A. Campaigns for Social and Economic Justice

A significant part of the repertoire of nonviolent resistance, such as pickets, strikes and boycotts, derives from movements for economic justice in the past. Strikes became widespread in the evolving trade union movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although there are much earlier examples of workers’ striking for their rights.

Strikes have also often been used to win political goals, such as the right to vote, or as part of nationwide struggles against repressive government – for many examples see Volume I of this Guide (available at: http:// civilresistance.info). But in industrialized and highly unionized countries economic strikes (sometimes supported by sympathetic action by other workers), became a part of the bargaining between unions and employers, though right wing governments have succeeded in imposing restrictions on the legal right to strike. Very many strikes since 1945 have not been either of central political significance or important examples of civil resistance. One exception has been strikes by those suffering discrimination, who are non-unionized or not well supported by trade union leaders. A number of strikes by women workers in the 1960s and 1970s in Britain (by cleaners, non-unionized Asian workers and the Ford Dagenham women’s strike for equal pay) fall into this category. These are covered under Feminist Movements (F.1.b.).

As a result, however, of the move away from heavy industry and the dominance of neoliberal ideology and policies since the 1980s, trade unionism has been weakened in the west – especially in Britain and the USA. So strikes and protests by low paid workers, who may not be guaranteed a fixed minimum of hours at work, have become a new arena for struggle. As a result of the processes of globalization workers in developing countries forced to accept low pay and bad conditions can potentially be supported in their protests by transnational action. Because the economic and movement context changed, this kind of concerted action became more widespread from the 1990s (see sub-section A.5.).
The unemployed cannot exert pressure by withdrawing their labour, but in various times and places they have responded by extended protests demanding government action (or opposing government policies promoting unemployment) – for example during the 1930s Depression the ‘Hooverville’ tent city of the unemployed in Washington DC and the Hunger Marches in Britain. Sometimes those without work have attempted creative solutions, such as occupying factories which have been closed down and running them under the control of the workers (see A.1.b.ii.)

Refusal to pay high rents has long been a tactic of both the rural and urban poor. Recent campaigns against high rents are covered in sub-section A.2. Struggles against forced evictions of the poor in cities are shaped by national circumstances but also in more recent years reflect a global trend towards ‘slum clearance’ to give scope to developers and/or to build facilities for international sporting events (A.2.b). The problem of landlessness, and organized campaigns to extend land ownership are particularly associated with dynamic movements in Latin America, but movements confronting the same problem have arisen also in Asia and Africa (the theme of A.3.).

Local struggles for economic justice have been increasingly affected by economic globalization. Global forces can be the target of urban and land campaigns, but the impact of globalization is even more clearly related to local campaigns against multinational corporations engaged in logging, mining and oil extraction, or selling products which have harmful consequences (examined in sub-section A.4). Globalization does, however, open up possibilities for transnational action to provide solidarity for those most oppressed – campaigns related to the garment industry are a key example (A.5.)

Concerted resistance in many parts of the world marked the ‘Anti-Globalization’ or ‘Global Justice’ Movement which was widely publicized by the demonstrations in Seattle in December 1999 against a meeting of the World Trade Organization. Transnational protests at summits of international bodies promoting a neoliberal global economic order – such as the WTO, IMF, G8, North American Free Trade Agreement – highlighted the scale of this resistance. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment, which promoted stringent policies on debt repayment on the poorest countries, also prompted summit protests (Jubilee 2000 in London), and the World Bank, which provided finance for controversial projects such as dams, has been another target. But the most important resistance to neoliberal policies, such as privatization of water and energy and other key state services, occurred at local and national levels in Africa, Asia, and most dramatically in Latin America. The Global Justice Movement (sub-section A.6) prompted a large literature and became associated with movements for land and against multinationals in many parts of the world. There have also been significant struggles in Africa, Asia and in Latin America against policies of privatization, encouraged by ‘free trade’ agreements and often a condition of IMF and other international financial support (sub-section A.7.) But in its specific organizational form of contesting summits of prominent neoliberal bodies, and annual conferences of its own counter-international, the World Social Forum (and regional bodies) it lost some of its momentum after 2005, especially in the west.

The next wave of western protests against global economic policy was precipitated by the banking crisis of 2008 and resulting deep economic depression. Although sparked by national disasters, these movements – the Indignados and Occupy were prominent – also had a transnational dimension, influencing campaigners elsewhere and infused with awareness of the global nature of the crisis and its causes. Sub-section A.8. covers these protests.

A wide-ranging and radical approach to challenging neoliberal austerity policies, and the whole capitalist system with its destructive ecological and social effects, is discussed in:

Wee, Cecilia ; Schoenenbach, Janicke ; Arndt, Olaf, Supramarkt, Sparsnas Sweden, Irene Publishing, 2015, pp. 511

'SUPRAMARKET tries to provide those who want to see themselves as "disobedient consumers" with a "toolkit" with which one can crack the "fatal forces" of the "capitalocene" - the age in which capital determines everything - and reclaim their energy reserves in our collective favour.' (Olaf Arndt, p. 27)

A.1. Campaigns by Workers

Introduction

The move towards a global neoliberal economy from the 1970s has created new problems for trade unions. One logical response has been to try to maintain and extend international solidarity between unions (though sometimes national economic interests may be in conflict) and to extend transnational cooperation between trade unions and social movements. A second important response has been to focus on creating local solidarity: in the move towards ‘community unionism’ workers have cooperated with local civil society groups, and often other unions, to support activism by a vulnerable workforce. For analyses of both responses see:

The New Faces of the Unions, Red Pepper, 2018, pp. 14-34

Analysis of the new small unions that are mobilizing workers not previously organized, such as domestic workers (often migrants), and older unions extending their reach to cover young workers in fast food chains, delivering food or driving for Uber. The contributors discuss what is distinctive about the style of the unionism - for example its decentralised leadership and willingness to en gage in occupations, and its support from other campaigning groups. The focus is on the UK but within a context of global solidarity with similar campaigns. There is also a timeline from 2008 to 2018 highlighting key struggles including by the long established major unions.

Uber Drivers of the World, Unite, New Internationalist, 09/04/2019,

This article, drawing on material from the online socialist publication Notes from Below, focuses on the increasing reliance of capitalism today, with the growth of internet retail and the 'gig' economy, on transnational supply chains, and migrant workers. It starts by noting the disruptive effects of the French 'Yellow Vests' demonstrations blocking roundabouts on such chains. It also comments on how Italian grass roots unions Si Cobas and ADL have since 2008 used strikes and blockades to target the chain of distribution centres., leading to the arrest of the national coordinator of Si Cobas in 2017, and how workers in Amazon distribution centres in Italy, Spain and Germany have coordinated strike action. Concludes by noting how Uber drivers, mostly migrants, communicating via mobile phones have coordinated resistance. (See 'The wave of worker resistance in European food platforms 2016-7', Notes from Below, Jan 2018, nin.tl/FoodPlatforms)

Banks, Andy, The Power and Promise of Community Unionism, Labor Research Review, Vol. 1, issue 18, 1991, pp. -17

Discusses the ‘Justice for Janitors’ campaign in Los Angeles from 1986-1990 and success in reaching out to the immigrant community.

Bieler, Andreas ; Lindberg, Ingemar, Global Restructuring, Labour and the Challenges for Transnational Solidarity, London, Routledge, 2011, pp. 280

A range of transnational case studies, including cooperation between unions in developing and developed countries, illustrate problems and possibilities of solidarity.

Fine, Janice, Community Unions and the Revival of the American Labor Movement, Politics and Society, Vol. 33, issue 1, 2005, pp. 153-199

Giagnoni, Silvia, Creating a Beacon of Hope for All Workers, Peace News, 2017, pp. 8-10

Examines how the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in a Florida town provide a model of how to achieve greater justice for migrant workers in agriculture. when combating major retail corporations and in the context of exploitation and sometimes modern slavery, which CIW exposed. CIW workers are not only paid better as a result of their campaign, but the Fair Food Standards Council they promoted regularly checks working conditions and hold farmers to account. They have also prompted the Fair Food Program which growers join, and enlisted support from across US society - including a range of religious groups, artists and musicians, as well as food writers. The movement is committed to nonviolent protest on the model of the Civil Rights movement.

Greenwood, Ian ; McBride, Jo, Community Unionism: A Comparative Analysis of Concepts and Contexts, Basingstoke, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009, pp. 264

Explores the diverse meanings of community unionism, provides case studies from the UK – the ‘London’s living wage’ campaign, and activism by black and minority workers and migrant workers – and from Japan, Australia and the US.

Woods, Alex, Winning at Walmart, Red Pepper, 2013, pp. 45-47

On the campaign by OUR Walmart against the retail giant in USA in 2012, when non-unionized workers mobilized across the country with support from local communities, using blockades as well as brief strikes.

A.1.a. Selected Strikes

This sub-section concentrates on a few nationally significant strikes, starting with the strike by the Californian grape pickers for minimum economic justice and full union representation. It also covers a strike with major political implications, the 1984-85 British miners’ strike to defend their industry and jobs against extensive pit closures. Strikes have occurred in many parts of the world resisting privatization (for example successive strikes by South Korean rail workers since the early 2000s) and other neoliberal economic policies; these fall under sub-section A.7.

One recent strike of national significance that qualifies for this section is the 2012 Marikana platinum mine workers’ strike in South Africa. This was politically important because the wild cat strike for higher wages demonstrated disillusion with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), seen as too close to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and accused of selling out to the mine owners. The strikers refused representation by the NUM. The strike led to an alternative union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union. Above all Marikana made headlines round the world when on 16 August 2012 (after several days of demonstrations in which eight miners and two policemen were killed) police shot 34 striking miners – widely compared to the mass killings of the apartheid era.

A.1.a.i. California Grape Pickers' Strike and Boycott Campaign, 1965-1970

This was an important strike by the very poor and marginalized Chicano (Mexican American) workers, supported by wider union action to boycott handling grapes and by a consumer boycott, so it has attracted widespread interest on the left. Because of the emphasis on maintaining nonviolence, especially by the leading figure Cesar Chavez, it is also well covered in books on nonviolent action.

Bardacke, Frank, Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers Union, London and New York, Verso, 2011, pp. 840

Very detailed account and analysis by former civil rights activist who also worked in the fields for six seasons 1971 and 1979, charting contradictions within the movement and the role of Chavez, based on hundreds of field reports and first hand experience.

Dalton, John Frederick, The Moral Vision of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement, New York, Harcourt Brace, 1988, pp. 350

Day, Mark, Forty Acres: Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers, New York, Praeger, 1971, pp. 222

Ferris, Susan ; Sandoval, Ricardo, The Fight for the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers Movement, (Foreword by Gary Soto), New York, Harcourt Brace and Co, 1998, pp. 352

Well documented and illustrated account of movement.

Jenkins, Craig, The Politics of Insurgency: The Farm Workers Movement in the 1960s, New York, Columbia University Press, 1985, pp. 261

Levy, Jacques, Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa, New York, W.W. Norton, 1975, pp. 546

Merriman, Hardy, Californian Grape Workers’ Strike and Boycott 1965-1970, In Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), Boston, Porter Sargent, pp. 173-187

Orosco, José-Antonio, Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence, Albuquerque, NM, University of New Mexico Press, 2008, pp. 160

Rosales, Francisco Arturo, Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, Houston TX, Arte Publico, 1997, pp. 304

Rose, Margaret, Women Power Will Stop these Grapes: Chicana Organizers and Middle Class Female Supporters in the Farmworkers’ Grape Boycott in Philadelphia, 1969-70, Journal of Women's History, issue Winter, 1995, pp. 8-33

Taylor, Ronald B., Chavez and the Farm Workers, Boston, Beacon Press, 1975, pp. 342

Includes assessment of impact of grape pickers’ strike on immigrant labour in other industries.

See also:

Marshall Ganz, Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organisation, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movements, (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements)

A.1.a.ii. British Miners' Strike, 1984-85

The miners’ strike to defend their industry against extensive pit closures was also a highly politicized conflict between the National Union of Mine-workers (under the leadership of Arthur Scargill) and the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher. Scargill hoped to repeat the success of the NUM in the early 1970s in undermining the then Conservative government, and Mrs Thatcher was determined to force the miners into surrender. The strike, which the miners eventually lost, saw a government assault on civil liberties and high levels of tension, animosity, and sometimes violence between police and strikers, and was a turning point in industrial relations in Britain. The strike was in due course undermined by a breakaway regional miners’ union who distrusted the NUM leadership, and the legitimacy of the strike was questioned because there had not been a national strike ballot. At the time the Coal Board and the Government stated that they only planned to close 20 pits, but Scargill claimed that the real goal was to close 70 pits: release of previously classified government information early in 2014 under the 30 year rule proves that Scargill was correct and the government lied at the time. The coal industry has been largely destroyed. The significance of the miners’ strike, and the implications of the miners’ defeat for British trade unionism, is suggested by the large number of books and pamphlets it generated, some of which are listed below. A documentary film, ‘Still the Enemy Within’, directed by Owen Gower, 113 minutes, was released in 2014. Another film released in 2014, ‘Pride’, was the fictionalized account of a true story: the links formed between the London-based group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners and a Welsh mining community and local NUM between 1984-85.

