Resisting Globalization: Action

1
Resisting Globalization Action Critique

• Peter Evans (Ch. 54), International Forum on
  Globalization (Ch. 60), Charles Tilly, Paul
  Mason, Naomi Klein, The Yes Men

2
GL, as it exists, is actually neoliberal GL or
corporate GL

• Evans (Ch. 54) argues that when people invoke GL,
  they usually mean the prevailing system of
  transnational domination or hegemony which is
  more accurately called "neoliberal globalization
  or "corporate globalization"

3
Implicit in discourse is idea that GL is
"natural," inevitable, beyond our control

• GL-as-juggernaut discourse is hegemonic
• such discourse enables deregulation,
  privatization, govt downsizing
• hegemony domination, influence, or authority
  over another, especially one political group over
  a society or by nation over others
• when a discourse is hegemonic it conforms to the
  dominant ideology, which justifies the status quo

4
counterhegemonic globalization

• counterhegemonic globalization (CHG) challenges
  the prevailing system of transnational domination
  and the ideologies that justify it
• ? Hegemonic ideological propositions are not
  simply instruments of domination, but also a
  toolkit that can be used for subversive ends

5
Activists involved in CHG make up the "global
justice movement"

• global justice movement is part of global civil
  society, but a more critical part that uses less
  conventional, more innovative strategies
  tactics
• ultimate objective is justice, on a global
  scale
• reject GDP (natl or global) as measure of social
  well-being
• Formally organized movement participants work
  through transnational NGOs, often linked together
  in transnational advocacy networks
• Protests at the 1999 WTO mtg in Seattle ongoing
  World Social Forum are key events in the movement

6
World Economic Forum vs World Social Forum

• World Social Forum meeting of transnational
  social activists, especially from the global
  south, organized as a "counter-meeting" to the
  World Economic Forum (annual gathering of leaders
  in business and politics held in Davos,
  Switzerland)

7
non-routine resistance

• contentious politics interactions in which
  actors make claims that bear on s/o elses
  interests, leading to coordinating efforts on
  behalf of shared interests or programs, which
  involve govts, as targets, the objects of
  claims, or 3rd parties
• takes nonviolent or lethal forms
• e.g., social movements or terrorist groups)
• (Tilly Tarrow, 2007, p. 202)

8
Terrorists?
WikiLeaks/Julian Assange
More than a dozen peace activists in the Midwest
were targets of an FBI investigation into
material support for terrorism
cyber-terrorists?
Anwar al-Awlaki US-born Islamic lecturer of
Yemeni descent who is said to have inspired
anti-Western terrorism in his online sermons
Al-Awlaki's targeted killing has been approved
by President Obama, with the consent of the US
National Security Council, making him the first
US citizen ever placed on the CIA target list.
9
Terrorism is a political strategy, not a creed

• We can reasonably define that strategy as
  asymmetrical deployment of threats and violence
  against enemies using means that fall outside the
  forms of political struggle routinely operating
  within some current regime
• (Tilly, Terror, Terrorism, Terrorists, 2002)
• ,

10
A great variety of individuals groups engage
in terror

• A great variety of individuals/groups engage in
  terror, thus defined, from time to time, most
  often alternating terror with other political
  strategies or with political inaction
• Groups and networks specializing in terror and no
  other forms of political action do sometimes
  form, but they typically remain unstable and
  ephemeral
• Most groups and networks that engage in terror
  overlap extensively with govt-employed and
  govt-backed specialists in coercion armies,
  police, militias, paramilitaries, and the like
• Even when they organize in opposition to existing
  govts, specialists in coercion typically adopt
  forms of organization, external connections, and
  sources of supply resembling those of
  govt-employed specialists
• Most uses of terror actually occur as complements
  or by-products of struggles in which participants
  often including the so-called terrorists are
  simultaneously or successively engaging in other
  more routine varieties of political claim making

11
Whats new about the recent global cycle of
protest?

• Paul Mason identifies 3 new features
• Demographics
• youth bulge, graduates without a future
• Technology
• networked, non- or anti-hierarchical
• Behavior
• crowd-driven, decentralized, do-it-yourself
• e.g., DDOS

12
innovative forms of political activism

• mobilization via social media
• e.g., citizen journalism, informing public
  about injustice, coordinating resistance via
  Facebook, YouTube, twitter
• alternative media - websites, blogs, online news
  programs
• anticorporate activism such as culture jamming
  and brand bombing
• hacktivism
• whistle-blowing, using new information/communicati
  on technology

