Anti-globalism is a social movement that arose at the turn of the 21st century and is directed against neoliberal globalization, based on the promotion of free markets and free trade.
What is globalization?
A common theme raised by current theorists Giddens, Castells and Harvey is the idea that modern technologies, such as computers, accelerate the development of social relations and make them more flexible. The history of modern society is the history of globalization and technological acceleration of transport (data, capital, goods, people), which made the world smaller. Technology, reducing distances, increasingly mediates social relations. Progress has led to the separation of information from its carriers, as the speed of its distribution grew faster than the speed of movement of bodies. Transport and communication technologies (railway, telegraph, radio, automobile, television, aviation, digital computer communication and network technologies) increased the speed of movement of capital, goods, food and information. Earth has become a global communications network that affects all areas of society. Information today is not related to a specific locality: it is impossible to territorially limit it, and it does not depend on distances. High technology contributes to the delocalization of communication in terms of spatial and temporal distances.
The dominant form is neoliberal globalization. According to critics, it aims to create the basis for the economy, which allows you to increase profits by minimizing investment costs, reducing social security and preaching individualism. With the advent of neoliberalism, economic logic is increasingly dominating in society - the logic of goods and the accumulation of financial capital.
Both right and left activists oppose globalism.
Right anti-globalism: its causes and manifestations
Far-right groups such as the British National Party, the German National Democratic Party, the French National Front and the Austrian Freedom Party see globalization as a threat to the local economy and national identity. They argue that each country should independently control its economy, and immigration should be strictly limited in order to guarantee national identity, which is threatened by the processes of globalization. The anti-globalism of the right is aimed at combating the ideology promoted by Zionism, Marxism and liberalism. In their understanding, globalization is presented as a worldwide conspiracy against national identity, Western culture or a white person.
Such arguments often have racist and anti-Semitic implications. For the right, neoliberal globalization is not the result of the structural logic of capitalism, but rather, the result of the conspiratorial political plan of powerful elites. Conservatives do not advocate alternative globalism, and their antiglobalism as a means of solving the problems caused by the dominant form of globalization offers nationalism and particularism.
Left aniglobalism
Much more important in terms of activists and public attention is left-wing anti-globalism. He drew public attention by protests during meetings of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in November-December 1999, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington in April 2000 and in Prague in September 2000, “ G8 ”in Genoa in July 2001, as well as through the annual World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, which is held in opposition to the meetings of the World Economic Forum. The causes of left-wing anti-globalism, according to the ideologists of the movement, are rooted in the capitalist logic that underlies globalization - it leads to asymmetric power relations both within the country and around the world and turns various aspects of life into a commodity, including health care, education and culture.
Alternative globalization
Anti-globalism is a term that introduces a misunderstanding, since the movement is not purely defensive and reactive, but rather stands for global democracy and justice. Therefore, it is better characterized by such concepts as the movement for alternative or democratic globalization.
The World Wide Web
The transnational protest movement, which is global in nature and has a decentralized, networked form of organization, is formed mainly thanks to the Internet. With its help, protests are organized online and around the world, the fight strategy is discussed, political events and past protests are highlighted. This movement, characterized by a high degree of openness, accessibility and globality, is characterized by online forms of protest, which can be called cyber protests or cyber activism, mailing lists, web forums, chats, alternative media and media projects such as Indymedia.
Coalition coalition
Anti-globalism (and alter-globalism) is characterized by pluralism and, to a certain extent, contradictory. Engaged groups include traditional and autonomous unions, creative groups, landless peasants, indigenous people, socialists, communists, anarchists, Trotskyists, environmentalists, feminists, Third World Initiatives, human rights activists, students, believers, traditional left-wing parties, critically minded intellectuals from around the world. Anti-globalism is a global network of networks, a movement of social movements, a worldwide protest movement, and a coalition coalition. It aims to restore a commonality of goods and services that are increasingly being assigned through agreements, such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
Unlimited network
Michael Hardt and Tony Negri used the term “multitude” to describe the anti-globalist movement as a set of individuals who act as a single decentralized body, a polyphonic dialogue, an integral united force of world democracy, controlled from below, an open society and direct democratic leadership of all for all. Many, according to pro-Marxist philosophers, are a wide open, unlimited network that encourages work and life together.
Unity in differences
Because of its structure and diversity, the movement is non-dogmatic and decentralized. It cannot be controlled and led. The unity of this multitude arises through general mobilization against the neoliberal exacerbation of global problems. The various questions and problems of the respective groups are related to the fact that they are determined by capitalist globalization, and the antiglobalism of this movement, its goals and practices are not uniform. There is a big difference between reformist and revolutionary activists, between non-violent and militant methods of protest. Another difference concerns those groups that advocate strengthening regulation of capitalism at the local level, and those who seek to establish world democracy instead of national sovereignty.
As a collective political force, which consists of many interconnected non-identical parts, the movement can be generally regarded as a desire for global democracy, justice and the realization of human rights. It is trying to draw public attention to the lack of democracy in international organizations and to exert pressure on supporting the democratization of dominant institutions.
"Empire"
Anti-globalism is a spontaneous, decentralized, networked, self-organizing movement based on democracy among the masses. His thinkers see such an organizational form as an expression of a change in the organizational characteristics of society, which is increasingly turning into a flexible, decentralized, transnational, network system. Capitalist globalization, they believe, has led to the establishment of a world system of domination, which is strictly determined by economic interests. Hardt and Negri call this decentralized flexible networked worldwide capitalist system the “empire”. Empire is a global system of capitalist domination. It is based on a crisis of sovereignty of nation-states, deregulation of international markets and the intervention of global police forces, as well as mobility, decentralization, flexibility and the network nature of capital and production.
Grassroots self-organization
The emergence of a decentralized global empire, according to Hardt and Negri, is hindered by a decentralized global protest movement that requires global participation and cooperation and more democratic, equitable and sustainable globalization. It is organized on the principle of network self-organization. For many activists, antiglobalism and its manifestations anticipate the emergence of a future society as an integrative and representative democracy. The movement expresses a desire for a society in which power does not determine the behavior of people. They define and organize themselves. The movement is directed against globalization from above by the formation of self-organized forms from below.
ATTAS
Probably the most famous group of anti-globalists is ATTAS (Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Assistance to Citizens), which exists in more than 30 countries. The organization believes that financial globalization creates less secure and less equal conditions for people, defending the interests of global corporations and financial markets. The main requirement of ATTAS is the introduction of a Tobin tax, a tax on foreign exchange transactions. The organization claims to represent tens of thousands of members in 40 countries.