Resisting Globalization: Action & Critique

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, a community filling a gap that citizens, not just consumers, used to get elsewhere, whether from religion, whether from a sense of belonging in their community Behind these brand meanings is “a privatized concept of what used to be public”

Identities Identities in general consist of social relations and their representations, as seen from the perspective of one actor or another Not durable or encompassing attributes or persons or collective actors as such

Brands add value, but depend on image and reputation for success – making brands vulnerable to “brand bombing” Consider this satirical take on MasterCard’s promo line circulating on Twitter and other social networking sites after MasterCard suspended processing transactions for WikiLeaks: “Freedom of speech? Priceless. For everything else, there’s MasterCard”

The Yes Men’s counterhegemonic globalization – demanding justice for Bhopal victims Bhopal catastrophe: known as the world’s worst industrial disaster In December 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal began leaking gas and other chemicals that resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people 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 The plant was purchased by DOW in 2001

“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)

Introduction Global resistance Different worlds World Economic Forum World Social Forum Different worlds Corporate globalists Transformational imperative Economic democracy Global governance Building momentum

Chapter 1 - Critique of Economic Globalization Key ingredients and general effects Pillars of Globalization Beneficiaries of Globalization Bureaucratic expressions of globalization Conclusions

Chapter II - Ten Principles for Democratic & Sustainable Societies New democracy Susidiarity Ecological sustainability Common heritage Human rights Jobs/livelihood/employment Food security and food safety Equity Diversity Precautionary principle

Chapter III - Issues on Commodification of the Commons The process of privatizing, monopolizing, and commodifying common heritage resources and turning public services into corporate profit centers and the protection of this process within global trade agreements must be halted at once

Chapter IV - The Care for Subsidiarity: Bias Away from the Global Toward the Local Understanding subsidiarity subsidiarity: if democracy is based on the principle of popular participation, whenever a choice exists, local organization is preferred The road to the local