One unexpected and more positive by product of the strike was that it mobilized many women in the mining communities (not previously active in industrial disputes) to organize support for the strikers and play a more prominent role locally (see section F.1.b). The continuing significance of police methods during the strike was reflected in the 12 June 2015 Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) Report on police tactics and alleged misconduct during the violent confontation with thousands of pickets at the Orgreave coking plant. The report accepted that mounted police charged without warning and miners threw missiles in response, and that some police used excessive violence. The report also found that some officers committed perjury (evidence of this led to the 1985 acquittal in court of 95 miners charged with riot and unlawful assembly). But despite criticism of senior police officers in South Yorkshire, the IPCC decided not to launch a formal investigation.

Beynon, Huw, Digging Deeper: Issues in the Miners’ Strike, London, Verso, 1985, pp. 280

Callinicos, Alex ; Simons, Mike, The Great Strike: The Miners’ Strike of 1984-5 and its Lessons, London, Socialist Worker, 1985, pp. 256

Coulter, Jim ; Miller, Susan ; Walker, Martin, State of Siege: Miners’ Strike 1984: Politics of Policing in the Coal Fields, London, Canary Press, 1984, pp. 240

Critique of policing methods.

Francis, Hywel, History on Our Side – Wales and the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, Swansea, Parthian Books, 2009, pp. 96

(new edition in preparation)
Account of how the strike developed differently in Wales from other parts of Britain, and grew into a national movement involving community groups, churches and Welsh nationalists and fostered a greater national consciousness with a lasting impact on Welsh politics.

Goodman, Geoffrey, The Miners’ Strike, London, Pluto, 1985, pp. 224

Examines why the strike failed and the role of key institutions and the pickets. Includes a chronology.

Kelliher, Diarmaid, Solidarity and Sexuality: Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners 1984-5, History Workshop Journal, Vol. 77, issue 1 (spring), 2014, pp. 240-262

Among the many groups that sprang up to offer financial support and solidarity to the miners was the London- based Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners. This article charts support offered by LGSM and discusses wider implications for the movement on the left.

McCabe, Sarah ; Wallington, P., The Police, Public Order and Civil Liberties: Legacies of the Miners’ Strike, London, Routledge, 1988, pp. 209

Milne, Seumas, The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners, London, Verso and Pan, 1995, pp. 511

Parker, Tony, Red Hill: A Mining Community, [1986], London, Faber and Faber, 2013, pp. 236

Eyewitness accounts (from different perspectives) of impact of strike on community.

Samuel, Raphael ; Bloomfield, Barbara ; Boanas, Guy, The Enemy Within: Pit Villages and the Miners’ Strike of 1984-5, London, Routledge, Kegan and Paul, 1986, pp. 260

Collection of first-hand accounts, interviews, letters, speeches etc.

Saunders, Jonathan, Across Frontiers: International Support for the Miners’ Strike, London, Canary, 1989, pp. 288

Winterton, Jonathan ; Winterton, Ruth, Coal, Crisis and Conflict: The 1984-85 Miners’ Strike in Yorkshire, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1989, pp. 360

A.1.a.iii. Strike by Marikana Platinum Miners, August 2012

The political significance of the Marikana strike was noted above. The miners’ demonstrations from August 10 to August 16 led to increasing tension – on August 11 National Union of Mineworkers officials fired on the crowd, on August 12 the strikers were attacked by police with rubber bullets and on August 13 police fired on demonstrators who refused to hand over their own weapons, a clash that led to two deaths on each side. The miners tried to avoid violence spreading into the local community and the looting of shops by individuals taking advantage of the situation (as had happened in an earlier strike): when challenged by NUM officials on August 11 they moved to high ground some distance from their homes.

The police shooting of 34 miners occurred on August 16. The day after the shooting, wives of the miners demonstrated, claiming that the police shot first and demanding those responsible should be identified and punished.

Civil society groups, for example Citizens 4 Marikana, have rallied to demand the police to be held to account, support the bereaved families and provide legal representation. An official enquiry, which did not include any civil society representatives, was launched in October 2012. The report, finally published in June 2015, absolved senior political figures, but did question the role of the national police chief, criticize police tactics and recommend that police involved in the shootings be investigated for criminal liability. The Marikana strike, and the government’s response, has been widely covered by the press and other media, but has not yet resulted in a large literature. But some references are listed below.

Alexander, Peter ; Sinwell, Luke ; Lekgowa, Thapelo ; Mmope, Botsang ; Xezwi, Bongani, Marikana: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer, Johannesburg, Jacana Media, 2013, pp. 144

Interviews with strikers who took part in protests and written from their viewpoint.

Chinguno, Crispen, Marikana and the Post-Apartheid Workplace Order, Working Paper 1, Braamfontein, Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, 2013, pp. 40

See also: Chinguno, Crispen , Marikana Massacre and Strike Violence Post-Apartheid Global Labour Journal, 2013, pp. 160-166

Jika, Thanduxolo ; Mosamo, Sebabatso ; Sadiki, Leon ; Saba, Athandiwe ; Ledwaba, Lucas ; Dlangamandla, Felix, We Are Going to Kill Each Other Today: The Marikana Story, Cape Town, Cape Town, Tafelberg, 2013, pp. 256

Account by City Press reporters and photographers, supplemented by edited evidence from official Enquiry, and including analyses of labour migration.

Pillay, Pearl, The Marikana Massacre: ‘the sub-altern cannot speak', The Broken Rifle, issue 98 (December), 2013

Brief article which details evolution of strike from 10-16 August.

Pope-Weidemann, Marianna, We Cry Together, Red Pepper, 2018, pp. 31-32

Article on grass roots women's organisation Sikhale Sonke demanding prosecutions and compensation for 2012 shooting of workers during the strike. The women had campaigned for five years against Lonmin and the government, as well as confronting deep seated discrimination against women in their society. War on Want has backed the women as part of a renewed campaign in the UK to offer solidarity.

Sikhale Sonke is also the subject of a documentary film 'Strike a Rock', from the 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival, that focuses on the struggle and friendship two women following the 2012 Marikana Massacre where 37 striking miners were killed by police.

Twala, Chitja, The Marikana Massacre: A Historical overview of the Labour Unrest in the Mining Sector in South Africa, Southern African Peace and Security Studies, Vol. 1, issue 2, 2013, pp. 61-67

A.1.b. Protest by the Unemployed

Case, Benjamin, Riots as Civil Resistance: Rethinking the Dynamics of "Nonviolent' Struggle, Journal of Resistance Studies, Vol. 4, issue 1, 2018, pp. 9-44

Scholarly article challenging the dichotomy between violence and nonviolence, and arguing that civil resistance literature tends to focus on violence as warfare. The author suggests 'unarmed collective political violence' such as destruction of property and fights with police or opponents are frequently part of civilian resistance movements and that this reality should be examined. The article focuses in particular on unarmed violence in the January 2011 revolution against Mubarak in Egypt, and argues that it qualifies as civil resistance because of its civil character and that riots 'reacted dynamically' with more specifically nonviolent mobilization.

See also: Craig S. Brown, ‘‘’Riots’’ during the 2010/2011 Tunisian Revolution: A Response to Case’s Article in JRS, Vol. 4 Number 1' in Journal of Resistance Studies, Vol. 4. No. 2, pp. 112-31.

Darwiesh, Marwan ; Rigby, Andrew, The Internationalisation of Nonviolent Resistance: The case of the BDS campaign, Journal of Resistance Studies, Vol. 4, issue 1, 2018, pp. 45-71

Two experts on Palestine discuss what factors can increase the impact of international solidarity in aiding resistance struggles. They focus on the Palestinian-inspired Boycott Divestment and Sanctions and compare it with the earlier global anti-apartheid movement, analysing key factors that gave the latter significant leverage. They conclude by stressing the need for a dynamic relationship between internal resistance and external solidarity.

A.1.b.ii. Factory Occupations

A nationwide movement of workers’ seizing and running factories may be part of a wider revolution, as in Russia in 1917, or potentially revolutionary movement, as in Italy 1918-1920. A recent example is the occupation of factories in Argentina as part of the popular resistance and organization from below in response to the collapse of the Argentine economy in November 2001 (covered in detail in Volume I of this bibliography, Section E. IV. 2.b.). As the economy recovered the popular movement tended to wane, but left a legacy of a significant number of worker owned factories.

Occupation of work places occurs during sit-in strikes, when the workers may takeover for weeks (there was, for example, a 77 day occupation in South Korea in 2009) in order to bring pressure on employers and/or governments. But this is distinct from workers taking over closing factories in order to maintain jobs and to run them in the workers’ interests, though some literature covers both.

There is a large literature on the theory and history of worker control and ownership and on noted contemporary examples, such as Mondragon in Spain. This section looks only at some examples of laid-off workers occupying their workplaces, either to prevent closure or to continue in operation under worker management.

Forging Links in Ozarow, In Notes from Nowhere, We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism London, Verso, , 2004, pp. 450-455

On Polish worker occupation to prevent closure of a factory, supported by local community and anarchist groups.

Coates, Ken, Work-ins, Sit-ins and Industrial Democracy, Nottingham, Spokesman Books, 1981, pp. 175

An account of sit-ins or work-ins to prevent workplace closures in Britain in early 1970s, and an examination of subsequent experiments in workers’ control.

Greenwood, J., Worker Sit-ins and Job Protection: Case Studies of Union Intervention, Farnborough, Gower Press, 1977, pp. 121

Discusses sit-down strikes in Britain, the well-known occupation of the Lip factory in France in 1973 and West European sit-ins and work-ins protesting against redundancy.

McGill, Jack, Crisis on the Clyde: The Story of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, London, Davis-Poynter, 1973, pp. 143

Account of the 1971 ‘work in’ that took over shipyards threatened with redundancy and for a period maintained them under worker control and forced the government to delay closure.

Sherry, Dave, Occupy! A Short History of Worker Occupations, London, Bookmarks, 2010, pp. 157

Covers campaigns in Argentina, Chicago (USA), France, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, South Korea and China.

A.1.b.i. Dolci and the Reverse Strike

One unusual tactic, associated with the prominent nonviolent activist Danilo Dolci, is the ‘reverse strike’. Thus tactic was used in Sicily as part of a series of campaigns between 1952 and 1965 to relieve the extreme local poverty. When unemployed men started to repair a road outside Partinico in 1956, appealing to their constitutional right and duty to work, the police sent them home, and banned a second attempt to repair the road, arresting Dolci and six others. Gene Sharp records in The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part Two under ‘Reverse Strike’ that the Congress of Racial Equality used a similar tactic in Chicago, mobilizing unemployed young men to engage in slum clearance, and leaving a bill for the work at City Hall.

Dolci, Danilo, The Outlaws of Partinico, London, MacGibbon and Kee, 1960, pp. 316

Describes context of his campaigns – not much detail on the campaigns themselves.

McNeish, James, Fire Under the Ashes: The Life of Danilo Dolci, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1965, pp. 256

A.2. Urban Campaigns against High Rents, Forces Evictions and Homelessness

Introduction

Having a home, like having a job, is a basic requirement, but in many cities the poor find that right threatened. Tenants may be faced with rents too high for them to pay, with the consequent threat of serious debt or eviction. Organized rent strikes have therefore been an important method of resistance. A famous example is the 1915 rent strike against landlords raising rents by women in Glasgow, whilst their men were engaged in the war. The refusal to pay the increase spread across the city and to other parts of Britain. When a landlord took some of his tenants to court, workers in the Clyde shipyards and munitions factories went on strike and others demonstrated in protest. The government was forced by this combined show of solidarity to legislate to prevent rent rises during the war. Rent strikes have also been used in many parts of the world since 1945.

Poor areas of cities are also quite often scheduled for drastic redevelopment, resulting in the eviction of thousands from their homes and destruction of their neighbourhoods; moreover ‘slum’ clearance does not always result in alternative provision of new housing. Redevelopment in many cities round the world may be part of a process of gentrification, but is also a strategy of governments hosting prestigious international exhibitions or sporting events, such as the Olympics, and has often been met by determined local resistance and wider protests. Those who are homeless, for whatever reason, have quite often adopted a strategy of taking over empty houses or buildings, or seizing land to build on. Squatter movements have highlighted the lack of affordable housing and in some cases created new radical communities within cities. Urban resistance movements may focus on other targets – for example protests and riots in response to police brutality, and in some cases have revolutionary aspirations and implications. Two theoretical analyses of urban revolt, which cover a wide range of urban movements in different parts of the world, are:

Castells, Manuel, The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements, [1983], Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1992, pp. 471

Harvey, David, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, London, Verso, 2012, pp. 208

See also Red Pepper, Apr/May 2018, pp. 13-17 for a wide-ranging analysis. Key issues about the safety of housing for the poor were raised in 2017 when 71 people are known to have died in a rapidly spreading fire in a tower block in north Kensington in London. The Grenfell fire raised major issues about the safety of tower blocks across the UK, the responsibility of builders, local authorities and safety inspectorates for inadequate checks on standards, and the dangers of opting for cheaper solutions. Grenfell also dramatised the gap between the relatively poor and racially diverse tenants of Grenfell living in social housing and the rich residents of the borough and the Conservative Council. A major long-running enquiry has been set up, viewed with some distrust by former Grenfell residents and the local community. Campaigning groups such as Justice4Grenfell and Grenfell Speaks have been set up complaining about lack of respect and representation, and people in other major cities have joined in solidarity protests.

