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How Trump’s neoliberal agenda is destroying democracy
GlobalizationThe evolution of neoliberal policies since the 1980s is highly correlated with the decline of democracy in America. Democratic norms, practices, rights and civil liberties, and even institutions of government, have been in atrophy and decay over the period. Moreover, the decline has accelerated in recent decades as neoliberalism became more aggressive in implementing its policy objectives as opposition to it—both domestic and foreign—has intensified. The attack on democracy has risen to a qualitatively new stage in the era of Trump.
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We’re still waiting for a trade deal that benefits working people
GlobalizationThe proposed replacement of NAFTA, now known as the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), remains a tool for corporate interests and provides insufficient relief to address the problems for working people embedded in the original agreement. At their core, these trade agreements serve to guarantee corporate investments in foreign countries and stop elected governments from passing measures that might impact corporate profitability while offering no real guarantees to workers in exchange.
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How privatization became the economic dogma of our time
GlobalizationBased on the notion that the private market can always do things better, the doctrine of privatization has become so pervasive that it is rarely questioned or challenged, becoming a driving force in our politics. The benefits of privatization are routinely asserted with great confidence, although rarely with any proof. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite: that privatization is costing us dearly in financial terms. It is also diminishing our collective power to own and control key aspects of our economy, our country and our lives.
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Remembering Seattle: Class, Globalization, and the State
GlobalizationThe protest in Seattle demonstrated the power of a convergence of class and new social movement politics but without a plan to seize state power the left will always be reactive. The lessons of Seattle are the power of solidarity but also the power of the state. Protests are empowering, they generate solidarity, but they can only slow down capital momentarily.
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What Democracy Looks Like: Reflections on Trauma, Protest, and Quebec City, 2001
GlobalizationI left Quebec City with the knowledge of how far my government would go tosilence us. And I am a coward. So I have never participated in another protest since that weekend in April 2001. I lost my faith in elected governments. I lost my faith in direct action. I lost my faith, in some ways, in social change. Maybe I just grew up. I try to keep fighting, but Quebec City changed me forever. It turns out that was what democracy looks like.
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Anti-Globalization and its Discontents
GlobalizationUnless the socialist Left throws itself wholeheartedly into its activities and debates, it will not receive a hearing during this or probably any future wave of radicalization. Ahead of us all is the unmet challenge – the construction of a new International of Hope, which fires the imagination and mobilizes the energies of millions of people in the struggle against capitalist barbarism and for socialism.
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From anti to alter-globalization
GlobalizationAlthough the historic alterglobalization moment has now passed, its ideas and achievements continue to inspire and we can detect its legacy in new forms of resistance and networking, such as the Great Transition conference and the World Social Forum on Transformative Economics, among many other events and developments. It is still too early, however, to hail the rise of an Alterglobalization 2.0.
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Twenty Years After Seattle: Dispensing with Myths
GlobalizationOver the last two decades, counterproductive myths have developed around the Battle of Seattle. Now is a good time to dispense with them. One way to do this is to revisit the history from the perspective of those who were involved in organizing the mass direct action. I was one among them – at that time, a 22 year-old activist living in Olympia, Washington. Along with dozens of others, I helped found the Direct Action Network (DAN) and spent months organizing for the protests.
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Global Economic Volatility and Socio-Political Reactions
Economic CrisisTrade and currency wars, financial volatility and economic turbulence are now the most important features of the world economy. The elements of a new international financial crisis are in place. Although we do not know when it will break out, it is unavoidable, and its impact on world economy will be as significant as the 1880s-90s, 1930s-40s and more recent 2008-09 meltdowns.
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As Germany greenlights Huawei, US has lost its 5G war
GlobalizationOn Monday, the news broke that Germany would not be excluding Huawei from participating in its fifth-generation (5G) internet networks. With the country’s new “security catalog” being released, setting out rules and guidelines to ensure safety in the building of the network, no formal bans or exclusions of individual vendor companies were specified, giving the Shenzhen telecommunications firm the green light.
