Alter-globalization
Encyclopedia
Alter-globalization is the name of a social movement
Social movement
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....

 that supports global cooperation and interaction, but which opposes the negative effects of economic globalization
Economic globalization
Economic globalization refers to increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross-border movement of goods, service, technology and capital...

, feeling that it often works to the detriment of, or does not adequately promote, human values such as environmental
Environmental protection
Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and humans. Due to the pressures of population and our technology the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently...

 and climate protection
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

, economic justice, labor protection, protection of indigenous cultures and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

.

The name may have been derived from a popular slogan of the movement: 'Another world is possible
Another World is Possible
Another World Is Possible may refer to:*Another World Is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism, a book by David McNally*"Another World Is Possible", an interview with Noam Chomsky in Imperial Ambitions...

', which came out of the World Social Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...

. "The alter-globalization movement is a cooperative movement designed to protest the direction and perceived negative economic, political, social, cultural and ecological consequences of neoliberal globalization". Many alter-globalists, unlike anti-globalists, seek to avoid the "disestablishment of local economies and disastrous humanitarian consequences". Most members of this movement shun the label "anti-globalization
Anti-globalization
Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....

" as pejorative and incorrect since they actively support human activity on a global scale and do not oppose economic globalization per se.

Instead they see their movement as an alternative to what they term neo-liberal
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...

 globalization in which international institutions (World Trade Organisation, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 etc.) and major corporations devote themselves to enriching the developed world while giving little or no attention to the detrimental effects of their actions on the people and environments of less developed countries, countries whose governments are often too weak or too corrupt to resist or regulate them. This is not to be confused with proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...

 as put forth by communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 in that alter-globalists do not necessarily oppose the free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...

, but a subset of free-market practices characterized by certain business attitudes and political policies that often lead to violations of human rights.

Etymology

The term was coined against accusations of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

 by neoliberal proponents of globalization, meaning a support of both humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

 and universal values but a rejection of the Washington consensus
Washington Consensus
The term Washington Consensus was coined in 1989 by the economist John Williamson to describe a set of ten relatively specific economic policy prescriptions that he considered constituted the "standard" reform package promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries...

 and similar neoliberal policies. The "alter-globalization" French movement was thus opposed to the "Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...

" on the grounds that it only advanced neoliberalism and an Anglo-Saxon economic model
Anglo-Saxon economy
An Anglo-Saxon economy or Anglo-Saxon capitalism is a capitalist macroeconomic model in which levels of regulation and taxes are low, and government provides relatively fewer services.-Origins of the...

.

Originally developed in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 as altermondialisme, it has been borrowed into English in the form of altermondialism or altermondialization. It defines the stance of movements opposed to a neoliberal globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

, but favorable to a globalization respectful of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, the environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....

, national sovereignty
National sovereignty
National sovereignty is the doctrine that sovereignty belongs to and derives from the nation, an abstract entity normally linked to a physical territory and its past, present, and future citizens. It is an ideological concept or doctrine derived from liberal political theory...

, and cultural diversity.

Following the French usage of the word altermondialist, the English counterpart alter-globalist may have been coined.

The term alter-globalization is derived from the term anti-globalization, which journalists and others have used to describe the movement. Many French journalists, in particular, have since ceased using the term anti-globalization in favor of alter-globalization. It is supposed to distinguish proponents of alter-globalization from different "anti-globalization" activists (those who are against any kind of globalization: nationalists
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, protectionists
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...

, communitarians
Communitarianism
Communitarianism is an ideology that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. That community may be the family unit, but it can also be understood in a far wider sense of personal interaction, of geographical location, or of shared history.-Terminology:Though the term...

, etc.).

History

Economic integration via trade, financial flows, and investments had been occurring for many years, but the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity) in 1999, brought significant attention to the outcry for such integration through vast media outlets, support groups and activists. Though this opposition first became highly popularized in 1999, it can be traced back prior to the 1980s when the Washington Consensus
Washington Consensus
The term Washington Consensus was coined in 1989 by the economist John Williamson to describe a set of ten relatively specific economic policy prescriptions that he considered constituted the "standard" reform package promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries...

 became a dominant development in thinking and policy-making.

