ABSTRACT
The anti-globalization movement that burst onto the global
scene after the late 1990s-from Vancouver to Bangalore, Seattle
to Genoa, Quebec to Cancun-and blossomed into a global so-
cial justice and eventually an anti-war movement, took some very
specific organizations as its central targets. The multifaceted
movement targeted global and transnational trade and finance
organizations and meetings of the world’s capitalist elite, all of
which were attempting a radical rewriting of the rules of global
trade, investment, and finance in favor of wealthy nations and
multinational corporations to the detriment of workers, poor
countries, indigenous peoples, women, and the environment. As
it exploded on the streets, the movement’s targets quickly prolif-
erated-the Davos forum for the global economic ruling class,
continental free trade organizations, the G-8 leadership sum-
mits-but in the beginning the primary targets were quite spe-
cific: the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank. By the same token,
when in 2002 and 2003 George W. Bush wanted global sanction
for his invasion of Iraq, it was the refusal of the United Nations
(UN) that attracted some of the most bilious diplomatic reaction
from an American president in the post-cold war era. The previ-
ous administration, Bush conservatives believed, had subcon-
tracted US foreign policy to the UN and it was now time to show
who was boss.
