The Globalization Movement: Points of Clarification By David Graeber

Chuck Munson chuck at tao.ca
Sun Nov 11 09:33:28 PST 2001


Patrick Bond wrote:
>
> >From Jo'burg, comrade Chuck, this is what I'd say is fatally flawed about
> this rap:
>
> a) failure to recognise the durability of the nation-state form (and its
> potential merits for poor and working people who make concrete demands for
> social change, and for their protection from the ravages of int'l capital);

I think we understand that. The anarchists in the anti-globalization have been speaking up about the need to add the state to the equation in our fight against globalization and neoliberalism. Those of us in the States have seen how quickly the majority of people can rally behind the state in times if crisis, but there is plenty of evidence that this support is quite shallow.


> b) underestimating the revolution in power relations at the international
> scale that would be required to allow the Hardt/Negri dream of a global
> social wage in our lifetimes (hence the need for a) above);

When I find a job, I'll have to go pick up a Hardt/Negri book so I can figure this point.


> c) propagating the view that the Zapatista-era Peoples Global Action was the
> basis for the contemporary struggle against neoliberalism (hence ignoring
> the previous 15 years of heightening class struggle across the South--and
> not merely the nod to the tactics as below, but more importantly, ignoring
> the *programmatic content* of those engaged in mass proto-socialist
> struggles in Korea, South Africa, Brazil and lots of places inbetween from
> the 1980s onwards); and

I'm well aware that there has been a heightened wave of class struggle across the Global South for several decades. This fact is lost on some in the anti-globalization movement who think that everything started with Seattle. But the Zapatista-era PGA network was very important in North America and Europe in providing some coherence to several anti-capitalist and anti-neoliberal tendencies that were growing. Of course the use of the Internet in a Net War context also helped this convergence of stuggles in North America, Europe, and Australia.


> d) the mistaken view that apparently post-fordist organisational models of
> organising (nearly entirely tactical in character) are any kind of
> replacement for what is ultimately needed, namely a left political party to
> take state power.

I think many of the activists in the movement reject the idea of a left political party taking power. Certainly, there are some Greens and socialists who have that goal. But there is a large fraction of the anti-capitalist movement in the First World that are anti-authoritarian and who seek change through direct action and grassroots democracy. Don't underestimate the political knowledge of those in the movement. We see all the time what happens to elements in the movement who try to play with the system. The current situation with the Green Party in Germany also serves as a harsh waring to those who hope that left political parties can provide an effective vehicle for progressive social change.


> But I hope you bring all your comrades down here next September, to convince
> us we're wrong, while joining in protest at the World Summit on Sustainable
> Development. There's a tiny black bloc emerging (the
> http://southafrica.indymedia.org site is probably where it'll raise its
> head). And there are some formal anarchist groups that put out
> Africa-oriented material (I'm sure you're in touch with them already).

Yes, I'm in touch with them. I'm not the world traveller type, but as an activist who used to do anti-apartheid activism, South Africa would be an interesting place to visit.

Chuck0



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