A.2.a. Rent Strikes

Although rent strikes are normally against high or increased rents, the focus may also be on poor maintenance of housing, as in Harlem in the 1960s.

Brill, Harry, Why Organizers Fail: The Story of a Rent Strike, Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1971, pp. 192

Examines community action by the poor; (in Californian Studies of Urbanization and Environment series).

Jackson, Mandi Isaacs, Harlem’s Rent Strike and Rat War: Representation, Housing Access and Tenant Resistance in New York 1938-1964, American Studies, Vol. 47, issue 1, 2006, pp. 53-71

Lawson, Ronald ; Naison, Mark, The Tenant Movement in New York City, 1904-1984, New Brunswick NJ, Rutgers University Press, 1986, pp. 289

See also the article by Lawson, Ronald , The Rent Strike in New York City 1904-1980: The End of a Social Movement Strategy Journal of Urban History, 1984, pp. 235-258

Lipsky, Michael, Protest in City Politics: Rent Strikes, Housing and the Power of the Poor, Chicago, Rand McNally, 1970, pp. 214

Moorhouse, Bert ; Wilson, Mary ; Chamberlain, Chris, Rent Strikes – Direct Action and the Working Class, In Miliband, Ralph ; Saville, John , The Socialist Register, 1972 London, Merlin Press, , 1972, pp. 133-156

Starts with account of major rent strikes on the Clyde in 1915 and 1921-26, but includes materials on rent strikes in London 1959-61 and 1968-70 and their implications.

See also:

Anders Corr, No Trespassing: Squatting, Rent Strikes and Land Struggles Worldwide, (A.2.c. Homeless Campaigns and Occupations)

A.2.b. Resisting Eviction

As noted in the Introduction to A.2., forced evictions, and often local or national resistance, have occurred around the world – for example in Shanghai before the 2008 Olympics and in Rio de Janeiro in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. But often the poor are dispossessed to make way for urban development. This has occurred in many cities in South Africa, where about 10 percent of the population live in shacks in shanty towns, often with abysmal social facilities. An important movement campaigning for the rights of shack dwellers, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) arose around Durban in 2005, and has since spread to settlements round South Africa, and has links to other African countries and internationally. It is a movement stressing participatory democracy which resists evictions, helps re-house the homeless, promotes better social services and opposes draconian provincial laws, such as the Kwa -Zulu Natal Slum Clearance Act, which AbM managed to overturn in the Constitutional Court. (Information about AbM available from War on Want (which provides support) and AbM’s own website: http://www.abahlali.org)

Another type of resistance to eviction is that by homeowners and their neighbours, when banks foreclose on mortgages and attempt to dispossess them. A significant movement has arisen in Spain since 2009 to prevent evictions in the context of the economic crisis that began in 2008. Since this is linked to the wider movement of the Indignados, it is covered under sub-section A.8.b.

Amnesty International, Rights Razed: Forced Evictions in Cambodia, 11 Feb 2008, Index No ASA 23/002/2008, London, Amnesty International, 2008, pp. 64

Analysis of lack of proper consultation and of legal protection for those evicted.

Bhan, Gautam, This is No Longer the City I Once Knew. Evictions, the Urban Poor and the Right to the City in Millenial Delhi, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 21, issue 1 (April), 2009, pp. 127-142

See also the book Bhan, Gautam ; Menon-Sen, Kalyani , Swept Off the Map: Surviving Eviction and Resettlement in Delhi New Delhi, Yoda Press, , 2008

Mason, Paul, We Will Barricade, In Mason, Why Its Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions (A.8.a. General Titles), London, Verso,

Discusses resistance of slum dwellers in Philippines to eviction, but also their role in providing cheap workforce undermining organized labour.

Ockley, James, Weapons of the Urban Weak: Democracy and Resistance to Eviction in Bangkok Slum Communities, Sojourn, Vol. 12, issue 1, 1997, pp. 1-25

Olds, Kris, Urban Mega-Events, Evictions and Housing Rights: The Canadian Case, Current Issues in Tourism, Vol. 1, issue 1, 1998

Article covers responses by community and legal groups to: Expo ‘86 in Vancouver; 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics; and the rejected proposal for 1996 Summer Olympics in Toronto.

Schapiro, Jonathan Anjaria ; McFarlane, Colin, Urban Navigations: Politics, Space and the City in South Asia, London, Routledge, 2001, pp. 347

Focuses on conflicts over urban space, resources and housing in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and includes accounts of resistance in squatter settlements, e.g. in Kathmandu.

See also:

Imogen Tyler, Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neoliberal Britain, (1.b. National Studies), on forced eviction 500 travelers in Britain in 2011

A.2.c. Homeless Campaigns and Occupations

There have been two main types of movement to occupy empty buildings or land: action by the homeless to find somewhere to live, and counter-cultural initiatives to create new social spaces, forms of social activity and a model of society in miniature within modern cities. In the former category is the 2013 occupation of land in Cato Crest, Durban, by about 1,000 people, who had been illegally evicted by their municipality . They named their new settlement Marikana. In the latter category are the Kabouters (successors to the Dutch Provos) in the 1970s, and the independent community of Christiane founded on an old military base in Denmark in 1971 and continuing until today, though after state pressure in the 2000s there have been changes in its status. But this distinction is not absolute – some movements aim both to provide social housing and to offer a new model of society. A third type of action was launched by the Occupy London campaign in 2011, involving widespread squatting in empty commercial property, partly to underline their anti-capitalist message (see A.8.)

Governments, especially right wing ones, have periodically evicted squatters and tried to make it more difficult. Parisian police evicted up to 1,000 West African immigrants living in a disused university residential block in August 2006 – a move criticized as a publicity stunt for presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy (Guardian, 18 Aug 2006, p.25). The British Coalition government made squatting in residential buildings illegal in 2012 – members of the Squatters’ Housing Action Group had earlier climbed onto the roof of the Justice Secretary’s London home in protest against a criminalization of a solution to homelessness.

Bailey, Ron, The Squatters, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1973, pp. 206

Covers the London Squatters Campaign 1968-71, but notes background of the mass movement by homeless people in Britain at the end of the Second World War to occupy military bases, and later luxury flats, in 1945-46.

Corr, Anders, No Trespassing: Squatting, Rent Strikes and Land Struggles Worldwide, Cambridge MA, Southend Press, 1999, pp. 256

Discusses the success of squatter movements by the homeless, addresses issues such as ‘direct action and the law’ and ‘tactics and mobilization’ and includes case studies of squatter settlements and rent strikes.

Cress, Daniel M. ; Snow, David A., The Outcomes of Homeless Mobilization: The Influence of Organization, Disruption, Political Mediation and Framing, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 105, 2000, pp. 1063-1104

Analysis of how organization, tactics, political context and ‘framing’ of the issue affect outcomes, based on 15 campaigns in 8 US cities.

Hinton, James, Self-help and Socialism: The Squatters Movement of 1946, History Workshop Journal, Vol. 25, issue 1, 1988, pp. 100-126

Covers a significant movement in post-war Britain when many houses had been destroyed by bombing.

Katz, Steven ; Mayer, Margit, Gimme shelter: Self-help Housing Struggles within and against the State in New York City and West Berlin, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 9, issue 1, 1985, pp. 15-47

Klein, Naomi, Italy’s Social Centres, In Klein, Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate (E. IV.2.b. People Power and Direct Democracy in Economic Crisis 2001-2003), London, Harper/Collins and Flamingo, pp. 224-227

Lopez, Miguel A. Martine, The Squatters’ Movement in Europe: A durable struggle for social autonomy in urban politics, Antipolitik: A Radical Journal of Geography, Vol. 45, issue 4 (Sept), 2013, pp. 866-887

Examines squatting in empty properties in European cities over three decades, and argues squatting has promoted a mode of citizen participation, protest and self-management.

Neuwirth, Robert, Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters: A New Urban World, London, Routledge, 2006, pp. 335

Author lived in squatter communities in Rio, Bombay, Nairobi (where squatting was linked to building new homes) and Istanbul.

Press, Freedom, Anarchy no 102, (vol. 9 no 8), August, London, Freedom Press, 1969

Issue on ‘Squatters’ covering London campaign starting in 1968, including extract from Kropotkin on ‘The expropriation of dwellings’.

Priemus, Hugo, Squatters in Amsterdam: Urban Social Movements, Urban Managers or Something Else?, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 7, issue 3, 1983, pp. 417-427

Pruijst, Hans, Squatting in Europe, English version of chapter "Okupar en Europa", In , ¿Dónde están las llaves? El movimiento okupa: prácticas y contextos sociales Madrid, Catarata, , 2004, pp. 35-60

Ruggiero, Vincenzo, New social movements and the “centri sociali” in Milan, Sociological Review, Vol. 48, issue 3, 2000, pp. 167-188

Squatting Europe Kollektive, ; Cattaneo, Claudia ; Martínez, Miguel Ángel, The Squatters’ Movement in Europe: Commons and Autonomy as Alternatives to Capitalism, London, Pluto Press, 2014, pp. 288

Case studies from most of Europe (excluding eastern Europe and Greece) covering direct action to create social housing and other community services over 30 year period.

Ward, Colin, Housing: An Anarchist Approach, London, Freedom Press, 1976, pp. 182

Ward, a leading anarchist theorist and expert on housing, examines the post-1945 British squatters movement (pp. 13-27) and assesses the revival of squatting between 1968 and early 1970s.

Ward, Colin, Cotters and Squatters: The Hidden History of Housing, Nottingham, Five Leaves Publications, 2002, pp. 196

A social history that goes up to end of 20th century, primarily discusses British examples, but has references to many other countries.

Wates, Nick ; Wolmar, Christian, Squatting: The Real Story, London, Bayleaf Books, 1983, pp. 240

Written and produced by squatters, focusing primarily on history in Britain, but some reference to squatting round the world.

A.3. Struggles over Land

A.3.b. Resisting Land Grabs in the 21st Century

Ownership and use of land is becoming an increasingly contested issue in recent years. Apart from multinational corporations claiming land to exploit its resources – minerals, oil or coal (see A.5.) – companies are also taking over land for biofuels or fast growing trees to be used as timber, some governments are buying up land in other parts of the world to ensure against future lack of food or for investment, and financiers and oligarchs are also involved in taking land from local small farmers. Although some of these land deals are undertaken officially and authorized by governments, others occur secretly and the precise number of land deals since 2000 is not known. Oxfam has estimated that over two million square hectares were taken over in the first decade of the 21st century, two-thirds in Africa (where Chinese state corporations have been especially active). This extensive land grab has generated local resistance in Africa, Asia and Latin America – sometimes in an attempt to defeat the project and keep their land, and sometimes demanding better terms for local people being incorporated into these vast projects. There are, for example, impressive examples from India, where in December 1999 the Adivasi indigenous movement organized a 1,7000 mile march to launch a Land Entitlement Satyagraha ( Starr, Naming the Enemy: Anti-Corporate Movements Confront Globalization (A.4 Resistance to Multinationals) ). Sunitra Narain noted numerous campaigns (some successful) to resist takeover of land or water for hydro-electric projects and dams in India ( Narain, Sunitra , A Million Mutinies New Internationalist, , pp. 10-11 ).

Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Land Grabbing in Latin America, Special issue, Vol. 33, no. 4, 2012

Hall, Derek, Land, Cambridge, Polity, 2012, pp. 176

Analyzes conflicts over land in terms of its role as territory (leading to inter-state claims or wars), its status as property, and ways in which its use is regulated. The book examines the attempts of NGOs to protect property rights and environments in the Global South and the land grabs by corporations and governments, drawing on wide range of examples, including China and Honduras.

Journal of Peasant Studies, Green Grabbing – a New Appropriation of Nature?, Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 39, issue 2 (Special Issue), 2012, pp. 237-617

Prints papers from international conference: The Land Deal Politics Initiative, (convenor of) ‘The Second International Academic Conference on Land Grabbing’ , Cornell University, 17-19 October 2012.

Kerssen, Tanya, Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food and Democracy in Northern Honduras, Oakland CA, Food First Books, 2013, pp. 188

This book covers the popular resistance that has developed in the towns since the coup in 2009, but especially in the Bajo Aguan valley, where peasants who are contesting their dispossession from their land since 1992 by the Dinant Corporation and other large landowners promoting palm oil plantations, are staging large scale occupations of land. The area has a large military presence and special forces are implicated in killing local activists.

