The global justice movement is a network of

globalized Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

social movements A social movement is a loosely 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 group action and ma ...

demanding

global justice Global justice is an issue in political philosophy arising from the concern about unfairness. It is sometimes understood as a form of internationalism. History Henrik Syse claims that global ethics and international justice in western traditi ...

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 are negative to current institutions of global economics such as the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

. 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-globalis ...

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

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

of communication and people and oppose only the global expansion of

corporate power In social science and economics, corporate capitalism is a capitalist marketplace characterized by the dominance of hierarchical and bureaucratic corporations. Overview A large proportion of the economy of the United States and its labour marke ...

. The term further indicates an anti-capitalist 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 that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

defence of

national sovereignty Westphalian sovereignty, or state sovereignty, is a principle in international law that each state has exclusive sovereignty over its territory. The principle underlies the modern international system of sovereign states and is enshrined in the Un ...

. 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 conceptualizing justice ''accommodative justice'' and argues that both the unique nature of the movement and the global complexities of the post-

Cold War era The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of Geopolitics, geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term ''Cold war (term), co ...

can be accounted for the rise of such 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 La Vía Campesina (from es, la vía campesina, ) is an international farmers organization founded in 1993 in Mons, Belgium, formed by 182 organisations in 81 countries, and describing itself as "an international movement which coordinates peasan ...

, 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 Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of third world debt by the year 2000. This movement coincided with the Great Jubilee, the celebration of the year 2000 in the Catholic Churc ...

, 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 A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

, trade unions, faith-based and peace groups, and publications such as ''

New Internationalist ''New Internationalist'' (''NI'') is an international publisher and left-wing magazine based in Oxford, England, owned and run by a worker-run co-operative with a non-hierarchical structure. Known for its strict editorial and environmental pol ...

''. 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 and global North. While the

World Social Forum The World Social Forum (WSF, pt, Fórum Social Mundial ) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemoni ...

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 Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...

, 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
Alter-globalization Justice Political philosophy Social movements Social justice

Movement of movements

International solidarity

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links