Factors historically provoking economic integration and resistance

  • The Great Depression
  • The period of European colonialism
    Colonialism
    Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

  • The early post World War II
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

     period
  • The 1970s
    1970s
    File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

    , when Southern governments banded together to pose alternative rules and institutions and when popular resistance to different aspects of economic integration spread in many nations

The period of European colonialism

During the late 15th century most regions of the world were self-sufficient; although this led to much starvation and famine. As nations grew in power, sought to expand, and increased their wealth they forged on a mission to gain new lands. The central driving force of these nations was colonialism. Once in power in these new territories, colonists began to change the face of the economy in the area which provided them with motivation to sustain their efforts. Since they no longer had to solely rely on their own lands to produce goods, some nations began global commerce after establishing colonies in continents like Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Once lands were conquered the native inhabitants or others brought along as slaves grew rebellious towards their captors. This is evident in a number of slave rebellions, such as Harper's Ferry, Stono, and the New York Burning
New York Slave Insurrection of 1741
The Conspiracy of 1741, also known as the Negro Plot of 1741 or the Slave Insurrection of 1741, was a supposed plot by slaves and poor whites in the British colony of New York in 1741 to revolt and level New York City with a series of fires...

, and Native American attacks on European colonists on the North American continent. Over time these skirmishes gave way to social movements aimed at eliminating international trade in goods and labor, an example of which is the attempt to abolish the slave trade and the establishment of the First International Workingmen's Association (IWA).

The post World War II era

The global economic state of post World War II called for the creation of the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 (IMF), the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

 (the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...

 (GATT). The International Monetary Fund's purpose was to supervise the exchange rate system whereas the World Bank’s goals were aimed at creating long term/low interest loans that aided in the 'reconstruction' of Europe and the 'development' of independent Third World countries. GATT originated from a perceived need to "oversee the reduction of tariff barriers to trade in manufactured goods".

These financial institutions allowed for the development of global private corporations as administration over trade fell. Free market systems began to grow in popularity as developing countries were required to globalize their economies instead of concentrating on creating jobs and stimulating economic growth. This allowed for private corporations to expand globally, without regard to central issues facing the home country like the environment, social structure or culture.

The 1970s and Southern resistance

The 1970s saw resistance to global expansion by both government and non-government parties. Senator Frank Church
Frank Church
Frank Forrester Church III was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Idaho from 1957 to 1981....

 was concerned with the role multinational corporations were beginning to play and created a subcommittee that reviewed corporate practices to see if they were advancing U.S. interests or not (i.e. exporting jobs that could be kept within the United States). It was through these public revelations that Southern nations around the world wanted rules to govern the global economy. More specifically, these Southern nations (ranging from Tanzania to the Philippines) wanted to raise/ stabilize raw material prices, and to increase Southern exports. These nations began their movement not only with central goals but with codes of conduct as well (though non-enforceable). Thus two manifestations, one individual, and the other collective, amongst Southern nation-states, existed in their attempts to generate reform.

Preconditions for Alter-Globalization

It is suggested by some scholars, such as Iagin Russia, that the effects and growth of alter-globalization can be felt worldwide due to progress made as a result of the Internet. The Internet provides easy, free-flowing and mobile information/network organization that is in its very nature democratic; knowledge is for everyone and is perceived to be needed for further development of our modern world. Furthermore, Internet access creates the fast and easy spread of, and communication of, an organization's principles, progress, growth, opposition and development. Therefore in order to allot for the distribution of alter-globalization, the Internet has provided a means of communication that stretches beyond the limits of distance, time and space so new ideas may not only be generated but implemented as well.

Alter-Globalization as a Social Movement

Alter-globalization can be characterized as a social movement based on Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....

’s WUNC displays. WUNC is an acronym for W-Worthiness, U-Unity, N-Numbers and C-Commitment. Alter-globalization is seen as a worthy cause because its goals aim to sustain those being afflicted by the selfish acts of global corporations and their negative effect on human value, the environment, and social justices. It also serves to unite various people around the world for a good cause: to fight for better treatment of Third World countries and their economies, workers rights, fair/equal human rights. Many are committed to the goals set forth by alter-globalization groups because of the perceived negative effects globalization is creating around the world. Examples include: the exploitation of labor, outsourcing of jobs to foreign nations (though some argue this is a nationalistic rather than alter-globalist motive), pollution of local environments, and harm to foreign cultures to which jobs are outsourced.

Alter-globalization can be viewed as being purposeful and creating solidarity, which are two of the three incentives posited by the rational choice theory
Rational choice theory
Rational choice theory, also known as choice theory or rational action theory, is a framework for understanding and often formally modeling social and economic behavior. It is the main theoretical paradigm in the currently-dominant school of microeconomics...

 proposed by Dennis Chong. Rational choice theory focuses on the incentives of activism, stating that activism follows when the benefits to protesting outweigh the costs. Alter-globalization allows one the opportunity to see the difference they are working towards by eliminating the negative side effects already affecting our world (i.e. environmental pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

). It also calls for solidarity amongst peer/community relations that can only be experienced by being a part of the system that causes change.

