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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
In the wake of the terrorist attacks, the anti-globalization movement is trying to rein in violence -- and preparing for a hard road ahead
Sep 21, 2001 | The terrorist attacks last week that ripped apart the lives of thousands of people, New York's financial center, the U.S. economy and Americans' sense of security have done collateral damage in an unexpected place: the anti-globalization struggle.
As the third hijacked plane plowed into the Pentagon, spokespeople for a broad coalition of corporate globalization critics were preparing for a press conference to formally announce a week of protests during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in the last week of September. The groups involved -- drawn from labor, environmental, religious, world anti-poverty and anti-corporate movements, including the AFL-CIO, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Rainbow Coalition, Feminist Majority and dozens of others -- had planned to detail their demands, including canceling the debts of poor countries, fully funding international efforts against AIDS and blocking "fast track" trade-negotiating authority for President Bush.
From 50,000 to perhaps 100,000 protesters were expected to converge in Washington, where police had already planned a massive presence and a protective fence to keep them at bay. The two big international financial institutions -- long criticized for imposing policies on poor and developing countries that often worsened the plight of the majority -- had already cut back their meetings from a week to two days in anticipation of the protests, the latest in a series stretching from Seattle in late 1999 through many other sites, including Quebec last spring and Genoa, Italy, in June.
But the terrorist attacks overshadowed all that. The press conference never took place. By the end of last week all of the major organizations involved had called off their protests, and on Monday the World Bank and IMF officially called off their meetings. One separate strand of protesters, the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, still planned to meet and decide what, if anything, they would do, and another small group, the International Action Center in New York, called for holding a protest against war and racism on Sept. 30. But most of the mainstream protest groups either agreed to continue with only an educational conference or abandoned all actions.
The labor movement had already shifted its grass-roots mobilization effort from recruiting demonstrators to helping the victims in Washington and New York, where many union members were either killed in the attack or are prominently involved in the rescue effort. While the AFL-CIO and the Mobilization for Global Justice coalition called off the protests "out of respect for victims of the tragedy," they also remained steadfast, as labor federation president John Sweeney said, "in our conviction that the policies of the World Bank and the IMF must change if they are to foster a fair and just global economy."
Yet the terrorist attacks have clearly set back what participants call the movement against corporate globalization, or the global justice movement, at a time when its political momentum and popular support had been building. "It's an unimaginable tragedy," said Jobs With Justice director Fred Azcarate. "I don't think any of us knows how it will impact social movements."
It's clear, though, that anti-globalization groups face new hurdles. It's politically riskier to criticize the president and American international policies in a time of foreign conflict or war. And it will be harder even to put such arguments on the agenda: The nation's political leaders will be overwhelmingly focused on combating terrorism in the near future, especially if the Bush administration launches major military operations.
-The question of how best to respond to the terrorist attacks may also prove divisive. Some of the critics of corporate globalization, especially the loosely organized local and student groups, are likely to oppose any military actions. But many organizations, seeing issues of war and peace as beyond their mandate, are likely to remain silent. And others may support the use of force.
"I think the movement [against corporate globalization], like everyone else in the country, has been deeply affected by this," said Stephen Kretzmann, an organizer of the Mobilization for Justice. "Like everyone else, we're changed. I don't think in any way it reduces our commiment to global social and economic justice and racial equality. But the political landscape in America shifted at 8:42 in the morning last Tuesday. Some careful thought has to be given to how the movement goes forward."