Mazgaonkar, Anand, India – Macro Violence, Micro Resistance: Development Violence and Grassroots Unarmed Resistance, In Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), London, Pluto Press, pp. 76-85

Include two brief accounts of struggles to retain land, by Adivasi (indigenous) people in Gujarat against dispossession from traditional lands by the Forest Department, and the ‘Save Our Lands’ campaign in Gujerat for common lands held by villages and often used by the landless for herding animals, plant collecting, etc, who were threatened by corporate agriculture. See also Mazgaonkar, Anand , Macro Violence, Micro Resistance (Development Violence and Unarmed Grassroots Resistance) , 2006 .

Pearce, Fred, The Landgrabbers: The Fight Over Who Owns the Earth, London, Transworld, Eden Project Books, 2012, pp. 400

Examination of how land is being taken from subsistence farmers round the world, for example across Africa, South-East Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.

Schneider, Alison Elizabeth, What Shall We Do without Land? Land Grabs and Resistance in Rural Cambodia, Sussex University, International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, 6-8 April 2011, organized by Land Deals Politics Initiative with Journal of Peasant Studies, 2011

Covers three different types of land grab (one by military) and types of peasant resistance, from overt protests and petitions to ‘everyday resistance’ such as sleeping on threatened land and organizing road blocks.

Vergara-Camus, Leandro, The Legacy of Social Conflicts over Property Rights in Rural Brazil and Mexico: Current Land Struggles in Historical Perspective, Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 39, issue 5, 2012, pp. 1133-1158

A.3.a. Land Occupations and Demands for Land Reform

The urban poor may seize land to create homes, but land seizures both historically and today are primarily a strategy by struggling farmers and landless agricultural workers to enable them to cultivate the land. In Europe peasant seizure of land has often been part of a wider revolutionary upsurge, as in France in 1789, Russia 1905 and 1919, Italy 1919 and Spain in 1936-37, but today (unlike urban forms of resistance) is not central to Western protest movements. There is a particularly strong tradition in Latin America of peasant farmers seizing land (with varying degree of nonviolence or violence) from absentee or large landowners and planting crops on the land. Sometimes land seizures were retrospectively legalized by government laws or by sale of land, or even encouraged by leftist politicians, Peasant leagues in Colombia in the 1930s created an independent communist republic in the mountains based on land seized. In the 1950s and 1960s peasants seized land in Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela.

More recently the best known landless movement has been Movimento Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil, founded in 1984, but arising out of the rural and industrial militancy of the 1970s when there were many land seizures. It has continued to organize the landless and unemployed in taking over land from large landowners and multinationals and setting up cooperative farms, as well as organizing slum dwellers in large cities in the southeast, providing them with allotments. But hunger for land, and resistance to its use by large corporations, extends to other parts of Latin America (for example Honduras) and many countries in Africa and Asia.

Borras Jr, Saturnino Jr M. ; Edelman, Mark ; Kay, Cristobal, Transnational Agrarian Movements: Confronting Globalization, Oxford, Wiley Blackwell, 2008, pp. 376

Covers transnational farmer resistance to WTO and other global institutions and high profile global alliances such as the small farmer organization Via Campesina. Case studies include Indonesian forest dwellers chopping down rubber plants to grow rice to eat, and Mexican migrants returning home to transform their communities. Also includes information on early 20th century agrarian movements.

Branford, Sue ; Glock, Oriel, The Last Frontier: Fighting over Land in the Amazon, London, Zed Books, 1985, pp. 336

Branford, Sue ; Rocha, Jan, Cutting the Wire, London, Latin American Bureau, 2002, pp. 305

Well researched account of MST.

Carter, Miguel, The Origin of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement MST: the Natalino Episode in Rio Grande do Sul (1981-84) – a case of ideal interest mobilization, Working Paper Series CBS-43-2003, Oxford, University of Oxford Centre of Brazil Studies, 2003, pp. 71

Chabot, Sean ; Vinthagen, Stellan, Rethinking Nonviolent Action and Contentious Politics: Political Cultures of Nonviolent Opposition in the Indian Independence Movement and Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement, Research in Social Movements, Conflict and Change, Vol. 27, 2007, pp. 91-121

Desmarais, Annette Aurelie, La Via Campesina: Globalization and the Power of Peasants, London, Pluto, 2007, pp. 254

Examines impact of modernization and globalization on agriculture and explores alternative forms of development and the evolution of an international peasant voice in Via Campesina, formed in 1993 to challenge the neoliberal economic agenda.

Hammond, John L., Law and Disorder: The Brazilian Landless Farmworkers Movement, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 18, issue 4, 1991, pp. 269-289

See also Hammond, John L., The MST and the media: Competing images of the Brazilian Landless Farmworkers’ Movement Latin American Politics and Society, 2004, pp. 61-90

Hurley, Judith, Brazil: A Troubled Journey to the Promised Land, In McManus; Schlabach, Relentless Persistence: Nonviolent Action in Latin America (E. IV.1. General and Comparative Studies), Philadelphia PA, New Society Publishers, pp. 174-196

The author, who founded a US support group for the landless, provides excerpts from her journal of visiting sites of land struggle in 1987. She notes intensified confrontations in 1980s between the landed elite and the landless, who resorted to lawsuits, demonstrations, fasts, vigils, marches, mock funerals and, above all, land occupations.

Latin American Perspectives, Peasant Movements in Latin America, no. 4 (issue 167) (July), Vol. 30, Latin American Perspectives Inc, 2009, pp. 213

The whole issue is dedicated to ‘Peasant Movements in Latin America’ including 2 articles on MST.

Rosset, Peter M. ; Patel, Roy ; Courville, Michael, Promised Land: Competing Visions of Agrarian Reform, Oakland CA, Food First, 2006, pp. 380

Includes chapters on Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, India, Mexico, South Africa and Zimbabwe (the latter refrains from discussing the human rights issues of the government sponsored post 1996 land occupations). Not all chapters discuss social movements, but the book does cover gender and indigenous issues.

Schlabach, Gerald, The nonviolence of desperation: Peasant land action in Honduras, In McManus; Schlabach, Relentless Persistence: Nonviolent Action in Latin America (E. IV.1. General and Comparative Studies), Philadelphia PA, New Society Publishers, pp. 48-62

Examines 200 peasant occupations in 1972 (assertion of a tradition of ‘les recuparaciones’) in context of developing forms of protest since the ‘great strike’ against United Fruit Company in 1954.

Schock, Kurt, People Power and Alternative Politics, In Barnell, Peter ; Randall, Vicky , Politics in the Developing World Oxford, Oxford University Press, , 2008, pp. 186-207

Pays special attention to Ekta Parishad (an Indian land rights organization), the Assembly of the Poor in Thailand and MST in Brazil.

Schock, Kurt, Land Struggles in the Global South: Strategic Innovations in Brazil and India, In Maney; Kutz-Flamenbaum; Rohlinger; Goodwin, Strategies for Social Change (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), Minneapolis MN, University of Minnesota Press, pp. 221-244

Stedile, Joao Pedro, Landless Battalions, New Left Review, issue 15 (May/June), 2002, pp. 77-104

Account by participant in evolution of land seizures and of how MST eventually achieved legal possession.

Welch, Cliff, Movement Histories: A Preliminary Historiography of the Brazil Landless Laborers Movement (MST), Latin American Research Review, Vol. 41, issue 1, 2006, pp. 198-210

Wright, Angus ; Wolford, Wendy, To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil, Oakland CA, Food First Books, 2003, pp. 357

Situates MST in the broader context of Brazilian history but also based on first hand research at MST settlements.

A.8. Resistance since Financial Crisis of 2008

Introduction

The disastrous impact of the threatened collapse of the banks in 2008 on western economies led to widespread protests in both North America and much of Europe. To some extent these denoted a revival in the west of the Global Justice Movement and of an awareness of the abuses of global capitalism: the financial crisis exposed the greed and irresponsibility of many of those involved and publicized the enormous salaries and bonuses they received. But the scale of protests were also a direct response to the wide scale poverty and unemployment triggered by the financial crisis, especially in countries most deeply affected. Outside of the west, struggles over homelessness and evictions, land, multinational corporations, international neoliberalism and privatization (some documented earlier in Section A) had never abated, and continued after 2008.

Anger at the role of the banks in the crisis of 2008, suspicion of large corporations, resistance to neoliberal government policies and calls for greater economic justice were manifested in varying degrees in many countries from 2008. One of the countries to suffer disastrously from collapsing banks was Iceland, where protests broke out in January 2009 on a scale not seen since 1949, and where the goal was to topple the government. Naomi Klein compared the crowds in the streets banging pots and pans to Argentina a decade earlier. She also noted the spread of protest to Latvia, where people were resisting an IMF emergency loan requiring stringent austerity measures, and to Greece, as well as South Korea.(‘Que se vayan todos! – That’s the Global Backlash Talking’ (Guardian, 6 Feb. 2009 taken from similar version in the Nation.)

The response to the crisis was dramatized by the imaginative, radical direct action groups like the Indignados, Occupy and UK Uncut, but it also evoked a response from the trade unions, especially in countries where they were still relatively strong. In France unions mobilized over one million in a general strike in January 2009 and an estimated two million demonstrated in March that year against President Sarkozy’s response to the recession (Guardian, 30 Jan. 2009, p. 27 and Independent, 20 Mar. 2009, p. 10).

The European Trades Union Confederation organised Europe-wide strikes and demonstrations on 29 September 2010 – workers from many parts of Europe paralysed Brussels, in Spain a general strike was called, Portuguese protesters marched in Lisbon and Porto, Greek unions also demonstrated and protests took place in Ireland (hit hard by the banking crisis). Lithuania, Slovenia and other countries (Guardian, 30 Sep. 2010, p. 28). The literature in English available so far on the movements is quite strong for some countries and limited to press reports for others.

A.8.a. General Titles

Fillmore-Patrick, Hannah, The Iceland Experiment (2009-2013): A Participatory Approach to Constitutional Reform, Democratization Policy Council Policy Note, issue New Series 02, 2013, pp. -20

Examines the financial collapse and the popular protests in ‘the Kitchenware Revolution’ (which included banging pots and pans), which led to widespread popular involvement in changing the constitution to prevent a future financial collapse and betrayal of trust.

Hilary, John, The Poverty of Capitalism: Economic Meltdown and the Struggle for What Comes Next, London, Pluto Press, 2013, pp. 240

Analysis by War on Want director of how neoliberal elite is using the 2008 crisis to entrench its own power and impose neoliberal policies on Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The book ends with a sketch of the growing worldwide struggle against neoliberalism and suggesting how alternatives might be strengthened.

Hosseini, Sayed Abdolhamed, Alternative Globalizations: An Integrative Approach to Studying Dissident Knowledge in the Global Justice Movement, London and New York, Routledge, 2010, pp. 288

Discusses whether growing popular opposition to neoliberalism, especially since 2008, can develop coherent alternative ideologies.

Jackson, Ross, Occupy World Street: A Global Roadmap of Radical Economic and Political Reform, Vermont VT, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012, pp. 336

The chair of the Danish-based Gaia Trust advocates return to smaller decentralised communities with a more sustainable life style.

Mason, Paul, Why Its Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions, London, Verso, 2012, pp. 237

Wide-ranging exploration, by BBC economics journalist, of campaigns round the world since 2008, including the Arab uprisings of 2011, but mainly focused on resistance to economic policies and including accounts of protest in UK, USA and Greece. Discusses economic and social causes of unrest and role of new communications.

Mirowski, Philip, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown, London, Verso, 2014, pp. 384

Economic historian’s caustic analysis of self-validating nature of neoliberal thought among economists and politicians and suggested bases for an alternative analysis of economic crisis and future possibilities.

Sitrin, Marina ; Azzellini, Dario, They Can’t Represent Us! Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy, London, Verso, 2014, pp. 192

Combines history of direct democracy from classical Greece to the Indignados, drawing on interviews with activists in contemporary movements, including Occupy, that are based on forms of participatory democracy and reject liberal parliamentary democracy.

A.8.b. The Indignados: Spain and Greece

The financial crisis of 2008 had a disastrous effect on the scale of national debt in Spain and Greece, leading to governments accepting bailouts from the European Bank and IMF in return for stringent austerity programmes cutting jobs and welfare, and privatization of public facilities. Widespread public resistance to austerity measures was launched on 15 May, 2011 in Spain, where the Real Democracy Now! campaign organized marches in cities and an impromptu protest camp was set up in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. Thousands more came to the camp and it lasted 78 days; other camps were set up in towns and cities round the country, and the 15M movement (named after the date of the first protest) was launched. Within the broad resistance to the austerity programmes other initiatives have developed: for example to tackle the social crisis of mass evictions in Spain of people defaulting on their mortgages (the Platform of People Affected by Mortgage (PAH). The multiple crises of food and welfare in Greece have prompted numerous solidarity networks.

