tni.org Transnational Institute] (Netherlands)
* [http://www.viacampesina Via Campesina]
* [http://www.waronwant.org War on Want] (UK)
* [http://www.wdm.org.uk World Development Movement] (UK)