Resources for Learning More about Social Movements and Culture

Chapter 9. Will the Revolution Be Cybercast? New Media, the Battle of Seattle, and Global Justice

Books and Articles

Appelbaum, Richard. P., and William I. Robinson, eds. Critical Globalization Studies. New York: Routledge, 2005. Collects many of the best essays focused on globalization theory and practice, including some from the perspective of grassroots activists.

Aronowitz, Stanley, et al. Implicating Empire: Globalization and Resistance in the 21st Century World Order. New York: Basic Books, 2003. Surveys a range of issues in the cultures of globalization and resistance to neoliberal globalization.

Bandy, Joe, and Jackie Smith, eds. Coalitions across Borders: Transnational Protest and the Neoliberal Order. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. Collection of case study essays examining the possibilities and difficulties of organizing movements across national boundaries.

Brecher, Jeremy, et al., eds. Globalization from Below: The Power of Solidarity. Boston: South End Press, 2000. Best general introduction to the forces of globalization and the movements arrayed against them. Especially good on practical organizing.

Fisher, William, and Thomas Ponniah, eds. Another World Is Possible: Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum. London: Zed Books, 2003. Excellent set of documents exemplifying some of the many alternatives to neoliberal globalization arising out of the World Social Forum meetings.

Kidd, Dorothy, and Bernadette Barker-Plummer, eds. “Social Justice Movements and the Internet.” Special issue, Peace Review 13, no. 3 (September 2001). Collects a number of fine studies of how the Internet has been used for and against global justice movements.

Mertes, Tom, ed. A Movement of Movements: Is Another World Really Possible? London and New York: Verso, 2004. Collection of articles by grassroots activists dealing with practice and theory of the movement for global justice.

Opel, Andy, and Donnalyn Pompper, eds. Representing Resistance: Media, Civil Disobedience, and the Global Justice Movement. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. Various essays assessing the pros and cons of mainstream media coverage of the global movement and the alternative media work done by the movement itself.

Shepard, Benjamin, and Ronald Hayduk, eds. From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization. London: Verso, 2002. Excellent essays by grassroots activists tracing the coalescence of progressive groups in the United States from the 1980s to the early twenty-first century.

Smith, Jackie, and Hank Johnston, eds. Globalization and Resistance: Transnational Dimensions of Social Movements. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Academic case studies surveying global movements from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.

Veltmeyer, Henry, ed. Globalization and Antiglobalization: Dynamics of Change in the New World Order. Aldershot, Hants, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. Focused especially on Asia and Latin America, this collection lays out the economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the current global system and its resisters.

Yuen, Eddie, et al., eds. The Battle of Seattle: The New Challenge to Capitalist Globalization. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2001. Collection of essays by activists debating issues surrounding the Seattle demonstrations and subsequent ones in Prague, Genoa, and elsewhere.

Multimedia

Another World Is Possible. Directed by Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young. Moving Images, 2002. Short, lively documentary on the World Social Forum 2002.

Fourth World War. Directed by Richard Rowley and Jacqueline Soohan. Big Noise Films, 2003. Explores the global justice movement at the grassroots on four continents.

Kilometer 0: The WTO in Cancun. A Global Indymedia coproduction, 2003. Collectively directed and edited documentary on the WTO protests in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003.

Showdown in Seattle. Big Noise Films, 1999. Five half-hour films shot and edited on location in downtown Seattle during the WTO protests; provides a day-by-day, street-level view of the actions. Can be streamed online.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like. Directed by Richard Rowley and Jacqueline Soohan. Big Noise Films, 2000. Battle of Seattle coverage synthesized from the longer Showdown in Seattle series.

Zapatista. Directed by Richard Rowley and Jacqueline Soohan. Big Noise Films, 1998. Documentary on the rise and evolution of the Zapatista rebellion and movement for indigenous rights in Chiapas, Mexico, that did much to inspire the global justice movement.

Websites

Art and Revolution. One of the key organizers of the Seattle protests, this political art and puppetry collective is a cultural force for direct action against neoliberal globalization and related issues.

Battle of Seattle. New Social Movement Network site with several articles analyzing the anti-WTO action.

CorpWatch. Resource center for tracking transnational corporate injustices and resistance to them.

50 Years Is Enough. Site of one of the key debt relief and egalitarian economic development alliances in the global justice movement.

Focus on the Global South. Key resource site for NGOs and direct action groups seeking justice for the southern hemisphere’s people.

Global Exchange. One of the major “fair trade,” anti-sweatshop organizations.

Independent Media Center. Links to Indymedia centers around the world; major alternative source of news from grassroots.

Mobilization for Global Justice. Washington, DC–based direct action support for global justice movement.

Peoples’ Global Action. One of the key groups coordinating direct action and other work against corporate globalization.

Ruckus Society. Training group for many of the bold and imaginative actions of the antiglobalization forces in the United States.

Third World Network. Major networking structure for Asian Pacific organizing against neoliberalism.

United for Peace and Justice. Key coalition of 1,300 U.S.-based groups working for global justice and peace in the Middle East.

United Students Against Sweatshops. U.S. branch of the important movement to stop exploitative labor in the global south and at home.

World Social Forum. The main networking organization of the movement against corporate globalization. The 2005 forum drew more than 135,000 participants from all over the world.

WTO History Project. Excellent, comprehensive site on the Battle of Seattle, including interviews, articles, documents, and photographs.

Zapatistas in Cyberspace. A guide to documents, art, films, analyses, and links about the Zapatistas who have done much to inspire and shape the global justice movement.

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