The political position in Greece has been particularly unstable, with widespread public anger about the corruption and incompetence of politicians, and demonstrations have quite often become violent. The growth of the Golden Dawn extreme right anti-immigrant party has also been an ominous sign. On the left Syriza, a new radical coalition of small parties, emerged as the party close to popular protest and strongly opposed to the austerity programmes. Syriza was elected in January 2015 with a mandate to renegotiate the terms of continuing IMF/EU financial aid to avoid even harsher austerity measures. Crisis point was reached in June/July 2015. Syriza called a snap referendum on the bail out terms on 5 July, and 61 per cent supported the government in voting ‘No’.

Despite this referendum win, the government led by Alexis Tsipras (faced with financial bankruptcy and unwilling and unprepared to abandon the euro) accepted the unmodified harsh EU bailout terms in July 2015. Although opposed by some Syriza members, Tsipras won parliamentary support for his policy, and went on to win (with a reduced majority) the election he called in September 2015. Continuing leftist opposition to the EU terms was dramatized by a 24 hour general strike on 12 November, 2015. Portugal received a large EU/IMF loan in 2011. The victory of a centre-right coalition in elections ensured that the government pressed ahead with austerity measures, leading to high unemployment and widespread privatization. Public sector workers went on strike in protest, but there was not a major popular movement comparable to the Indignados in Spain and Greece.

The linking of privatization measures to austerity programmes has also prompted specific campaigns, for example against water privatization in Greece and a Portuguese strike by postal workers in November 2013 against privatization of the postal service. In addition to protest there have been positive local and democratic alternatives arising from the crisis, such as the neighbourhood assemblies in Spain and imaginative experiments in Greece, for example to bypass use of money through local exchange schemes. All these issues are briefly covered in the references below, although some of these are fairly brief articles from journals sympathetic to the Indignados, such as the UK-based Red Pepper, New Internationalist and Peace News; and the Progressive in the USA.

Carrión, María, Spaniards Take On the Banks, The Progressive, issue Nov, 13/11/2012,

Examines campaign against the banks’ ruthless treatment of those unable to pay mortgages and other campaigns such as defiance by doctors and health care workers of law requiring them to refuse treatment to immigrants.

Castaneda, Ernesto, The Indignados of Spain: A Precedent to Occupy Wall Street, Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social and Cultural Political Protest, Vol. 11, issue 3-4, 2012, pp. 309-319

Builds on participant observation in Barcelona in summer of 2011.

Clark, Howard, No More Mortgage Suicides! Spain’s Social Movements Struggle for Housing Justice, Peace News, issue 2552-2553 (Dec-Jan), 2012

On the vigorous campaign to support mortgage defaulters and the wider 15M movement.

Dhaliwal, Puneet, Public Squares and Resistance: The Politics of Space in the Indignados Movement, Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements, Vol. 4, issue 1 (May), 2012, pp. 251-273

Fominaya, Cristina Flesher, Debunking Spontaneity: Spain’s 15-M/Indignados as Autonomous Movement, Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social and Cultural Political Protest, Vol. 14, issue 2, 2015, pp. 142-163

Argues emergence of movement not ‘new’ and ‘spontaneous’ but product of evolution of a collective identity and culture stressing deliberative democracy since the 1980s.
See also her blog on the OpenDemocracy website: ‘Spain is Different: Podemos and 15-M’ on the rise of the leftist but non-ideological Podemos party in the European Parliamentary elections of June 2014, and influence of 15-M movement on the nature of the new party.

Garcia, Ter, A Year of Small Victories for the Spanish Foreclosure Movement, Waging Nonviolence, 28/12/2011,

Survey of first year of PAH.

Gerbaudo, Paolo, Los Indignados, Red Pepper, issue Aug/Sept, 2011, pp. 33-35

On launch of movement by Real Democracy Now! on 15 May 2011 with marches and protest camp in Madrid, its spread across Spain and to Greece.

Hancox, Dan, The Village Against the World, London, Verso, 2013, pp. 252

(Successor to ebook Hancox, Dan , Utopia and the Valley of Tears , 2012, pp. 76 , on same topic.)
Discusses the small village, Marinaleda, in southern Spain that has battled for decades with the state and capitalist policies, but gained international attention in 2012 when its mayor (and farmers union leader) organized the filling of ten shopping trolleys, refused to pay, and distributed them to the poor from a military base and mansion of a local large landowner.

Katerini, Tonia, Organising to Survive, Red Pepper, issue Dec/Jan, 2013, pp. 43-45

Examines scale of crisis created in Greece by austerity programme and the growing movement Solidarity for All (promoted by the left coalition Syriza) creating support networks supplying food, health, education, cultural activity and legal advice, and setting up informal exchanges of goods and services.

Lamarca, Melissa Garcia, Sparks from the Spanish Crucible: Resisting evictions Spanish style, New Internationalist, issue April, 01/04/2013,

On the Platform for Mortgage Affected People (PAH) set up in February2009 to campaign about the hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and evictions of people unable to keep up mortgages on their homes, and often faced with a huge debt to the banks even after eviction. The group organized mass resistance to evictions, occupied foreclosed flats and houses to provide shelter for those made homeless, and to lobby Parliament to end evictions, promote affordable rents and changes to the mortgage law.

Ovenden, Keith, Syriza: Inside a Labyrinth, Foreword by Paul Mason. Published in the re-launched Left Book Club series., London, Pluto Press, 2015, pp. 181

Analyzes the rise of Syriza (formed in 2004) within its broader political context, and comments on the problems faced after its victory in the polls and the developments up to early 2015. Chapter 3 'Their Austerity and Our Resistance' focuses on popular resistance by students, strikes by workers, occupations of the squares, environmental struggle, opposition to racism and the major struggle sparked in 2013 by efforts to maintain the national broadcasting and television networks, leading to work place occupations across the country.'

Prentoulis, Marina ; Thomassen, Lasse, The Legacy of the Indignados, OpenDemocracy, 13/08/2013,

Discusses impact two years later of Spanish and Greek movements: their new form of political activism and extended definition of politics.

Reyes, Oscar, Rooted in the Neighbourhood, Red Pepper, issue Oct/Nov, 2012, pp. 36-37

Comments on decline in the neighbourhood assemblies that arose in 2011, but argues widespread willingness to take part in local initiatives survives, and is (for example) strengthening the campaign against eviction of those unable to pay their mortgage.

Romanos, Eduardo, Evictions, Petitions and Escraches: Contentious Housing in Austerity Spain, Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social and Cultural Political Protest, Vol. 13, issue 2, 2013, pp. 296-302

Examines different types of action used by movement against evictions and how a range of people drawn into movement.

Vradis, Antonis ; Dalakoglu, Dimitris, Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come, Edinburgh and London, A.K. Press and Occupied London, 2011, pp. 378

Wide range of contributors, including David Graeber, on economic meltdown in Greece and popular responses to government’s extreme austerity programme.

See also:

Paul Mason, Why Its Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions, (A.8.a. General Titles), pp. 87-104 on Greece.

A.8.c. Occupy, USA

The Occupy movement in the USA was launched on September 17, 2011, when a march on Wall Street developed into the occupation of Zuccotti Park nearby. Support for the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest camp increased, especially after the police arrested 700 people for blocking Brooklyn Bridge two weeks later, and spread to other parts of New York City and many other cities in the USA. The movement was characterised by lively debates about the injustices of the economic and financial system, coined the slogan ‘we are the 99%’ (opposed to the inordinate wealth and power of the 1%) and initiated various blockades, for example of the New York Stock Exchange. After two months police closed down the Zuccotti Park encampment, making 200 arrests, and several other cities did the same. By March 2012 there had been 6,700 arrests in 112 cities. The energy generated by the movement spread into related activities – as in Spain some activists engaged with the mortgage crisis, occupied foreclosed homes and undertook dramatic protests at courts and auctions of seized houses and apartments.

Occupy activists also turned to foreign policy issues and other social causes. In the radical environment of Oakland (an ethnically diverse working class city, where the unionised workers at the port are unusually militant, and the students at the nearby Berkeley campus have a tradition of activism) the Occupy movement gained strong support and called a general strike in November 2011. It also became the radical wing of the wider US movement, but by mid-2012 was in danger of alienating local support, particularly through its provocative demonstrations against the city police.

The early achievements of the Occupy movement were to influence the terms of national debate (polls suggested strong public sympathy for the basic message of economic injustice), demonstrate a participatory democracy in action and to have an international impact. The euphoria generated by the movement generated an immediate literature, referenced below. The longer term implications of the movement, as economic conditions begin to improve in the USA, are more uncertain.

Blumenkranz, Carla ; Gessen, Keith ; Greif, Mark ; Leonard, Sarah ; Resnick, Sarah ; Saval, Nikil ; Schmitt, Eli ; Taylor, Astra, Occupy!: Scenes from Occupied America, New York and London, Verso, 2012, pp. 224

Collection of brief accounts of events at Zuccotti Park encampment and initial assessments by writers from leftist New York media, plus extracts from speeches of visiting intellectuals and activists – Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Angela Davis and Rebecca Solnit.

Byrne, Janet, The Occupy Handbook, New York, Back Bay Books, 2012, pp. 560

Includes discussion of why the 1% have such a dominant economic position.

Calhoun, Craig, Occupy Wall Street in Perspective, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 64, issue 1, 2013, pp. 26-38

Argues Occupy Wall Street was ‘less an organized effective movement’ than a dramatic performance.

Chomsky, Noam, Occupy, London and New York, Penguin Books and Zucotti Park Books, 2012, pp. 120

This book comprises five sections:

Chomsky’s Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture given to Occupy Boston in Oct.2011;
an interview with a student in Jan 2012;
a question and answer session with ‘InterOccupy’;
a question and answer session partly on foreign policy; and
Chomsky’s brief appreciation of the life and work of radical historian Howard Zinn.

There is a short introductory note by the editor, Greg Ruggiero.

Gitlin, Todd, Occupy Nation, the Roots: The Spirit and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street, New York, Harper Collins, 2012, pp. 320

Book by former radical student leader in the 1960s, providing a portrait of the movement.

Graeber, David, The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement, London, Allen Lane, 2013, pp. 352

Reflections on Occupy Wall Street movement and its beginning in the occupation of Zucotti Park, September 2011, from standpoint of an anarchist theorist.

Healey, Josh, Whose Streets? Our Streets!, Red Pepper, issue Apr/May, 2012, pp. 41-43

Examines Occupy Oakland, its potential and downside.

Social Movement Studies, Occupy!, Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural and Political Protest, Vol. 11, issue 3-4, 2012, pp. 279-485

This issue has several articles on Occupy. See:

Kerton, Sarah , Tahrir Here? The influence of the Arab Uprisings on the emergence of Occupy Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural and Political Protest, 2012, pp. 302-308
Pickerill, Jenny ; Krinksy, John , Why does Occupy matter? Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural and Political Protest, 2012, pp. 279-287
Smith, Jackie ; Glidden, Bob , Occupy Pittsburgh and the challenges of participatory democracy Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social Cultural Political Protest, 2012, pp. 288-294

Content overview: http://tandfonline.com/toc/csms20/11/3-4?nav=tocList

Van Gelder, Sarah, This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, Bainbridge Isle WA, Yes! Magazine, 2012, pp. 96

Contributors include Naomi Klein, David Korten, Ralph Nader and Rebecca Solnit.

White, Micah, The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution, 2016, pp. 336

This is a book examining what strategy protesters should adopt and critical of some common leftist assumptions, but is based on the author's role in the Occupy movement. He discusses Occupy at length, outlining its origins and reflecting on the tactic of occupation, and the movement's failure to adopt additional approaches and develop a movement capable of promoting wider social change.

Writers for the 99%, Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America, Chicago IL, Haymarket Books, 2012, pp. 217

(Initially published by OR Books New York on print-on-demand and ebook basis.)
Detailed account of daily life at the camp by figures on the left.

A.8.d. UK

In Britain the campaigning group UK Uncut was launched in October 2010 to use direct action against tax avoidance by large corporations and to oppose austerity cuts to public services. It dramatized its demands with a number of sit-ins in stores and a sit-down at Westminster Bridge, London to oppose the Health and Social Care Bill going through parliament. It inspired US Uncut and Portugal Uncut.

In early 2011 the TUC initiated a series of protests against austerity – notably the ‘March for the Alternative’ mobilizing about 500,000 in London on 26 March 2011. UK Uncut protesters took part, occupying Fortnum and Mason and blockading Boots. Many were arrested – they were easier targets for the police than the Black Bloc anarchists who were smashing up shops. Subsequently there was strong pressure from MPs and other public figures for charges against the nonviolent Uncut activists to be dropped.

The Occupy movement was launched in London in October 2011: protesters tried to occupy the financial centre of the City, but finally established their camp the precinct of St Paul’s cathedral, where it highlighted the moral ambiguity of the Church of England participating in an unjust financial system. Three more camps were set up in London: in Finsbury Square just north of the City, in disused offices owned by UBS and in the (disused) Old Street Magistrates Court. The high profile St Paul’s camp was not dismantled by police until the end of February 2012 (Guardian, 29 Feb. 2012, pp. 1-2, 30 and 32). Occupy London then turned to other forms of campaigning.

