The global justice movement is a network of globalized

social movements A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of ...

demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “ corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of economic resources.

Movement of movements

The global justice movement describes the loose collections of individuals and groups—often referred to as a “ movement of movements”—who advocate fair trade rules and oppose current institutions of global economics such as the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

. The movement is often labeled the

anti-globalization movement The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...

by the mainstream media. Those involved, however, frequently deny that they are anti-globalization, insisting that they support the

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

of communication and people and oppose only the global expansion of corporate power. The term further indicates an

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...

and universalist perspective on globalization, distinguishing the movement from those opponents of globalization whose politics are based on a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

defence of

national sovereignty A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly or ideally) co ...

. It is, however, argued by some scholars of social movements, that a new concept of justice, alongside some old notions, underlies many critical ideas and practices developed in this movement. S. A. Hamed Hosseini coins this new mode of conceiving justice as ''accommodative justice'' and argues that both the unique nature of the movement and the global complexities of the post- Cold War era account for the rise of such a notion. According to him, "this new concept of justice has emerged from many activists’ experiences of and reflections on the complexities of globalization". Important organizational pillars of the movement are Via Campesina, the family farmers' international; Peoples' Global Action, a loose collection of often youthful groups (NB the apostrophe correctly indicates involvement of peoples, rather than people); Jubilee 2000, the Christian-based movement for relieving international debt; Friends of the Earth, the environmentalist international; and some think-tanks like Focus on the Global South and Third World Network, as well as some large internationalist and transnational trade union organisations. Participants include worldwide student groups, NGOs, trade unions, faith-based and peace groups, and publications such as '' New Internationalist''. A loose coordination of the movement is taking place on the Social Forums. However, although formal power is often situated in the global South, the resources of North-based NGOs give these disproportionate power to often informally marginalize popular organizations from the South.

International solidarity

The global justice movement claims to place a significant emphasis on transnational solidarity uniting activists in the

Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

and Global North. While the World Social Forum is supposed to promote an example of this emphasis, bringing activists together from around the world to focus on shared philosophy and campaigning, others, like South African politician Andile Mngxitama see the World Social Forum as mostly dominated by Northern NGOs, donors and activists, and argue that Southern representation is largely organized via Northern donors and their NGOs. Mngxitama also expressed that popular organizations in the global South are systematically marginalized or included in a deeply subordinated manner. For this reason, many grassroots movements in the South boycott the forum and the NGOs that gate-keep representation at the forum or, in some instance, actively oppose it as just one more space of domination.

Notes

External links

The Just Third Way

(n.d.: November, 2002?).
Turning the Trolls to Stone: Strategy for the Global Justice Movement
– by Starhawk, July 2003
Global-net for Global Movements? A Network of Networks for a Movement of Movements
by Donatella della Porta & Lorenzo Mosca. ''Journal of Public Policy'', 25, I, 165–190, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
What is the global justice movement?
, (n.d.).

by Michael Barker at Fifth-Estate-Online – International Journal of Radical Mass Media Criticism. February 2007
David Graeber's article on Infoshopnews, October 12, 2007
{{Social accountability Alter-globalization Justice Political philosophy Social movements Social justice

Movement of movements

International solidarity

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links