No Globalization Without Representation: U.S. Activists and World Inequality

Description

Amid the mass protests of the 1960s, another, less heralded political force arose: public interest progressivism. Led by activists like Ralph Nader, organizations of lawyers and experts worked inside the system. They confronted corporate power and helped win major consumer and environmental protections. By the late 1970s, some public interest groups moved beyond U.S. borders to challenge multinational corporations. This happened at the same time that neoliberalism, a politics of empowerment for big business, gained strength in the U.S. and around the world. No Globalization Without Representation is the story of how consumer and environmental activists became significant players in U.S. and world politics at the twentieth century's close. NGOs like Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen helped forge a progressive coalition that lobbied against the emerging neoliberal world order and in favor of what they called fair globalization. From boycotting Nestl� in the 1970s to lobbying against NAFTA to the Battle of Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization in the 1990s, these groups have made a profound mark. This book tells their stories while showing how public interest groups helped ensure that a version of liberalism willing to challenge corporate power did not vanish from U.S. politics. Public interest groups believed that preserving liberalism at home meant confronting attempts to perpetuate conservative policies through global economic rules. No Globalization Without Representation also illuminates how professionalized organizations became such a critical part of liberal activism--and how that has affected the course of U.S. politics to the present day. Cover No Globalization Without Representation Title Copyright Dedication CONTENTS List of Abbreviations Introduction Prologue. The Good Parts of the System to Beat the Bad PART I. DON’T BUY NESTLÉ 1. Of Big Business and Baby Bottles 2. A Strong Boycott Is One Way 3. From Grassroots Boycotters to Global Advocates 4. Evolving Global Responses PART II. A NEW INTERNATIONAL REGULATORY ORDER? 5. You Must Keep the Struggle Visible 6. A Mixture of Relief, Anger, Joy, Sadness 7. Our New Way of Global Organizing 8. The Limitations of Victories PART III. REVOLUTION WITHIN THE WORLD CAPITALIST SYSTEM 9. Economic “Freedom’s” Awful Toll 10. What’s This GATT? 11. An Independent Voice on Behalf of the Majority 12. A Coalescing Coalition PART IV. WE FOUGHT BIG AGAINST NAFTA AND LOST 13. What Do You All Export? 14. New Schisms and New Alliances 15. Our Job Is to Get Him to Bend in Our Direction 16. NAFTA Is the Future PART V. REBUILDING TO VICTORY IN THE 1990S 17. We Are All Asking, Where Are We? 18. Exposing the Entire Free-Trade Model 19. Derailing Fast Track 20. We Seem to Be Winning PART VI. YOU MUST COME TO SEATTLE! 21. Everybody Clear Your Calendars 22. Shut Down the WTO! 23. Battling in Seattle 24. A Messy Miracle Coda. A Multiheaded Swarm of a Movement Conclusion Notes Index Acknowledgments