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Summary: The Anti-Globalization Manifesto!
Review: This provocative text is the work of an impressive collection of luminary scholars, writers, and environmental activists, all of whom have something important to contribute to the issue of economic globalization and how it is affecting the environment. This distinguished group of authors, including Jerry Mander, Ralph Nader, David Korten, John Cavanaugh, and Lori Wallach, have joined in a collaborative effort herein to render what is likely the single most definitive and sober critique of the current state of globalization as well as the rising tide of anti-globalization efforts across the planet. As the culminating product of a three-year effort by the International Forum on Globalization, the book can best described as being both painstaking and muckraking, providing a series of ten core requirements which must be instituted to make democratic societies sustainable; among which are equality, human rights, local decision-making, and of course, ecological sustainability. In the narrative, each is addressed in terms of both how they are affected by the globalization process as well as what kind of strategies work to counteract these untoward effects. Moreover, the individual contributors offer a series of quite specific collective strategies for combating and limiting the extent of corporate domination, and also discuss various alternative systems in the critical areas of energy, agriculture, transportation, and manufacturing. There is also a lively discussion pertaining to modes of political action to deconstruct and even destroy the World Trade Organization (WTO), as well its predecessor and corollary institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund or IMF. From the time of the creation of the post WWII international monetary system at Bretton Woods in 1944, through the institution of the World Bank, the IMF, and GATT, the rise of globalization has necessarily towed in its wake an increasing pressure both on the natural environment and the natural resources the corporate forces must dominate and control to continue its essential core function of international economic growth. With the rise of an organized opposition and a declaration of that organization's policies to systematically resist and counter the effects of the WTO, the anti-globalization forces around the world now have a formal manifesto for the systematic resistance to the forces of corporate sponsored economic globalization. Of course, given the fact that the existing corporate effort is so widespread, pandemic, and attractive to a variety of international corporate forces, any prospect for reversing the trend will be problematic indeed. Yet, given the potential for catastrophic consequences stemming from the movement toward the expanding influence of such global corporate enterprises, the authors argue that we would do well to try. This is an important book, one that arms the reader with an array of facts regarding what the so-called "New World Order" really means in terms of its potential impact on each us in every aspect of our lives, as individuals, as members of the local community, as consumers of necessary (and other) products, and as citizens of a nation and of the world at large. The scope of the change to come is immense, and it is obviously in the interest of each of us to better understand exactly what is at stake in terms of our lives, our freedoms as citizens, and our survival in a world increasingly endangered by reckless corporate activities that are destroying the biosphere. I highly recommend this book. Enjoy!
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Summary: Power to the People
Review: Unlike THE CASE AGAINST THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, an anti-globalization compilation put out by many of the same people who contributed to ALTERNATIVES TO ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION, this book is more slim and concisely articulated. If you are in any way interested in the debates surrounding democracy, ecology, sustainability, resource management, globalization, locatization, the environment, corportism, bio- and cultural-diversity, human rights, food security, job security, energy, transportion, manufacturing and the general measure of progress, this book is a must. I was particularly impressed with the way ALTERNATIVES was able to blend an argument for global regulations while at the same time stridently championing the rights of local, autonomous indigenous peoples. This is THE document for anyone interested in understanding globalization and its possible alternatives.
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