The enemies of globalisation

August 30, 2000 10:04 PM

The enemies of globalisation are readying to march on Melbourne. The irony, is that it's the Net that's bringing them together. Find out More
posted by murray_kester (3 comments total)

The irony, is that it's the Net that's bringing them together.

Only an idiot would actually believe this is "ironic". This pathological "irony" meme was first let loose (IIRC) by the PR firm Burson-Marsteller in response to J18 (actually it was either BM, or the American Enterprise Institute, I don't know which was first).

It is, of course, utter nonsense. The protestors at s11 and s26 obviously do not oppose development of the internet or the notion of trade between nations. What they oppose is corporate protectionism, corporate greed, corporate violence. As Juliette Beck notes in an interview on PBS:

"We are internationalists to the very core. We support an open economy and we support fair trade. Trade actually lifts living standards. A good example is fair trade certified coffee. ...This is the type of trade that we can support. And it's had to occur through an independent agency, a non-governmental organization, not through the World Bank. The World Bank is not promoting fair trade. They're promoting corporate managed trade."

The same applies to the IMF, WEF, WTO etc.

And the solution? In a slogan: globalize democracy not corporate greed.

So how do you do that? Here are 10 concrete suggestions.

The corporations behind the WEF can talk all they want about "social responsibility", but it's all B.S. until they start pushing for reforms like these.
posted by johnb at 11:13 PM on August 30, 2000

Thanks John I work just round the corner from where the action's gonna be. Will keep you posted. Keep up the good work on your site Bro.
posted by murray_kester at 5:35 AM on August 31, 2000

I don't find anti-global-corporatism activists' use of the internet ironic at all. This is one of the things all the visionaries were predicting when the 'net started to go mainstream, and it's something I've been very happy to see. Email and web sites are a great way for a small, geographically dispersed, low-budget organisation or movement to connect. I've been hoping for years the 'net would end up benefiting activist groups and other non-corporate entities more than the industry titans. Whether this will be the case in the long term has yet to be determined, but at least for now it seems to be working.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:14 AM on August 31, 2000