Another type of social movement that applies to alter-globalization and our understanding of how it relates is found in collective action frames. Collective action frames provide a schemata of interpretation that allows for organization of experience into guided action. Action frames are perceived as powerful because they draw from people’s emotions, re-enforce the collective identity of the group, and create a statement from the groups' collective beliefs. Frame analysis is helpful to alter-globalization because it calls for activists to learn through their socialization and interactions with others. One of the key tasks of action frames is generating agency, or a plausible story that indicates the ability of the activists to create change. With alter-globalization every aspect of the movement suggests this ability because the goals affect the economies, environments and human relations of various countries around the world.

Examples of Alter-Globalization as a Movement

  1. Attempts at an alter-globalization movement to reform policies and processes of the WTO include: "alternative principles of public accountability, the rights of people and the protection of the environment" through the theoretical framework of Robert Cox.
  2. Labor movement and trade union
    Trade union
    A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

     initiatives have begun to respond to economic and political globalisation by extending their cooperation and initiatives to the transnational level.
  3. Fair trade
    Fair trade
    Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards...

     initiatives, corporate codes of conduct, and social clauses as well as a return to local markets instead of relying too heavily on global markets.
  4. "Alter-globalization activists have promoted alternative water governance models through North-South red-green alliances between organized labor, environmental groups, women's groups, and indigenous groups..." (spoken in response to the increase in privatization of the global water supply
    Water supply
    Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...

    ).
  5. "The first current of the alter-globalization movement) considers that instead of getting involved in a global movement and international forums, the path to social change lies through giving life to horizontal, participatory, convivial and sustainable values in daily practices, personal life and local spaces. Many urban activists cite the way that, for example, the Zapatistas in Mexico and other Latin American indigenous movements now focus on developing communities' local autonomy via participatory self-government, autonomous education systems and improving the quality of life. They appreciate too, the convivial aspect of local initiatives and their promise of small but real alternatives to corporate globalization and mass consumption."

Groups

Advocates of alter-globalization have set up an online global news network, the Independent Media Center
Independent Media Center
The Independent Media Center is a global participatory network of journalists that report on political and social issues. It originated during the Seattle anti-WTO protests worldwide in 1999 and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism and its...

, to report on developments pertinent to the movement. Groups in favor of alter-globalization include ATTAC, an international trade reform network headquartered in France.

World Social Forum

The largest forum for alter-globalization activity is the annual World Social Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...

. The World Social Forum
World Social Forum
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization...

 is intended as a democratic space organized in terms of the movement's values.

See also

  • Anarchism
    Anarchism
    Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

  • Anarchist Communism
    Anarchist communism
    Anarchist communism is a theory of anarchism which advocates the abolition of the state, markets, money, private property, and capitalism in favor of common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and a horizontal network of voluntary associations and workers' councils with...

  • Anti-globalization
    Anti-globalization
    Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....

  • Arundhati Roy
  • Capitalism
    Capitalism
    Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

  • Communism
    Communism
    Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

  • Democratic mundialization
    Democratic mundialization
    Mundialization is the name of one of the movements aiming at democratic globalization.Democratic globalization is the concept of an institutional system of global democracy that would give world citizens a say in world organizations. This would, in the view of its proponents, bypass nation-states,...

  • Direct democracy
    Direct democracy
    Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...

  • Global Citizens Movement
    Global citizens movement
    In most discussions, the global citizens movement is a socio-political process rather than a political organization or party structure. The term is often used synonymously with the anti-globalization movement or the global justice movement. Colloquially the term is also used in this imprecise manner...

  • Global Justice Movement
    Global Justice Movement
    The Global Justice Movement is a network or constellation of globalized social movements opposing what is often known as the “corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.-Movement of movements:...

  • Horizontalidad
    Horizontalidad
    Horizontality or horizontalism is a social relationship that advocates the creation, development and maintenance of social structures for the equitable distribution of management power...

  • Mundialization
    Mundialization
    The word mundialisation, is the English version of the French word "mondialisation", which today refers in French to what is referred to in English as "globalisation"...

  • Popular sovereignty
    Popular sovereignty
    Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the political principle that the legitimacy of the state is created and sustained by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with Republicanism and the social contract...

  • Socialism
    Socialism
    Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

  • Transformation of culture
    Transformation of culture
    Transformation of culture, or cultural change, to the dynamic process whereby the living cultures of the world are changing and adapting to external or internal forces. This process is occurring within Western culture as well as non-Western and indigenous cultures and cultures of the world...



External links

  • "The ABCs of the Global Economy" from Dollars & Sense
    Dollars & Sense
    Dollars & Sense is a magazine dedicated to providing left-wing perspectives on economics.Published six times a year since 1974, it is edited by a collective of economists, journalists, and activists committed to the ideals of social justice and economic democracy.It was initially sponsored by the...

     Magazine
  • The other world Photo-documentary on the alter-globalization movement 2003-2005. :fr:Altermondialisme
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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