Geoffrey Pleyers

Alter-Activism : Emerging Cultures of Participation among Young Global Justice Activists

Through ethnographic fieldwork among young global justice activists based in Barcelona, Paris, Mexico City, and San Francisco, this article examines an emerging political praxis we call alter-activism. We argue that alter-activism represents an alternative mode of (sub-)cultural practice and an emerging form of citizenship among young people that prefigures wider social changes related to political commitment, cultural expression, and collaborative practice. Alter-activism specifically involves an emphasis on lived experience and process; a commitment to horizontal, networked organisation; creative direct action; the use of new information and communication technologies (ICTs); and the organisation of physical spaces and action camps as laboratories for developing alternative values and practices. Although observers tend to associate these attributes with global justice movements generally, we contend they are more precisely linked to youthful movement sectors and are particularly visible among alter-activists. Moreover, rather than a complete break, alter-activism expands on many of the features associated with past youth movements, although it is more highly globalised, more profoundly networked, more open and collaborative, and more deeply shaped by new technologies than its predecessors.

Fair-trade coffee in Nicaragua and Tanzania : a comparison

Fair-trade activities in the South have tended to be studied in relation to the internal aims of the fair-trade organisations themselves. This article argues that it is also critical to consider the wider fair-trade ‘arena’ or set of interactions. The authors focus on Tanzania and Nicaragua and study the role of four key actors—small-scale producers, co-operatives, development partners, and public authorities. Using comparative data from field studies conducted in 2002–2003, the article identifies key national and international issues affecting local producers. Illustrating how fair trade evolves differently according to context, the article examines how the co-operative movement in Nicaragua has been strengthened by fair-trade production, in contrast to the situation in Tanzania. It concludes by discussing some of the challenges faced by fair trade, including how to reconcile the demands of the market with building solidarity.

The World Social Forum, a Globalisation from Below?

Like many alter-globalisation1 actors that are influential at the movement’s international level, ATTAC-France, the Committee for the Cancellation of the Th ird World Debt, the Mexican Network against Free Trade, the Continental Alliance against the Americas Free Trade Area and the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South have all been founded by committed intellectuals and scholar activists. All these networks and organizations have played a major role in movement internationalisation process and have remained influential members of the World Social Forum International Council (IC).2 Indeed, the World Social Forum (WSF) initiative came out as an initiative from committed intellectuals and cosmopolitan3 activists. Th ese international leaders largely dominated the first three WSF and gained an unprecedented influence on the alter-globalisation movement. However, besides empowering these cosmopolitan activists, the WSF also provided

A decade of World Social Forums: Internationalization without institutionalization?”

The World Social Forum (WSF) celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2011. Each year between 2001 and 2007 and every couple of years since, this alter-globalisation gathering has drawn up to 170,000 activists from all over the world. In spite of its size, very international nature and numerous logistical challenges, the WSF has not become a tamed and institutionalised place. Indeed, recent meetings were far less institutionalised than their predecessors between 2001 and 2003.

Alter-Europe: Progressive activists and Europe

On 15 May 2011, ten days before the national general election, a crowd took over the Plaza del Sol in Madrid to protest against the lack of alternatives proposed by the two main parties, the centre-left Socialists and the right-wing ‘Popular Party’. Inspired by the recent events in Tahrir Square, one of their goals was to implement direct democracy in the plazas and neighbourhood camps and assemblies. Following Madrid’s lead, Indignados camps bubbled up in all Spanish cities and across various European countries. Then on 17 September of that year, activists set up camp in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to denounce rising inequalities and the power of the richest ‘1%’ over national policies. In its turn, ‘Occupy Wall Street’ inspired camps and actions in dozens of US cities and all over Europe, from London to Moscow. These mobilisations captured the attention of the mainstream press, and were celebrated by progressive activists as a much-awaited reaction against the economic crisis. Yet two years on from that day in the Plaza del Sol, the economic crisis and the austerity plans which generated so much indignation remained at the top of the European agenda. Meanwhile, the squares are empty, tents have gone, and most occupiers’ assemblies have disappeared. Was it nothing more than an ephemeral outcry?