Brief history of the alter-globalization movement

From March 26 to 30, the World Social Forum in Tunis will be held. If the scale of participation will be far from the records reached during the Forums held in Brazil (170,000 people in 2005, 130,000 in 2009), several tens of thousands of alters are expected for this meeting which intends to promote exchanges between a seasoned generation of anti-globalization activists coming from all continents and the progressive activists of the Arab Spring and the movements against austerity in the South of Europe.

The 1990s: the formation of a global movement

Four periods can be distinguished in the short history of alter-globalization. The first begins with the multiplication of local and national mobilizations against neoliberalism in all regions of the world in the mid-1990s. During this era, the anti-globalization movement was essentially organized, on the one hand, around international campaigns (such as that against third world debt), networks and meetings of activist intellectuals andNGO and counter-summits, on the other hand, on massive popular mobilizations at the local and national level, such as the “ water wars » in Bolivia, or of peasants throughout Asia.

In the mid-1990s, very diverse actors mobilized against neoliberal policies, denouncing in particular the growing influence of the World Trade Organization, the weight of Third World debt and the power of multinationals: indigenous movements, particularly publicized from the Zapatista revolt in Mexico, the “ water war » in Bolivia, the South African coalitions against privatization, the movements of small farmers in Asia and Latin America, united from 1993 in the global network Via Campesina, which today claims nearly 200 million members across the world ; unions, particularly mobilized in South Korea ; progressive intellectuals ; environmentalists ; the World March of Women ; libertarian activists and youth networks “ alter-activists “, hundreds ofNGO and tens of thousands of “ simple citizens “.

The emergence of this global movement made visible and connected numerous local and national struggles which, until then, were thought of as isolated and remained little visible abroad. During this stage, intellectual activists from the North and South played a fundamental role in drawing public attention to the damage of neoliberal policies, by developing arguments against the Washington Consensus and by increasing the number of meetings international. They founded networks that played a fundamental role in the movement like ATTACGlobal Trade Watch, the Transnational Institute, Focus on the Global South, Jubilee South. This era was also marked by the multiplication of “ counter-summits », around major meetings of international institutions. The anti-globalization mobilizations in Seattle in 1999 and the failure of the World Trade Organization summit had great symbolic significance and embodied the central message of anti-globalization: to “ simple citizens » can have an impact up to the highest level of international decision-making.

2001-2005: Social Forums at the heart of the movement

All these actors met at the first World Social Forum, organized in Porto Alegre (Brazil) in January 2001 and which marks the start of a new phase. Over the next five years, hundreds of Social Forums were organized at local, national, continental and global levels. Rather than opposition to an international institution which was at the heart of the counter-summits, the forums aim to encourage exchanges between activists from different parts of the world around the alternatives they are implementing. The first European Social Forum in Florence, the World Social Forum 2004 in Mumbai and the World Social Forum 2005 in Porto Alegre, which respectively brought together 50,000, 120,000 and 170,000 people, are among the greatest successes of anti-globalization, both at the level of popular mobilization and the exchanges that were created around different thematic spaces that in terms of organization, more open and horizontal than previous editions of the Social Forums.

Contrary to the predictions of many intellectuals, alter-globalization did not decline after September 11, 2001, but on the contrary experienced its greatest popular successes and a significant echo in public opinion and the media in the years that followed. Opposition to the war in Afghanistan and Iraq was a major axis of the movement between 2002 and 2004. The initiative for the global demonstration which brought together between 10 and 20 million people on February 15, 2003 was, for example, launched by the Social Forums. During this period, the Social Forums benefited from such popular and media coverage that progressive Latin American leaders regularly met there and even right-wing politicians or representatives of the World Bank wanted to participate. . This period also corresponds to the coming to power of progressive governments in Latin America.

2006-2010: Another geography

After 2005, several anti-globalization meetings had more mixed results. Although they showed the movement’s capacity to expand geographically and better integrate Africa, the World Social Forum “ polycentric » of 2006, held in Bamako, Caracas and Karachi, the FSM 2009 in Nairobi and the 2011 World Social Forum in Dakar did not keep all their promises. The number of participants has declined considerably (between 15,000 and 50,000 for each of these forums), the integration of popular organizations has often been more complicated. It was also during this period that certain networks that had been particularly dynamic until then disappeared (such as the “ Global Resistance Movement » of Barcelona which dissolved itself) or experienced internal problems from which they never completely recovered, as is the case ofATTAC in France or Wombles in England).