Although protests did not alter the Conservative-Liberal Coalition austerity policies, the government was more responsive on the issue of tax – the Treasury announced changes to UK rules on legal tax avoidance on 6 December 2010, and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has pursued this and related issues vigorously. There has been a real shift in public debate, with much greater awareness of the need to justify bankers’ rewards – shareholders at Barclays annual meeting in 2011 criticised ‘obscene bonuses’, criticism of tax avoidance by large companies and protests (including by churches) against exploitation of the poor by loan companies and the misery created by some welfare reforms. Local credit unions and food banks have been constructive responses. Exploitation of workers by offering ‘zero hours contracts’ (i.e. no guarantee of a minimum number of paid hours’ work a week) became an issue in 2013 – McDonald’s was identified as the biggest such employer, admitting that 90% of its workforce was on these contracts.

Hancox, Dan, Fight Back! A Reader on the Winter of Protest, OpenDemocracy, 2011, pp. 340

Covers both student protests in late 2010 ( e.g against high tuition fees) and wider demonstrations against cuts. Edited by young protesters, but includes essay by Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy reflecting on potential significance of new activism.

See also:

Paul Mason, Why Its Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions, (A.8.a. General Titles), pp.57-63 on UK Uncut.

A.7. Opposing IMF Policies and Privatization

Introduction

Movements round the world have mounted resistance to IMF conditions for financial assistance, and their government’s endorsement of these neoliberal policies of privatizing large sectors of the economy, and opening them up to multinational corporations. These struggles were viewed as part of the Global Justice Movement after 1999, but predated the protests at global summits, and have continued after such protests have waned, since they have roots in community opposition. Some of the most significant movements have occurred in Latin America – the successful resistance to the water privatization (and the Bechtel Company) in Cochabamba, Bolivia is often cited. There were widespread demonstrations by most sections of society in Peru in 2003 when protesters blocked the roads into Lima; in 2008 unions called a nationwide strike against high food prices seen as a consequence of neoliberal policies, and indigenous people marched in the old capital of Cuzco, which was hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation annual summit (Red Pepper (July 2003), p. 16 and New Internationalist (December 2008), pp.10-11). Moreover in three Latin American countries the scale of popular resistance to privatization and/or other neoliberal policies forced changes in national policy and led to immediate (or subsequent) changes of government: Argentina 2001-2002, Bolivia 2003 and Ecuador 2005. These national movements are included in Volume 1 of the Guide to Civil Resistance, E.IV. 2b, 3b and 7. The Bolivia entries include several studies of the Cochabamba struggle. These titles are not repeated here – though an additional Cochabamba reference is listed.

Many trade unions in other parts of the world have opposed the terms of IMF and other loans and ‘free trade’ agreements requiring privatization. For example South Korean unions called strikes 1996-97 against plans for a more ‘flexible’ labour market and in 1998 calling for renegotiation of an IMF loan, and Indian unions called a general strike in 2003 against privatization and changes to the labour laws. Indian trade unions also brought one million onto the streets in a one day strike against neoliberal policies on 28 Feb. 2012, and even larger numbers in a two-day strike in Feb. 2013 (Red Pepper (Jun/Jul 2013) p. 40. Unionists have often been joined by students and women’s groups: New Internationalist in a March 2004 issue focusing on the IMF and World Bank provides snapshots of demonstrations and strikes in Indonesia, Zambia and Romania among others.

Resisting privatization includes opposition to handing over state services, such as railways and the post office, and social services, such as the health care and education, to large corporations. There are examples of trade unions and others resisting these policies: health workers in San Salvador in 2002, teachers in Guatemala and Peru in 2003. More recently health care workers in Colombia were in 2013 resisting effective privatization as part of a wider resistance to the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: Colombia Nationwide Strike Against 'Free Trade,' Privatization, Poverty, commondreams.org, 25 Aug 2013. The best documented struggles are, however, those against energy and water privatization: some references are listed below.

A.7.b. South Africa: Resistance to Privatization

Post-apartheid South Africa has seen widespread resistance to privatization, which has also been well documented, so these struggles are listed in a separate subsection.

Barchiesi, Franco, Transnational Capital, Urban Globalisation and Cross-Border Solidarity: The Case of the South African Municipal Workers, In Waterman, Peter ; Wills, Jane , Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalism Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, , 2001, pp. 80-102

Discusses problems faced by union in new global context of neoliberal economic dominance and its resistance to water privatization.

Bond, Patrick ; Ngwane, Trevor, Community Resistance to Energy Privatization in South Africa, In Abramsky, Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution: Social Struggles in Transition to a Post-Petrol World (A.7.a. Resistance to Energy and Water Privatization), Edinburgh and Oakland CA, A.K. Press,

Desai, Ashwin, We Are the Poors: Community Struggles in Post-Apartheid South Africa, New York, Monthly Review Press, 2002, pp. 153

On struggles against neoliberal policies and privatization in the townships, strikes, and the Durban Social Forum.

Mayekiso, Mzwanele, Township Politics: Civic Struggles in the New South Africa, New York, Monthly Review Press, 1996, pp. 288

McKinley, Dale T., Lessons of Struggle: The Rise and Fall of the Anti-Privatisation Forum, South African Civil Society Information Service, 08/02/2012,

Critical analysis of failings of Forum, which was set up in 2000 and active for 10 years, but also noting its positive role as voice for marginalised and promoter of grass roots activism.

Ngwane, Trevor, Sparks in the township, New Left Review, Vol. II, issue 22 (July/Aug), 2003, pp. 37-56

See also:

Francois Polet, The State of Resistance: Popular Struggles in the Global South, (A.6.a. General Titles)

Paul Kingsnorth, One No, Many Yeses: A Journey to the Heart of the Global Resistance Movement, (A.6.a. General Titles), pp. 89-123

A.7.a. Resistance to Energy and Water Privatization

Opposition to privatization continues in many parts of the world. For example the The Times of India reported in January 2014 a threatened strike by power engineers in the state of Uttar Pradesh opposing state plans to privatize power supplies in four cities. It is impossible to provide solid references for all these struggles, but those cited below give an impression of the breadth of resistance.

Abramsky, Kolya, Sparking a Worldwide Energy Revolution: Social Struggles in Transition to a Post-Petrol World, Edinburgh and Oakland CA, A.K. Press, 2010, pp. 480

Chapters by authors from 20 countries on developments in energy sector and struggles.

Bakker, Karen, The “Commons” versus the “Commodity”: Alter-Globalization, Anti-Privatization and the Human Right to Water in the Global South, Antipode, Vol. 39, issue 3 (June), 2007, pp. 430-455

Examines different (though overlapping) alternatives to privatization developed through North-South and red-green alliances and argues concept of the ‘commons’ most effective basis for a strategy of action.

Brennan, Brid ; Hoedeman, Olivier ; Terhorst, Philipp ; Kishimoto, Satoko ; Balanyá, Belén, Reclaiming Public Water. Achievements, Struggles and Visions from Around the World, Amsterdam, Transnational Institute and Corporate Europe Observatory, 2005, pp. 284

Translations: Spanish

Buhlungu, Sakhela, The Anti-Privatisation Forum: A Profile of a Post-Apartheid Social Movement, Johannesburg, University of the Witwatersrand, 2004, pp. 22

A case study for the University of KwaZulu-Natal project Globalisation, Marginalisation and new Social Movements in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Davidson-Harden, Adam ; Naidoo, Anil ; Harden, Andi, The Geopolitics of the Water Justice Movement, Peace, Conflict and Development, issue 11 (Nov), 2007, pp. -33

Food Empowerment Project, Water Usage and Privatization, Vol. 2016, Cotati CA, Food Empowerment Project, 2015

Useful summary analysis including brief case studies of corporate misuse of water and resistance to them (and further references): Nestle in US, Vivendi and Suez in Mexico, Bechtel in Bolivia and Coca Cola in India.

Hall, David ; Lobina, Emanuele ; de la Motte, Robin, Public Resistance to Privatisation in Water and Energy, Development in Practice, Vol. 15, issue 3-4 (June), 2005

Examines role of different types of opposition in ‘delaying, cancelling or reversing the privatization of water and energy’, including success in Nkondobe (South Africa), Paraguay where parliament voted in 2002 to suspend indefinitely privatization of state-owned water and Poznan in Poland in 2002, and failure of campaigns in UK, Chile and Philippines.

Olivera, Oscar ; Lewis, Tom, ¡Cochabamba! Water War in Bolivia, Cambridge MA, South End Press, 2004, pp. 224

Romano, Sarah, From Protest to Proposal: The Contentious Politics of the Nicaraguan Anti-Water Privatization Social Movement, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 31, issue 4, 2012, pp. 499-514

Shiva, Vandana, Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit, Cambridge MA, Southend Press, 2002, pp. 156

Outlines 9 principles of ‘water democracy ‘ and highlights activism against corporations claiming water supplies.

Shiva, Vandana, Resisting Water Privatisation, Building Water Democracy, Mexico City, World Water Forum, 2006

Includes information on successful local campaigns:

against Coca Cola bottling plant, closed in 2004, leading to national campaign “Coca-Cola-Pepsi Quit India Campaign’;
resistance to water diversion in Uttar Pradesh;
campaign in Delhi against raised tariffs and proposed privatization.

A.4 Resistance to Multinationals

Campaigns against powerful multinational companies are quite often undertaken by indigenous peoples seeking to protect their land and way of life; some of these specific campaigns are included in this section. There is also often an overlap between anti-corporate and environmentalist struggles, but resistance to specific corporations is covered here. Thirdly an upsurge of protest against multinationals was part of the Global Justice (or Anti-Globalization) Movement, but often preceded protests directed specifically against international economic institutions and neoliberal policies (see A.7. below).

Supermarket chains are a good example of extensive corporate power – driving smaller shops and traders out of business, imposing their requirements on farmers, able to exploit suppliers from poorer countries and dictate unfavourable terms to their workforce. The US retail giant Walmart has been particularly strongly criticized, evoking strong resistance in South Africa in 2011 to its planned takeover of Massmart, and a protest by farmers and retailers in Delhi in 2007, organized by the Movement for Retail Democracy. Inside the USA a campaign in Chicago in October 2004 opposed the setting up of the first Walmart store inside the city (Guardian (4 Oct 2004), pp. 6-7). Supermarkets in Britain have also been criticized, by War on Want, Action Aid and others, for driving down wages of overseas workers, for example those picking tea, fruit and flowers in countries such as Kenya and South Africa. One source of information on ongoing struggles is Corporation Watch , based in San Francisco: http://www.corpwatch.org.

There have been numerous protests at shareholders’ annual meetings of large corporations, focusing on a range of peace, environmental, economic justice and human rights issues. Protests range from questions by nominal shareholders to the platform to protest banners and disruption of proceedings.
Some general theoretical studies which include information on a range of anti-corporate campaigns are:

Crossley, Nick, Global Anti-Corporate Struggle: A Preliminary Analysis, British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 53, issue 4, 2002, pp. 667-681

A preliminary sociological analysis of the ‘recent wave of anti-corporate protest’ seeking to provide a framework and highlight important themes.

Klein, Naomi, No Logo, London, Flamingo, 2000, pp. 512

Now a classic analysis of the role of brands and sources of leverage on corporations, including extensive information on a range of campaigns, many including direct action.

Newell, Peter, Campaigning for Corporate Change: Global citizen action on the environment, In Edwards; Gaventa, Global Citizen Action (1.a. Transnational and Continent-wide Movements and Networks), London, Earthscan Publications, pp. 189-201

Starr, Amory, Naming the Enemy: Anti-Corporate Movements Confront Globalization, London, Zed Books, 1999, pp. 268

Both documents and theorizes the growing transnational resistance to multinationals and neoliberal globalization.

Stolle, Dietland ; Hooghe, Marah ; Micheletti, Michele, Politics in the Supermarket: Political consumerism as a form of political participation, International Political Science Review, Vol. 26, issue 3, 2005, pp. 245-269

A.4.a. Logging and Mining

As reserves of natural resources run out, corporations try to find new resources on remote lands which often belong to indigenous peoples. As a result there are a growing number of struggles by local people against mining and timber companies.

Achtenberg, Emily, Resistance to Mining in El Salvador: A Battle for Water, Life and National Sovereignty, Revista, issue Winter, 2014

Evans, Geoff ; Goodman, James ; Lansbury, Nina, Moving Mountains: Communities Confront Mining and Globalisation, London, Zed Books, 2002, pp. 284

Discusses role of corporations and governments in different parts of the world. Chapters 8-12 focus on resistance in Bougainville, the Philippines and Australia. Chapter 12 (pp. 195-206) covers the resistance to the Jabiluka uranium mine by the local Aboriginal people, supported by environmentalists.

Gedicks, Al, The New Resource Wars: Native and Environmental Struggles against Multinational Corporations, Boston MA, South End Press, 1993, pp. 270

Examines campaigns by the Ojibwa Indians against mining and over land tenure and the role of multinationals in Wisconsin.

