University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2004 The anti-corporate globalization movement: An exploration of its intellectual lineage. Ghada Chehade University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Chehade, Ghada, "The anti-corporate globalization movement: An exploration of its intellectual lineage." (2004). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3762. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/3762 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). 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The Anti-Corporate Globalization Movement: An Exploration of Its Intellectual Lineage By Ghada Chehade APPROVED BY: \ J. Wittebols 'Diesis Defense Chair V. Scatamburlo-D ’ Annibale*" Thesis Advisor P. Boin Departmental Reader T. Basok, Sociology & Anthropology Outside Reader Sept.22,2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Sines its “coming out party” which took place in Seattle during the 1999 protests against the WTO, the “anti-corporate globalization movement” has become the subject of investigation for scholars and activists alike. Some have suggested that the “movement” represented a taming point in history—one that signaled a departure from the single-issue and identity-politics focus which animated many “new social movements” of the 1970s and 1980s. Others have contended that the “movement”quintessentially was/is a “postmodern” phenomenon due largely to its decentralized,non-hierarchical form and its seeming lack of ideological coherence. Through a qualitative analysis of documents produced by actual activists involved in the anti-corporate globalization movement, this thesis explores its intellectual and historical lineage as well as its contemporary influences. m Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. GENESIS OF THE ANTI-CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT 1.1 Globalization and Anti-Globalization 8 1.2 Zapatistas as Catalyst 18 1.3 ‘Battle in Seattle ’ 23 II. INTELLECTUAL/THEORETICAL INFLUENCES ON THE ACGM 2.1 Radical Modernity 2.1.1 Marxism 27 2.1.2 Anarchism 29 2.1.3 Libertarian Socialism 3 2 2.2 Postmodemity/Postmodemism 2.2.1 History and Suppositions 3 5 2.2.2 New Social Movements 3 7 2.2.3 Identity Politics 3 9 2.3 Debates Between Advocates of Post-al Theory and NSMs and their Radical Modernist Critics 2.3.1 Class and Identity Politics 41 2.3.2 The End of Historical Metanarratives ? 46 III. RESEARCH FINDINGS 3.1 Methodology Explained 50 3.1.2 Benefits of Qualitative Analysis 52 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3.2 Form/Structure of ACGM 54 3.2.1 ACGM Strategies 57 3.3 ACGM Content 60 3.3.1 Anti-capitalism and/or the need for class-analysis 61 3.3.2 Social Change 66 3.3.3 Humanism/Universality 71 3.4 Towards a New Understanding of Radicalism and the ACGM 75 3.4.1 “Unity of Difference” 76 3.4.2 Employing Reform for Revolution 80 IV. CONCLUSION 85 ENDNOTES 93 BIBLIOGRAPHY 103 VITA AUCTORIS 114 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Finally,after years of disintegration and defeat on the Left, a new movement has erupted upon the political landscape. It is not organized around a single issue, identity based, or somehow “implicitly” radical. On the contrary, this movement directly attacks global capital's economic and political infrastructure with a radically democratic politics and a strategy of confrontation. It is bold, antiauthoritarian, and truly global. Chuck Morse (2003) New Formulation Vol. 2, No.l Morse's observations suggest that after decades of “leftist” retreat, years after the “end of history” proclamations and announcements about the “death of politics” and the “triumph of capitalism,” something is afoot. Just when it appeared as though the defeatist attitudes of disillusioned radicals of the past would allow capital to confirm that there was no alternative to its ubiquitous oppression, a voice of hope exploded across the globe. It is a voice that has dared to name the system—capitalism—which had been rendered virtually unintelligible by the dominant discourses which held sway for almost three decades (i.e. postmodernism, identity politics, etc.). It is a voice that dares to speak in universalistic tones, a voice that declares that another world is indeed possible for all of humanity—decades after narratives of emancipation had been deemed obsolete by the prophets of postmodernism. This global eruption goes bymany names and its exact origin is still highly debated. Its genesis will be chronicled in subsequent chapters, so too will its different names. However, for the purposes of this thesis, I adopt the title anti-corporate globalization movement (ACGM) to describe a social justice movement dedicated to combating (in many different and sometimes conflicting ways) the global spread of 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. corporate capitalism. While it will be argued in Chapter One that this movement has existed in the developing world for decades or perhaps even centuries, it made itself known in the West in Seattle 30 November 1999. As Danaher and Burbach (2000:7) claim, “November 30, 1999 marked a turning point in history.” On that day, tens of thousands of ordinary citizens, from all walks of life (labour, environmentalists, human rights activists, gay rights activists, feminists, student activists and various indigenous peoples etc...), took to the streets of Seattle to pursue the common goal of shutting down a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Howard Zinn (2000) notes, that in one crucial way Seattle wasa turning point in the history of the movements of recent decades—a departure from the single-issue focus of the 1970s and 1980s. In Seattle the common issue of class, here and all over the globe, bound everyone together. He states, It was, at the least, a flash of the possible. It recalled the prophecy of A. Philip Randolph in November of 1963, speaking to an AFL-CIO convention