Mood:  incredulous

Notwithstanding the dire warnings of the late 1990's by writers such as Hans-Peter Martin & Harald Schumann in their "The Global Trap", I am just totally gobsmacked at how this whole global financial crisis is unravelling everything.

There were fears expressed just over 10 years ago at would could derail countries - interesting times ... too interesting. The faces and images of this crisis are haunting, with "credit crunch" tent cities around cities like Sacramento. It was chillingly similar to the squatter shanties I witnessed bulldozed by the government in New Delhi in the mid 1980's (associated with later civil unrest)  and to images of the 1930's.

Pink's controversial 2006 song "Dear Mr President", with its words "What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?" was prophetic - however "many radio station DJs had been told they couldn't discuss the track if she was a guest, and that she wasn't allowed to perform it on other U.S. television shows" (Wikipedia). Nevertheless 2009's full reality had been relatively invisible .. albeit reported by some, including Nobel Prizing winning economist, Paul Krugman for some years, Canada's Janet Eaton, American Alliance for Manufacturing, also youtube.... But its highlighting to Middle America by Oprah Winfrey and subsequently the images and stories told in blogs,   & by the world's media, has spurred  great generosity.

Many might also have expected major global massing over the global financial crisis. What so many protested about has actually happened - or even worse than could have been imagined. And yet to some it seems to be a surprising global silence from the antiglobalization quarter ... many journalists and academics are questioning - where did they all go? Yet it seems there are voices out there.

In the late 1990s' it had been feared that unfettered globalization forces might see global corporations having  more power than governments. Reacting to this, MAI groups sprang up around the world, connected by Web 1.0 technologies of the fledgling internet and email  - see links below. As a then elected City Councillor I was one of many concerned at the threats posed to the sovereignty and independence of national, state and local governments. It was important to us as elected representatives that we have the right to make decisions on environmental planning - and not have it determined by the WTO or the like. It seemed like a very broad coalition from those who considered themselves as world citizens and those who could be better described as "economic nationists", eg One Nation followers in Australia and Global Trade Watch in the USA.

As one economist said at the time - it is not globalization itself that is the problem - it is the way that it is proposed to be managed without sufficient governance. The movement continued to build and also veered into Y2K Millennial Survivalism & other areas. Ultimately the MAI was overturned, however the globalization agenda of the WTO continued.  Much of the DFI (Direct Foreign Investment)  negotiations continued on a bilateral, rather than a multilateral, basis. And much of the original MAI documentation was to be implemented into organizations like the WTO.China would be admitted to the WTO in 2001. Along the way, I was one of many however who found the violence, that occurred from Seattle on, was repugnant and alienating. My position had always been one of non-violence. 

Subsequently many have claimed that the antiglobalization movement is dead. At conferences such as that held in Sapporo in 2008 there were more police than protesters. Various reasons have been given for its alleged demise.

• although the movement protested greatly it did not develop solutions
• were some of the early thinkers, who were not violent-hardliners, repelled or squeezed out, by a movement that generated adrenalin through mass violent action - especially when anti-globalization began to be equated with terrorism
• the violence, while attracting many, also alienated those who were more mainstream from joining in at all
• after September 11 2001 the movement evolved into an anti war and anti global warming movement
• possibly the actions became more locally focused than a connected global network eg NAFTA in North America, EU in Europe, ASEAN & APEC in the Asia-Pacific.
• and undoubtedly some became older, frailer and their ever patient families finally needed more attention

2009 has brought some amazing statements - most notably that by Alan Greenspan, "who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laisser-faire capitalism". Greenspan, in his epiphany, stated that "the US government may have to nationalize some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit." Joe Firestone in his blog states, "But now is not the time for unshakable faith in the false God of the free market. It is the time for finding out what works, and for support of a President who will take us to that place wherever it leads, and ideology be damned."

The G20 will have plenty to discuss in March-April  2009 and beyond, and protectionist style "economic nationalism" approaches could arguably just exacerbate the crisis. And although it might be asked if there will be responses from the vestiges of the antiglobalization movement ...  it looks like the G20 could in fact be getting an interesting welcome in London.

MAI related Links from 1990's - 2009:

• Mai-NOT Archives - more - the role of the internet - more by Martin & Varney
• Australian groups, Kerrie Christian's MAI / Brian Jenkins (more)pages & parliamentary inquiry- Hans-Peter Martin & Harald Schumann  ("The Global Trap") in Australia
• From 2000 on - Canada -  Downward Bound & Activism Wiki  / UK / USA - Anarchist Views & Media Mouse