13
hacktivism

• hacktivism the nonviolent use of illegal or
  legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of
  political ends
• promoting a political agenda by hacking,
  especially by defacing or disabling websites
• hacktivists use the same tools and techniques as
  hackers, but do so in order to disrupt services
  and bring attention to a political or social
  cause
• e.g., Anonymous, which employs DDoS attacks
• distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack
  attempt to make a computer resource unavailable
  to its intended users. Although the means to
  carry out, motives for, and targets of a DDoS
  attack may vary, it generally consists of the
  concerted efforts of individuals to prevent an
  internet site or service from functioning
  efficiently or at all, temporarily or
  indefinitely.

14
whistle-blowing

• whistle-blower a person who tells the public or
  s/o in authority about alleged dishonest or
  illegal activities occurring in an organization
  (govt or corporation)
• alleged misconduct may be classified as a
  violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a
  direct threat to public interest, such as fraud,
  health/safety violations, and corruption
• Daniel Ellsberg, US military analyst who leaked
  the Pentagon Papers in 1971 (an act credited with
  turning public sentiment against the Vietnam
  War), is now widely praised for whistle-blowing,
  tho he was called the most dangerous man in
  America at the time
• Some consider US PFC Bradley Manning, who
  allegedly leaked classified govt docs to
  WikiLeaks, a whistle-blower
• Interestingly, prior to CableGate the NYT
  described WikiLeaks as a whistle-blowing Web
  site (as did most major news outlets) but they
  no longer use that straightforward description.

15
Resisting the commodification of the commons

• commodification of the commons is the process of
  privatizing, monopolizing, and commodifying
  common heritage resources and turning public
  services into corporate profit centers and the
  promotion of this process within global trade
  agreements (Ch. 60)
• (A Better World is Possible! International
  Forum on Globalization, Ch. 60, pp. 482-493
  (Excerpted from IFG, A Better World is Possible!,
  report summary, 2002)

16
culture jamming

• culture jamming the practice of parodying
  advertisements and hijacking billboards in order
  to drastically alter their messages
• The Yes Men are culture jamming activists
• Even old-fashioned jamming (blocking or
  disrupting reception) of radio signals was a
  contentious political act, often used by warring
  militaries or political rebels

17
Brands add value, but depend on image
reputation for success making them vulnerable
to brand bombing

• Consider this satirical take on MasterCards
  promo line circulating on Twitter and other
  social networking sites after MC stopped
  processing transactions for WikiLeaks
• Freedom of speech? Priceless. For everything
  else, theres MasterCard

18
Naomi Klein on Brands vs Products

• Brands are products, plus the added value of
  identity, the idea or story behind the brand
• Brands sell a kind of pseudo-spirituality, a
  sense of belonging, even community
• This fills a gap that citizens, not just
  consumers, used to get elsewhere, whether from
  religion, or genuine community involvement
• Behind these brand meanings is a privatized
  concept of what used to be public

19
CHG from the Yes Men -- demanding justice for
Bhopal victims

• Bhopal catastrophe known as the worlds worst
  industrial disaster
• In December 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide
  plant in Bhopal began leaking gas other
  chemicals that harmed hundreds of thousands of
  ppl
• Estimated death tolls vary a government
  affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125
  injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and
  approximately 3,900 severely and permanently
  disabling injuries
• Civil and criminal cases are pending
• Dow purchased the plant in 2001, and claimed they
  inherited no liabilities

20
The Yes Men Dow hoax

• The Yes Men claimed that dealing with the
  consequences of the accident was Dows
  responsibility
• On the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, a
  Yes Men member posing as "Dow representative"
  "Jude Finisterra," went on BBC World TV to
  announce that the company was finally going to
  compensate the victims and clean up the mess in
  Bhopal
• The story shot around the world, and by the time
  it was discredited, Dow's stock had declined in
  value by 2 billion

21
US Uncut

• US Uncut is a grassroots movement taking direct
  action against corporate tax cheats and
  unnecessary and unfair public service cuts across
  the US
• Modeled on UK Uncut, which has been protesting
  against austerity in Great Britain
• Recently teamed up w/ the Yes Men to expose tax
  dodging by GE