Global Justice Movements: Questions, Approaches, Answers Dieter Rucht Research Group „Civil Society, Citizenship and Political Mobilization in Europe“ Masarykova univerzita Brno, December 2, 2008

Questions What are the Global Justice Movements (GJMs)? How did the GJMs emerge and develop? What are the structures and strategies of GJMs? What is the impact of GJMs?

What is a social movement? A network of individuals, groups and organizations based on a sense of collective identity aiming at fundamental social change (predominantly) by means of collective and public protest

1. What are the GJMs)? Negatively defined: Social movements against neoliberalism and its negative side effects (marketization/commodification of public goods, withdrawal of the state, exploitation of human labor, environmental degradation, destruction of indigenous economies and cultures…) Positively defined: Social movements aiming at global justice, solidarity and democratization: „Another World is Possible“

The struggle over naming the movements Anti-globalization movement, anti-globals, mouvement antimondialiste = negatively loaded) - „global justice movements“ (Anglo-american) - „globalisierungskritische Bewegungen“ (German) - „mouvements altermondialistes“ (French)

2. How did the GJMs emerge and develop? The myth of Seattle 1999: The alleged birth of the GJMs

Protests before Seattle I I Tabelle 1: Ausgewählte globalisierungskritische Proteste bis Seattle (Dezember 1999) Protests before Seattle I I

Protests before Seattle II

Protests after Seattle I

Protests after Seattle II

Growth of Global Justice Events 1990-2005

3. What are the structures and strategies of GJMs?

Dimensions of transnational protest mobilization

Map of GJM Groups in Germany reformist moderate field Misereor, Brot für die Welt BUND unions church-based action groups Weed local NSM groups social fora Attac spontaneous Die Linke organised intermediary networks BUKO Linksruck SAV PGA FAU anti-systemical field radical

The Charter of Porto Alegre The charter of the principles was established after the first Social Forum of 2001 in Porto Alegre to perennialize the initiative and to establish a general control, according to federator principles which made the success of the Forum. The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humanking and between it and the Earth.

The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralized fashion, interrelates organizations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to built another world. The World Social Forum will always be a forum open to pluralism and to the diversity of activities and ways of engaging of the organizations and movements that decide to participate in it, as well as the diversity of genders, ethnicities, cultures, generations and physical capacities, providing they abide by this Charter of Principles. Neither party representations nor military organizations shall participate in the Forum. Government leaders and members of legislatures who accept the commitments of this Charter may be invited to participate in a personal capacity. Approved and adopted in São Paulo, on April 9, 2001, by the organizations that make up the World Social Forum Organizating Committee, approved with modifications by the World Social Forum International Council on June 10, 2001. http://www.portoalegre2002.org/default.html

World Social Forums

Geographical distribution of Indymedias

4. What is the impact of GJMs?

Number of articles on different campaigns in German newspapers

Proportion of thematic foci in German newspapers (per cent)

Evaluation of protesters in different campaigns in German newspapers

Content Analysis of Newspaper Coverage on Prague 2000

The foci of newspaper articles on the Prague event (per cent)

The space devoted to main themes in newspaper articles on the Prague event

Police actions as reported in newspapers (in percent)

Conclusion new generation of „progressive“ movements, but not a genuinely new type of movements „diversity instead of monotony“, plurality of movements participation, deliberation, consensus principle („horizontals“) tendency to stagnate in the north, open dynamics in the south differentiated impact: agenda setting: substantial policy effects: minor, most likely on „soft issues“ institutional effects: marginal