Magnusson, Warren ; Shaw, Karena, A Political Space: Reading the Global through Clayoquot Sound, Minneapolis MN, University of Minnesota Press, 2002, pp. 320

Campaign on Vancouver Island, Canada, against corporate loggers trying to take over indigenous land. Protesters blocked roads against logging. Both men and women took part, but cited as a protest organized on feminist principles.

Moody, Roger, The Risks We Run: Mining Communities and Political Risk Insurance, Utrecht, International Books, 2005, pp. 342

Part 1 investigates the shadowy world of international mining finances, while Part 2 has case study chapters on mining projects and local resistance in West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania and Peru.

Moody, Roger, Rocks and Hard Places: The Globalisation of Mining, London, Zed Books, 2007, pp. 213

Detailed analysis by committed campaigner. Chapter 8 ‘No Means No’ discusses strategy against mining, calling for more emphasis on nonviolent direct action and greater scepticism about certification.

Wilton, Jen, Touch the Earth, New Internationalist, issue March, 2014, pp. 24-25

Provides snapshots of struggles by local people against chromite, bauxite, copper, silver and gold mining in Canada, Guinea, Burma, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Mozambique, and notes movement in northern Peru, beginning 2008 and erupting into mass blockades in 2009, against logging and oil drilling.

Özkan, Kemal, Rio Tinto’s “Sustainable Mining” Claims Exposed, Ecologist, 30/07/2014, pp. 3-2

Ozkan, Associate General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, comments critically on Rio Tinto’s record and notes his union’s commitment to campaign for changes in corporate policies. IndustriALL has produced reports on Rio Tinto, for example ‘Rio Tinto in Africa: Global Citizen or Corporate Shame’, available from: www.industriall-union.org

See also:

Margaret Keck; Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Across Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, (1.c. Titles included in Volume 1, but also cited in Sections of Volume 2), pp. 150-60 on campaign against deforestation in Sarawak by Dayaks, who barricaded logging roads.

For additional references see also: Vol. 2: B.2.a. and 2.b. and C. 2.b. and 2.d.

A.4.b. Oil Companies

Bowman, Andy, Shell to Sea, Red Pepper, issue Dec/Jan, 2009, pp. 40-41

Discusses community campaign in County Mayo on west coast of Ireland against a planned gas pipeline and refinery. The campaign involved fasting, blockades and civil disobedience by five men who defied compulsory purchase orders and went to jail. (See also Rossport 5 and Siggins below)

Clark, Howard, An Obstacle to Progress, Peace News, issue 2449, 2002

Campaign of the U’wa people of Colombia to prevent oil drilling.

Cooper, Joshua, The Ogoni Struggle for Human Rights and Civil Society’ in Nigeria, In Zunes; Kurtz; Asher, Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 189-202

Account of one of the best known and documented campaigns against oil drilling which damages the local environment and communities, by the Ogoni people of Nigeria against Shell.

George-Williams, Desmond, The Ogoni Struggle, In George-Williams, Bite Not One Another: Selected Accounts of Nonviolent Struggle in Africa (E. I. Africa - Sub-Saharan), Addis Ababa, University of Peace Africa Development Programme, pp. 68-74

Hunt, Timothy J., The Politics of Bones: Dr Owens Wiwa and the Struggle for Nigeria’s Oil, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 2005, pp. 400

Focuses on the brother of the executed leader of the Ogoni movement, Kenule Sarowiwa, and his efforts to carry on the campaign.

Obi, Cyril I., Globalization and Local Resistance: The Case of Shell versus the Ogoni, In Gills, Barry K., Globalization and the Politics of Resistance Basingstoke, Palgrave/Macmillan, , 2000, pp. 280-294

Rossport 5, Rossport 5 – Our Story, Introduction by Mark Garavan, Small World Media, 2007, pp. 208

Accounts by five farmers (and wives) jailed for resisting Shell high-pressure gas pipeline in County Mayo, Ireland. This campaign against Shell’s gas refinery gained national and transnational attention and support, and involved reciprocal solidarity actions with the Ogoni people.

Saro-Wiwa, Ken, A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary, London, Penguin, 1995, pp. 237

Republished as: A Month and a Day and Letters, Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2005, with Foreword by Wole Soyinka.

Sawyer, Suzana, Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil and Neoliberalism in Ecuador, Durham NC, Duke University Press, 2004, pp. 294

Shows how neoliberal policies led to a crisis of accountability and representation that spurred one of 20th century Latin America’s strongest indigenous movements.

Siggins, Lorna, Once Upon a Time in the West: The Corrib Gas Controversy, Dublin, Transworld, 2010, pp. 448

Account by Irish Times reporter of the ‘Shell to Sea’ struggle and civil disobedience by locals in Rossport County Mayo against gas pipeline, but with emphasis on planning process and legal issues.

Turner, Terisa E. ; Oshare, M.O., Women's uprisings against the Nigerian oil industry in the 1980s, revised version of paper presented to Canadian African Studies Association in May 1992, 1993

Wokoma, Iyenemi Norman, Assessing accomplishments of women’s nonviolent direct action in the Niger Delta, In da Togboa, Edith Natuka; Mintero, Dina Rodriguez, Gender and Peace Building in Africa Costa Rica, University of Peace, , 2005, pp. 167-185

A shorter account by Wokoma also available in George-Williams, Bite Not One Another: Selected Accounts of Nonviolent Struggle in Africa (E. I. Africa - Sub-Saharan) .

Yearley, Steve ; Forrester, John, Shell, a Target for Global Campaigning?, In Cohen; Rai, Global Social Movements (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements), London, Athlone Press, pp. 134-145

A.4.c. Food and Drink Multinationals

McDonald’s has been one focus for resistance, for example through a well-publicized libel trial of two members of London Greenpeace from 1992-97, with the judge finding for McDonald’s on 5 issues, but for the defendants on three; and in February 2005 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that their rights were violated when they were refused legal aid. Nestle’s has been targeted by an extended boycott because of its misleading marketing of baby milk in Africa.
Local resistance to Coca Cola, and to Nestle’s bottled water plants. for their excessive and sometimes illegal use of water supplies is covered under ‘water privatization ‘, A.7.a.

Bove, Jose, A Farmers’ International?, New Left Review, issue 12 (Nov/Dec), 2001, pp. 89-101

Discusses the Confederation Paysanne and the farmers’ international Via Campesina, but also gives account of French farmer resistance to McDonald’s.

Fazal, Anwar ; Holla, Radha, The Boycott Book: Two Steps Forward and One Step Back: Lessons from the Nestle Boycott (1977-1984), 2004

Gill, Lesley, ”Right There With You”: Coca-Cola Labor Restructuring and Political Violence in Colombia, Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 27, issue (Sept), 2007, pp. 235-260

Johnson, Douglas A., Confronting Corporate Power: Strategies and Phases of the Nestle Boycott, Research in Corporate Social Policy and Performance, Vol. 8, 1986, pp. 323-344

Vidal, John, McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1997, pp. 354

Detailed account of the trial of two members of London Greenpeace, who refused to withdraw a leaflet denouncing McDonald’s.

See also:

Naomi Klein, No Logo, (A.4 Resistance to Multinationals), pp.387-96 on anti-McDonald’s campaign.

A.5. Transnational Solidarity with Exploited Workers: Campaigns Against Sweatshops

Resistance to multinationals quite often prompts transnational supporting action, for example at the headquarters of a corporation or at its shareholders’ meetings, and may also (if local resistance is suppressed) invoke protests from human rights bodies. Opposition to multinationals and their activities may also take the form of consumer boycotts. Factories run by multinationals in the developing world take advantage of cheap and often non-unionized labour. But poor pay, long hours of work, dangerous working conditions and violations of workers’ rights may be even more likely to result when smaller scale local companies are under pressure to reduce the prices of their goods by marketing companies and chain stores in the west. The garment industry has historically been subject to low pay and dangerous workplaces, and still is so today in parts of the world, as the deaths of over 1,000 Bangladeshi workers trapped in collapsing factory buildings in 2013 dramatically illustrated. Sweatshop conditions (including dangerous workplaces) can also exist in other forms of production, such as shoes (Nike was the target of a significant campaign in the USA in the 1990s) or toys. One result of these campaigns is that major companies in the west have become (at least temporarily) more concerned to monitor conditions under which the goods they buy are produced.

Ambruster-Sandoval, Ralph, Globalization and Cross-Border Labor Solidarity in the Americas: The Anti-Sweatshop Movement and the Struggle for Social Justice, New York, Routledge, 2005, pp. 224

Brooks, Ethel C., Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women’s Work, Minneapolis MN, University of Minneapolis Press, 2007, pp. 304

Contrasts the necessity of local resistance – e.g. the right to unionize – with the transnational emphasis on consumer boycotts that, she argues, can unintentionally reinforce the global forces they denounce.

Carty, Victoria, Transnational Mobilizing in Two Mexican Maquiladoras: The Struggle for Democratic Globalization, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, Vol. 9, issue 3 (Oct), 2004, pp. 295-310

Godrej, Dinyar, For a Few Cents More:': Interview with Anannya Bhattacharjee from the Asia Floor Wage Alliance campaigning for a living wage, New Internationalist, 2020, pp. 32-33

The interview examines the role of Asian garment workers in a ruthlessly competitive garment industry influenced by 'fast fashion', which intensifies pressure on workers through forced overtime and 'inhuman productivity targets'. The Asia Floor Wage Alliance was created to unite unions across the borders of countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka competing for market share, to create a regional bloc able to negotiate with the global brands in the industry. The aim was to ensure there is a cross-border minimum wage which cannot be breached, though the aim is also to raise wages, which would only entail a small rise to consumers. There is now recognition of the principle of an Asia Floor Wage across the industry, supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO), but pressure on the brands is needed. AFWA works with other labour rights bodies and NGOs, and also has partners in Europe and the US, where the global brands have their headquarters.

Hale, Angela ; Shaw, Linda M., Women Workers and the Promise of Ethical Trade in the Globalised Garment Industry: A Serious Beginning?, In Waterman, Peter ; Wills, Jane , Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalism Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, , 2001, pp. 206-226

Discusses company codes of conduct introduced in response to ethical trade boycotts in west of products made with sweatshop labour, and analyzes the global economic conditions undercutting such codes and the right to union organization.

Hoskins, tansy, Striking Back', (review of film Udita (Arise), Red Pepper, 2015

The film Udita (made by the Rainbow Collective) traces the struggle by women garment workers in Bangladesh to get better conditions and pay in the context of appalling and dangerous conditions. The film stresses the growing resistance by the women and interviews a woman organiser who describes the tactics used to make their boss pay them unpaid wages. It is still extremely relevant as the movement of Bangladeshi garment workers continues. The Guardian Weekly (18 January 2019, p. 7.) reported briefly on a strike by thousands of garment workers for better pay which had shut down 52 factories and was in its second week. The previous Sunday women had blockaded a road just outside Dhaka. The film is made available on YouTube at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_tuvBHr6WU

Johns, Rebecca ; Vural, Leyla, Class, Geography and the Consumerist Turn: UNITE and the Stop Sweatshops Campaign, Economic Geography, Vol. 74, 2000, pp. 252-271

Ross, Andrew, No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade and the Rights of Garment Workers, New York, Verso, 1997, pp. 256

Taylor, Julie, Leveraging the Global to Empower Local Struggles: Resistance and Efficacy in Transnational Feminist Networks, St Antony's International Review, Vol. 1, issue 2 (Nov), 2005, pp. 102-117

Three case studies of networks based in Latin America and Caribbean supporting garment workers (the Maquilla network created 1996) and domestic workers in Trinidad and Tobago; and promoting women’s health in rural and urban Brazil.

Young, Iris, From Guilt to Solidarity: Sweatshops and Political Responsibility, Dissent, issue Winter, 2003, pp. 39-44

On US movement.

See also:

Naomi Klein, No Logo, (A.4 Resistance to Multinationals), pp. 325-77, covering sweatshop campaigns and especially opposition to Nike.

A.6. Global Justice Movement

The demonstrations at the December 1999 WTO summit at Seattle launched the ‘Anti-Globalization’, ‘Anti-Capitalist’ or ‘Global Justice’ Movement into the western media (resistance had been taking place much earlier in the Global South). Although this movement was publicized in particular through its demonstrations at summit meeting of key international financial and economic institutions (see Introduction to A), it was also directed against the neoliberal international policies imposed by these institutions, in particular privatization of national resources and services. As noted under A.4., resistance to specific projects by multinational corporations was also seen as part of the broad movement, and internationally endorsed neoliberal policies strongly favoured these companies and weakened the power of national governments to restrict their activities.

After December 1999 there was an explosion of publications both by participants in the movement and by mainstream publishers. A lively theoretical debate also ensued between critics and proponents of neoliberalism, which is not covered here. Well known critics include Benjamin Barber, Walden Bello, Alex Callinicos, Susan George, Naomi Klein and George Monbiot. An important contributor to the general debate was former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz , who became very critical of aspects of neoliberal policies, and who published Stiglitz, Joseph , Globalization and its Discontents London, Penguin, , 2002, pp. 320 and Stiglitz, Joseph , Making Globalization Work London, Penguin, , 2006, pp. 384 .

