Books -- remember them? Those
neatly packeted things you could carry around and open on the bus, with non-electronic
print and room for an author to actually develop an idea or document an argument?
Here's a few to consider if you want to educate yourself about globalization and
the movement to stop it and have an occasional urge to read something longer and
more complex than email:
Maude Barlow and Tony
Clarke's Global Showdown. Toronto, Stoddart, 2001. A clear,
comprehensive explanation of the whole alphabet soup of global institutions,
what's wrong with them and how people are organizing to fight them, by two
of the people doing some of the most important work on the issue. Maude is
head of the Council of Canadians, and a formidable thinker and writer. If
you can only read one book, this is it!
Naomi Klein. No
Logo. NY, Picador USA, 1999. Naomi's book details the corporatization
and logoization of public and private space, from high schools with an "official
soft drink" to university gyms with the Nike swoosh on the floor. It
gave me a much clearer understanding of how the anti-sweatshop movement developed
on college campuses, the conditions youth face today and why they're so angry.
She also includes damning statistics about the reality of life in the maquiladoras
and free trade zones where most of our manufactured goods are now made. Written
before Seattle, it outlines the background out of which the current movement
came.
David Korten. The
Post-corporate World: Life after Capitalism. West Hartford:Kumarian
and SF: Berrett-Kohler, 1999. This and his earlier book, When Corporations
Rule the World, give a powerful analysis of what's wrong with globalization.
In this book, David also explores what might go right -- what a spiritual,
economic and political reorientation might look and feel like. He won't go
far enough for many people -- and writing before Seattle, the direct action
movement doesn't figure in his work, but few people are seriously tackling
the questions he's addressing. Definitely worth reading.
Jane Jacobs, The
Nature of Economies. NY, Toronto, Modern Library. Since I first read
her classic work, The Death and Life of American Cities, I've always
turned to her when I need to understand something about economics. I used
Cities and the Wealth of Nations as a text when I taught Political
and Economic Theory, as her first chapters give a clear, concise summary of
the basic economic theorists' ideas. This slim book, written in the form of
a dialogue, outlines the premises of an ecological economics. It makes sense
even to the economically illiterate and is a good base for considering what
kind of economy might actually work in a just and sustainable way.
Alan Weisman. Gaviotas:
A Village to Reinvent the World. VT, Chelsea Green Publications, 1995.
This book tells the story of an experimental eco-community in remote Columbia
and is both inspiring and tragic. It gives a powerful picture of what can
be accomplished with very little except human ingenuity and minimal institution
support, and then details exactly how the policies of neoliberalism and globalization
undermined and ultimately destroyed those successes. A must read for anyone
who believes that creating alternatives is enough without confronting the
current political and economic system.
Globalize This!
The Battle Against the World Trade Organization and Corporate Rule,
edited by Kevin Danaher and Roger Burbach, contains some of the key writings
about Seattle, including my own letter, Paul Hawken's moving account of his
experience, and Bettina Martinez' "Where Was the Color in Seattle?" along
with other political thinkers such as Vandana Shiva, Manning Marable, Susan
George, Walden Bello, and more.
And finally, two books
on water:
Water,
A Natural History, by Alice Outwater,
NY, Basic Books, 1996. Gives a powerful picture
of the ecology of global water systems and just
what we've done to them.
Water:
The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource,
by Marq de Villiers, Boston, Mariner Books,
2000. Gives an extensive survey of the current
global water crisis, and the complex issues
surrounding water.
