Introduction

The shifting scales of democratic political and social activity discussed in the previous sections have their grassroots expression in the contemporary movements and civic activism of the alternative globalization movement (AGM), also known as the “global justice movement” or “antiglobalization movement.” In broad strokes, the AGM is a global network of movements, made up of indigenous people, environmentalists, groups struggling over control of sustenance resources and public space, issue-based NGOs, trade unioners, anarchists, and various others. The common bond among this diversity of actors is their critique of neoliberalism and its accompanying models of free trade, privatization, market liberalization, and fiscal austerity, and their commitment to oppose its institutional agents-the IMF, WTO, and World Bank-by way of protest and direct action.