A Report of the International Forum on Globalization

These are sober, realistic, workable policies, as utopian today as social security and women’s rights would have seemed in the eighteenth century, yet as sensible and moral as these comparable changes turned out to be.
—Tikkun Magazine

The most articulate and powerful voices of dissent; thought leaders who insist that democracy, participation, and common rights form the basis of a world that will provide real wealth for all.
—Paul G. Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce

Written by a premier group of 21 thinkers from around the world, the second edition of Alternatives to Economic Globalization lays out democratic, ecologically sound, socially just alternatives to corporate globalization more fully, specifically, and thoughtfully than has ever been done before. Focusing on constructive, achievable goals, the authors present ten governing principles for establishing truly sustainable societies and describe alternatives to the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO that would better serve the needs of the planet. They offer detailed proposals for protecting vital goods and services from corporate exploitation, limiting corporate privileges and power, rebuilding economies to make them more responsive to human needs, and more.

This revised and expanded edition features a new opening chapter on the global balance of power, a new section on the media and globalization, and a new final chapter on what ordinary citizens can do to fight the injustices of globalization. It also includes many new charts, sidebars, and other updated information.

Written, not as separate essays, but by group consensus, by Jerry Mander, John Cavanagh, Sarah Anderson, Debi Barker, Maude Barlow, Walden Bello, Robin Broad, Tony Clarke, Teddy Goldsmith, Randy Hayes, Colin Hines, Antonia Juhasz, Andy Kimbrell, David Korten, Sarah Larrain, Victor Menotti, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Simon Retallack, Vandana Shiva, Vicky Tauli-Corpuz and Lori Wallach, the report offers detailed proposals, including:

  • the emerging principles that groups around the world assert should underpin new rules, policies and institutions;
  • an outline of the rules and institutions that could replace the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization, and that would promote democracy and sustainable societies;
  • new proposals for responsibly managing the world’s water and other natural resources;
  • a compendium of actual alternative systems in agriculture, energy, transportation, and manufacturing around the world; and
  • a spectrum of proposals to end corporate dominance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Turning Point
Part I: A System in Crisis
1. Conflicting World Views
2. Design for Corporate Rule
3. The Unholy Trinity
Part II: Alternatives in Action
4. Ten Principles for Sustainable Societies
5. Reclaiming the Commons-What Should Be Off Limits to Globalization?
6. Subsidiarity: Recalling Power from the Global
7. Alternative Operating Systems (1)
8. Alternative Operating Systems (2)
Part III: Global Governance
9. New Corporate Structures
10. New International Structures
11. Global to Local: What You Can Do
Resources: Groups Working Towards Alternatives to Economic Globalization