The Global Justice Movement brought together many from other social movements, who saw their own goals threatened by neoliberal policies. It also embraced the struggles of many indigenous peoples and exploited workers and poor communities round the world. Although the focus is social justice, the World Social Forum, and its European branch the European Social Forum, which provide a platform for participating groups, also played a role in coordinating protests against the 2003 Iraq War. But diversity of groups and campaigns has also meant diversity of ideologies and attitudes to nonviolence. For counter-summit protests there has been an agreement on tactical diversity, which meant respecting nonviolent actions but not imposing an overall nonviolent discipline.

Kauffman, L.A., Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism, London, Verso , 2017, pp. 256

Examination of major protests and movements in the USA from the anti-Vietnam War mass obstruction of Washington DC in May 1971 to the Occupy movement of 2011. The author discusses the role of feminists and gay activists in launching significant resistance on key public issues: notably the 'Women's Pentagon Action' in 1980 and ACT-UP battling discrimination against AIDS sufferers in the 1980s. The book also examines why some major protests were not well supported by Black activists and how they brought a different focus to others.

Kauffman, L.A., How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organising and Resistance, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 2018, pp. 152

The author, who has experience of organizing mass demonstrations (for example against the Iraq War in 2003) compares two major protests: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (when Martin Luther King gave his 'I have a dream' speech); and the Women's Marches in Washington and across the USA in January 2017. She focuses on the different styles of protest -the first highly organized and centrally controlled by Civil Rights leaders (who strictly monitored the slogans on banners and signs), the second decentralized and spontaneous in origin with a multiplicity of demands and slogans. There was also a major contrast in the public role played by women (not allowed to speak at the 1963 rally and prominent in 2017). Kauffman argues that the mass protests also had contrasting aftermaths - with the 2017 protests leading directly to continuing grass roots mobilization, whereas the 1963 march did not.

A.6.b. Resistance to International Economic Organizations

A.6.b.ii. Opposing World Bank Policies and Projects

World Bank loans for projects with major environmental consequences often prove controversial. For example it was under pressure from human rights organizations to withdraw a loan from the Bajo Aguan valley palm oil project in Honduras which had led to serious conflict: https://www.popularresistance.org, ‘World Bank’s Lending Arm Linked to Deadly Honduras Conflict’ 10 Jan., 2014.

Brown, David L. ; Fox, Jonathan, The Struggle for Accountability: NGOs, Social Movements and the World Bank, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998, pp. 570

See also Brown, David L.; Fox, Jonathan , Transnational Civil Society Coalitions and the World Bank: Lessons from Project and Policy Influence Campaigns In Edwards; Gaventa, Global Citizen Action (1.a. Transnational and Continent-wide Movements and Networks)London, Earthscan Publications, 2001, pp. 43-58

Palit, Chitaroopa, Monsoon Risings: Megadam Resistance in the Narmada Valley, New Left Review, Vol. II, issue 21 (May/June), 2003, pp. 80-100

Anti-dam resistance persuaded the World Bank to withdraw from funding one of the dams, but did not change Indian government policy.

See also:

Margaret Keck; Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Across Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, (1.c. Titles included in Volume 1, but also cited in Sections of Volume 2), on opposition to World Bank loans to projects affecting indigenous peoples, pp. 135-47

Tanya Kerssen, Grabbing Power: The New Struggles for Land, Food and Democracy in Northern Honduras, (A.3.b. Resisting Land Grabs in the 21st Century), focuses on Bajo Aguan valley peasant resistance and government repression in Honduras

A.6.b.i. Demonstrating at Global Summits

The demonstrations at summits of international economic and financial bodies, which began at the WTO Seattle summit in December 1999, involved various forms of nonviolent direct action (and more violent forms promoted primarily by the Black Bloc anarchists), and quite often violent retaliation against protesters by the police. Police violence was particularly extreme at Genoa in 2003 where almost 100 were injured in a police raid. Summits began to avoid confrontation with protesters by choosing remote venues and requiring extensive security measures. When the G.8 went to a small village in Perth in July 2005, campaigners converged instead on Edinburgh. Striking forms of nonviolent protest at summits included Korean farmers jumping into the harbour at Hong Kong during the December 2005 WTO summit and two Greenpeace dinghies attempting to deliver a petition to G8 leaders meeting in June 2007 at Heligendamm from the Baltic sea.

Della Porta, Donatella ; Andretta, Massimiliano ; Mosca, Lorenzo ; Reiter, Herbert, Globalization from Below: Transnational Activists and Protest Networks, Minneapolis MN, University of Minnesota Press, 2006, pp. 338

An in depth look at the Genoa G.8 summit in 2001, and European Social Forum, from protesters’ point of view, based on survey of 800 activists at Genoa and 2,400 participants in 2002 Florence European Social Forum.

Donson, Fiona ; Chesters, Graeme ; Welsh, Ian ; Tickle, Andrew, Rebels with a Cause: Folk Devils without a Panic: Press Jingoism and Policing Tactics and Anticapitalist Protest London and Prague, Internet Journal of Criminology, 2004

Drainville, Andre C., Quebec City 2001 and the Making of Transnational Subjects, In Panitch, Leo ; Leys, Colin , A World of Contradictions: Socialist Register 2002 London, Merlin Press, , 2001, pp. 15-42

Epstein, Barbara, Not your Parents’ Protest, Dissent, Vol. 47, issue (spring), 2000, pp. 8-11

On Seattle.

Graeber, David, Direct Action: An Ethnography, Edinburgh and Oakland CA, A.K. Press, 2009, pp. 592

Participant observation study of Global Justice Movement, centred on case study of Summit of the Americas in Quebec City 2001.

Hilary, John, Anti-Capitalism Alive and Well, Red Pepper, issue Dec/Jan, 2010, pp. 14-15

On 10th anniversary of closing down WTO summit at Seattle, author celebrates the setbacks of the WTO since. He notes broadening of movement, illustrated by role of migrant workers and women’s rights groups from across Asia leading protests at WTO 2005 Hong Kong summit.

Morse, David, Beyond the Myths of Seattle, Dissent, Vol. 48, issue summer, 2001, pp. 39-43

Neale, Jonathan, You Are G 8. We Are 6 Billion: The Truth Behind the Genoa Protests, London, Vision Paperbacks, 181, pp. 275

Starr, Amory ; Fernandez, Luis A. ; Scholl, Christian, Shutting Down the Streets, New York, New York University Press, 2011, pp. 224

The authors, who took part in protests at summits, from the 1999 WTO demonstrations in Seattle to the 2007 G.8. protests in Heiligendamm (Germany), analyze direct action at 20 summits and how government social control (including a Berlin-type wall at Heiligendamm) limits space for dissent.

See also:

John Sellers, Raising a Ruckus, (A.6.a. General Titles), on role of Ruckus at Seattle.

Paul Kingsnorth, One No, Many Yeses: A Journey to the Heart of the Global Resistance Movement, (A.6.a. General Titles), pp.51-62 (Genoa and Seattle)

A.6.a. General Titles

Bircham, Emma ; Charlton, John, Anti-Capitalism: A Guide to the Movement, London, Bookmarks Publications, 2000, pp. 407

Collection of brief articles on key issues, protest by regions, key actors, and assessments by actors within the movement.

Conway, Janet, Civil Resistance and the “Diversity of Tactics” in the Anti-Globalization Movement: Problems of Violence, Silence and Solidarity in Activist Politics, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 41, issue 2/3, 2003, pp. 505-529

Development, The Movement of Movements, Development, Vol. 48, issue 2 (June), 2005, pp. 1-121

Analysis of Social Forum processes, the nature of the global justice movement and the Zapatista experience. NB: Development, vol. 47 no 3 (2004) is on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’.

Drainville, Andre C., A History of World Order and Resistance: The Making and Unmaking of Global Subjects, London, Routledge, 2011, pp. 216

Looks at Global Justice Movement in a broad historical framework and relates it to case studies of earlier struggles in the USA, UK, France, South Africa, Algeria, the Philippines and Jamaica.

Eschle, Catherine ; Maiguascha, Bice, Critical Theories, International Politics and the ‘Anti-Globalization Movement’: The Politics of Global Resistance, London and New York, Routledge, 2005, pp. 264

George, Susan, Another World Is Possible If …, London, Verso, 2004, pp. 268

Committed political and economic analysis of the injustices and dangers of neoliberal globalization by a leading thinker and activist in the Global Justice Movement. Includes brief discussion of campaigns (Jubilee 2000, opposition to the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, summit protests) and ends with chapter on why the movement should be nonviolent.

Goodman, James, Protest and Globalisation: Prospects for Transnational Solidarity, Annandale NSW, Pluto Press, 2002, pp. 276

Analyses by both Australian and international contributors of problems posed by globalization.

Graeber, David, The New Anarchists, New Left Review, Vol. II, issue 13 (Jan/Feb), 2002, pp. 61-73

Gray, John Scott, Essays in Philosophy: A Biannual Journal, Essays in Philosophy: A Biannual Journal, Vol. 8, issue 2 (June), 2007

Includes essays related to the anti-globalization movement and on civil disobedience in context of transnational mobilization.

Kingsnorth, Paul, One No, Many Yeses: A Journey to the Heart of the Global Resistance Movement, London, Free Press, 2003, pp. 355

Wide ranging exploration of campaigns in all parts of the world seen at first hand. Includes coverage of Sem Terra in Brazil, Cochabamba in Bolivia, township resistance to privatization in South Africa, the Zapatistas, opposition to mining in West Papua, and campaigning groups in the USA. See also his: Kingsnorth, Paul , Protest still matters New Statesman, 08/05/2006 , 8 May, 2006, discussing why the Global Justice Movement has dropped out of the news, the turn away from street demonstrations to social forums, and stressing that struggles still continue, especially in the Global South.

Klein, Naomi, Farewell to the “End of History”: Organization and Vision in Anti-Corporate Movements, In Panitch, Leo ; Leys, Colin , A World of Contradictions: Socialist Register 2002 London, Merlin Press, , 2001, pp. 3-14

Monbiot, George, Anticapitalism: A Guide to the Movement, London, Bookmarks, 2001, pp. 416

Nowhere, Notes from, We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism, London, Verso, 2004

Extensive collection of brief articles on campaigns round the world using different tactics and approaches.

O'Nions, James, New Turn in Tunis, Red Pepper, issue June/July, 2013, pp. 30-32

Assessment of World Social Forum conference in Tunisia March 2013, attempting to link the ‘alter-globalization’ movement and the ‘Arab Spring’.

Polet, Francois, The State of Resistance: Popular Struggles in the Global South, London, Zed Books, 2007, pp. 176

Over 40 contributions from writers and activists on resistance to neoliberal globalization, including material on anti-privatization campaigns in South Africa and Indian peasants opposing the WTO.

Prokosh, Mike ; Raymond, Laura, The Global Activists Manual: Local Ways to Change the World, New York, Thunder Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002, pp. 324

Accounts of campaigns illustrating movement building and different types of action. Final section on ‘practical tips’ and list of organizations.

Santos, Boaventura De Sousa, The Rise of the Global Left: The World Social Forum and Beyond, London, Zed Books, 2006, pp. 240

Examines history and organization of WSF and argues need to move beyond acting as platform for diverse movements.

Sellers, John, Raising a Ruckus, New Left Review, Vol. II, issue 10 (Jul/Aug), 2001, pp. 71-77

On the evolution of Ruckus out of Greenpeace.

Solnit, David, Globalize Liberation: How to Uproot the System and Build a Better World, San Francisco, City Lights, 2004, pp. 451

Thirty three essays, mainly by US-based activists, on the new radicalism and direct action in the Global Justice Movement.

Starhawk', ', Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, Gabriola Island BC, New Society Publishers, 2003, pp. 288

Part 1: the author, an activist and ecofeminist, chronicles the global justice movement from Seattle to Genoa. Part 2 explores the future of the movement and debates between advocates of violent and nonviolent tactics.

Starr, Amory, Global Revolt: A Guide to the Movements Against Globalization, London, Zed Books, 2005, pp. 272

Vinthagen, Stellan, Global Movements and Local Struggles: The Case of World Social Forum, In Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), London, Pluto Press, pp. 184-190

Wainwright, Hilary, The WSF on Trial, Red Pepper, issue March, 2005

On the fifth World Social Forum gathering in Porto Alegre.

Welton, Neva ; Wolf, Linda, Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century, Gabriola Island BC, New Society Publishers, 2001, pp. 273

The online version of Vol. 1 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). ICNC is an independent, non-profit educational foundation that develops and encourages the study and use of civilian-based, nonmilitary strategies aimed at establishing and defending human rights, democratic self-rule and justice worldwide.

For more information about ICNC, please see their website.

The online version of Vol. 2 of the bibliography was made possible due to the generous support of The Network for Social Change. The Network for Social Change is a group of individuals providing funding for progressive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, peace and the environment.

For more information about The Network for Social Change, please visit their website.

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A. Campaigns for Social and Economic Justice

A Guide to Civil Resistance

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