ABSTRACT
Introduction One of the most interesting developments in contemporary global politics is without doubt the recent emergence of an Alternative Globalisation Movement (AGM). Described as a ‘movement from below’, the AGM brings together a diverse range of social movements, NGOs and traditional political groupings (including trade unions and political parties) to form a united bloc of international resistance to the forces of globalised neo-liberalism – primarily the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the G8 – which are collectively accused of spreading inequalities, eroding social entitlements, exploiting developing countries and destroying the world’s environment (della Porta et al., 2006; della Porta and Tarrow 2004). The AGM is generally believed to have had its ‘aggregative’ moment in Seattle in November 1999 when a WTO meeting scheduled to launch a new wave of market liberalisation (the Millennium Round) was greeted with mass protest (della Porta et al., 2006: 1-7). Since Seattle the AGM – described by Paterson (chapter 4) as ‘the alter-globalisation movement’ and by others as ‘the Global Justice Movement’ or ‘the Movement for Globalisation from Below’ – has witQHVVHG VLJQL¿FDQW H[SDQVLRQ DQG FRQVROLGDWLRQ ,Q SDUWLFXODU LW KDV GHYHORSHG numerous transnational ‘social forums’ which meet regularly to coincide with the summits of the forces of neo-liberal globalisation (i.e. counter-summits) and to devise strategies for the realisation of an ‘alternative globalisation’ which is conducive rather than destructive of social life across the planet.
