No Logo by Naomi Klein

Purpose The Concerns: the aggressive corporate sponsorships and retailing on public and cultural life, both globally and locally by university students and social and environmental group leaders Intention: was to see if any of these concerns had anything to do with a larger anti-corporate movement, and to answer the question, what has set the stage for this backlash?

The Protests Seattle - World Trade Conference Genoa – G8 Birmingham – G8 Quebec City – Summit of the Americas Harvard University Reclaim the Streets – Global Street Party

Part I: No Space Companies are now competing to download the fastest, become “weightless” (p.4), owning as little as possible, employing the fewest employees, and producing the most powerful images.

What these corporations produce is an image; their real work is in marketing not in production.

Part II: No Choice Multinationals achieve consolidation through: price wars in which these big stores undersell all of their competitors blitzing out the competition by placing stores in franchise clusters and controlling a market in a given area the arrival of the flagship superstore, that buys and occupies prime real estate and acts as a three dimensional ad for the particular brand

As corporations move to merge and to synergize, what the consumer is left with however, is the severe limitation of choice.

Part III: No Jobs The actual manufacturing process has become so de-valued and is much of the reason why many of these corporations now bypass production completely and out source the manufacturing. They close factories, shift to jobs, and move off shore, where living wages, the environment and working conditions are not a concern. The manufacturer is no longer responsible for their workforce.

Generally people may have become disillusioned with the invasive advertising, monopolistic practices, and the corporate takeover of public space, but what has really sparked their interest in protesting is that in the same space that these corporations are doing these things, and bankrolling their image, they are slashing jobs.

Part Four: No Logo All over the world, there has been a crackdown by the establishment to eliminate graffiti, regulate panhandling, community gardens, squeegee kids, and to rapidly criminalize everything at street level. Out of this struggle between the commercialization and criminalization of the street, has emerged one of the fastest growing movements in the anti-corporate/anti- establishment movements.

This movement is much more than an economic battle. Economic sanctions and boycotts represent only part of the protest. It is a battle for democracy and political purpose as well. The challenge for activists is to make the general public aware of the many causes of the protest.

“When we start looking to corporations to draft our collective labor and human rights coded for us, we have already lost the most basic principle of citizenship: that people should govern themselves” (p. 441). -G8, NAFTA, APEC, WTO etc.

Afterword - Post Sept 11 Activists have found themselves, especially in North America, unable to vocalize the failings of the global economy without sounding unpatriotic. As well, many North Americans have given their governments unprecedented powers in suspending civil liberties, tax concessions to corporations, new trade deals and new privatization plans, over fear and uncertainty of other terrorist threats and attempts.

What the activists must do is not focus on anti-globalization, but focus on multilateralism, offering a viable solution to the world’s problems.

The activists have, “fed off our opponents symbols – their brands, their office towers, their photo-opportunity summits…. But these symbols were never really targets; they were the levers, the handles. The symbols were only ever doorways. It’s time to walk through them” (p. 458).

You will never look at the world the same way again!