David,
Thanks for this.
Good News.
Good luck!
David [Crouch]
On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 12:14:32 +0000 David Wood <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> This is a very interesting debate and one that also takes place 'inside'
> the movement. I have a few points:
>
> 1. I wrote 'inside' this way, because it is actually very difficult to put
> an exact boundary on where inside RTS (or other like dis-organisations)
> begins or ends. Like Earth First! UK, People's Global Action (PGA), or
> similar style groupings the name is no more than a banner under which
> anyone who shares the same aims and methods can congregate at any
> particular time or place. It is therefore somewhat structureless or
> amorphous. There are obviously some people who are excluded, particularly
> those who would use these groupings as a platform for racism, fascism,
> sexism, honophobia and so on. You could describe it as broadly
> left-libertarian (anarcho-socialist is perhaps too tight).
>
> 2. As far as where 'the streets' are, this is another nebulous one. I would
> agree that in some ways the term is symbolic, but in some ways it is simply
> a historical accident - RTS did start off largely a agroup fighting to
> reclaim public space (roads) from private cars. However the agenda has
> shifted to a more fundamental one, stemming from a number of factors - the
> rise of the globalisation debate, the Debt issue, and increasing
> polarisation of the broader 'green' movement in conventional left-right
> terms (or at least a realisation amongst many groups that they could no
> longer avoid the issue of where they were in left-right terms). In this
> country this has largely meant the whole movement has moved more overtly
> leftwards (a good thing as far as I am concerned). In others, like France,
> there has been a movement of some groups to the right, and a movement of
> rightist groups into green political territory. There have also been
> increasing links forged between greens in the North and groups fighting
> TNCs in the South (for example, the Karnakata State Farmers, Zapatistas,
> and Ogoni freedom movements). This has begun to close a big gap in green
> political activity and discourse, and has lead to the creation of umbrella
> groups like PGA.
> In short, 'the streets' have increasingly become a symbol or a metaphor for
> corporate property / capital. And, groups have always reclaimed more than
> just the streets anyway - office occupations (including DIY stores on
> occasions) have become more common, as have occuaptions of virtual space
> through fax and e-blockades of corporations and supranational
> corporate-oriented bodies (WTO, IMF etc.). On June 18th far more than just
> actual streets were occupied - banks, offices, corporate HQs, Stock and
> Futures Exchanges to name but a few.
>
> 3. Finally, who is doing the reclaiming? Well, if you combine the two
> points above, you'll see that it can be anyone opposing corporate
> globalisation in favour of broadly green,liberatory alternatives. That's a
> a growing number of hte world's people, more than it looks from the UK, and
> includes Unions, Green, Left and Communist parties, Southern peasant
> movements, Indigenous Peoples, mainstream and radical environmmental and
> development NGOs etc. In practice the groups that actually go onto the
> streets or into offices, and those who write letters, organise conferences
> and so on, can be differentiated - clearly the people who come to RTS
> events tend to the radical end of this broad grouping, IN THIS COUNTRY.
> Howver you look at the huge anti-WTO, and anti-Monsanto moevments in India,
> and you have a whole different picture. THe media tries to make out that
> June 18th / N30 type events are totally different from 'respectable'
> anti-globalisation, but anyone whose been on both ends, or who has a foot
> in both parts, know that this cannot ultimately be sustained.
>
> This is not to say everything is hunky-dory and that there is this massive
> coherent opposition to global capitalism actually existing, but we're
> getting there I hope.
>
> I'll be interested to see some repsonses!
>
> David.
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
> David Wood
> PhD Research Student ('Intelligence Sites in Rural North Yorkshire')
> Centre for Rural Economy
> Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
> University of Newcastle upon Tyne
> NE1 7RU
>
> 0191 222 5305
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
>
----------------------
David Crouch
Anglia Polytechnic University
[log in to unmask]
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