Paradoxically, the anti-globalization movement seemed to be in difficulty at the very moment when neoliberal ideology was increasingly questioned. During this period, however, the movement met with a certain success at least on three levels: a geographical extension in regions considered symbolic or strategic (Africa, the United States, the Arab world), convergences around the questions environmental issues and the delegitimization of the Washington Consensus.

Firstly, the dynamics of Social Forums has extended into regions considered symbolic or strategic. Sub-Saharan Africa has hosted three World Social Forums and dozens of continental or national Forums. 15,000 activists, mainly from the working classes, participated in each of the United States Social Forums in Atlanta (2007) and Detroit (2010) whose main discussions focused on racism, domestic workers, migrants, the right to the city or movements around food. But it is especially in the Arab world that Social Forums have multiplied. Seven international forums were, for example, organized there in October and November 2010. The 130,000 participants at the 2009 World Social Forum in Bélem also showed that the success of alter-globalization cannot be denied in Latin America, where several progressive regimes remain in power. power.

This Forum in the Amazon also illustrated the growing place taken by environmental themes within the alter-globalization movement. In December of the same year, anti-globalization activists and environmentalists were mobilized at the World Climate Summit in Copenhagen and in March 2010, the “ People’s Summit against Climate Change » brought together 25,000 people from 147 countries in Cochabamba, Bolivia, illustrating the contribution of indigenous people to the movement.

The economic and financial crisis that began in 2007 ultimately delegitimized neoliberal ideology. Negotiations for trade liberalizationWTO were a succession of failures in Seattle (1999), Cancun (2003), Hong Kong (2005) and Geneva (2008) and Latin American governments buried the Free Trade Area of ​​the Americas at the 2005 continental summit and set up a “ South Bank » which replaces the World Bank in the region. The first G20 meetings in 2008 targeted tax havens and even Nicolas Sarkozy affirmed that “ The ideology of the dictatorship of the markets and the impotence of public authorities died with the financial crisis “. The analyzes of the anti-globalizationists seemed confirmed by the crisis and their speeches found a new echo. However, a few years later, tax havens are still active, the IMF saw its budget tripled and from 2010 traders’ bonuses broke new records. The return of the State to save the banking sector was followed by austerity policies. Ideologically discredited, neoliberalism “ zombie » continues to guide economic policies, reminding anti-globalization activists that, however deep it may be, the crisis does not of itself generate a change in society. This depends on the capacity of social actors to give it meaning, to raise the questions posed by the historical situation and to put forward alternative political visions and economic rationality. The actors of the alter-globalization movement did not have the strength. Until a new generation of activists brought the debate to the front pages of the financial dailies.

Since 2011: A new generation

Between 2005 and 2010, the Arab world was the region where the greatest number of international social forums were held. It is from this region that a global wave of movements started in 2011. They denounced austerity policies, recalling that it was the excesses of finance and not that of social states which were at the origin of the crisis. Beyond the economic crisis, the “ indignant » and the movement « occupy » above all denounced the crisis of democracy. They rebelled against the lack of choice offered by the main parties of representative democracy, against inequalities and against collusion between “ 1% » the richest and political leaders. For the outraged and Occupy activists, democracy is not just a demand, it is also (and above all) a practice. The experimentation with direct, participatory and horizontal democracy in debates, processes and the organization of daily life was at the heart of their camps and their neighborhood assemblies.

Extremely publicized, the camps of the outraged and the movements “ Occupy » were also sporadic. However, they are only the tip of the iceberg. Faced with the crisis, against austerity policies, thousands of citizen initiatives are developing to overcome the structural limits of representative democracy, particularly in Europe. Movements for local and friendly food are expanding and converging with other social and solidarity economy initiatives. Networks of committed experts attempt to influence certain European policies and continue the long work of popular education around complex issues. Finally, demonstrations against austerity are increasing in Europe, but while these movements were coordinated at the continental or global level a decade ago, mobilizations against austerity follow one another but do not go beyond the national framework.