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Globalize Liberation How to Uproot the System & Build a Better World
The attacks of 9/11 have renewed a hunger for ideas about how to effect change. The strategies and hard-won victories of dedicated activists from global justice and community struggles can provide vision and hope, and in this collection of 33 articles and essays, we hear first-hand accounts from North America, Europe and Latin America. In recent years, thousands have flooded the streets to effectively challenge the global economic system. Globalize Liberation aims to deepen, popularize, update and provide concrete practical ideas for this spirit of resistance and innovation.Contributors Betita Martinez, Starhawk, Walden Bello, Naomi Klein, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Midnight Notes Collective, Rage Against the Machine and more.David Solnit is a founder of Art and Revolution, and was a key organizer of the 1998 anti-WTO protests in Seattle.
- GenresSocial JusticePolitics
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2003
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103 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 31, 2020
3 1/4 stars
April 3, 2019
A formative read for me. Good ideas that have stuck in my head throughout the years and for the most part withstood the test of time.
September 13, 2008
This is a provocative but uneven collection of essays from 2004. Some are dated; some are not that interesting to begin with. Most of them are worth a poke, though, and one in particular is so good that I reread it repeatedly all week long: "Strategizing for a Living Revolution" by George Lakey. Here's a link to the essay online:
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defco...
Lakey is a kickass oldschool activist, currently the Executive Director of Training for Change -- http://www.trainingforchange.org/.
The essay argues that there are 5 stages for the revolution:
1. Cultural Preparation -- popular education, consciousness raising, and overcoming internalized oppression.
2. Organization Building -- creating community, alternative institutions, affinity groups, transformational networks, and radical caucuses.
3. Confrontation -- in which the dedicated few use direct action as street theater to educate and woo the as-yet uncommitted fence sitters.
4. Mass political and economic noncooperation -- as the majority commit to the new vision, they withdraw their support from the status quo.
5. Parallel Institutions -- creating alternative solutions that are healthy, democratic, and free.
Lakey talks a lot for the need for big picture vision, and for coalition building and cooperation among marginalized communities. Here's my favorite quote from the essay:
"The primary task of every revolutionary movement is to create a vision of what activists want instead of the status quo. Vision inspires people to join us because they can contrast it with the consumerist hat tricks that the power-holders use to distract them from planetary crisis. Vision inspires us, because it not only clarifies what we want but reminds us why we want it. Vision reduces cooptation, because its integrity is a rebuke against meaningless compromise. Vision builds unity, because tactical disagreements and personality clashes are smaller when seen against the perspective of our goals."
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defco...
Lakey is a kickass oldschool activist, currently the Executive Director of Training for Change -- http://www.trainingforchange.org/.
The essay argues that there are 5 stages for the revolution:
1. Cultural Preparation -- popular education, consciousness raising, and overcoming internalized oppression.
2. Organization Building -- creating community, alternative institutions, affinity groups, transformational networks, and radical caucuses.
3. Confrontation -- in which the dedicated few use direct action as street theater to educate and woo the as-yet uncommitted fence sitters.
4. Mass political and economic noncooperation -- as the majority commit to the new vision, they withdraw their support from the status quo.
5. Parallel Institutions -- creating alternative solutions that are healthy, democratic, and free.
Lakey talks a lot for the need for big picture vision, and for coalition building and cooperation among marginalized communities. Here's my favorite quote from the essay:
"The primary task of every revolutionary movement is to create a vision of what activists want instead of the status quo. Vision inspires people to join us because they can contrast it with the consumerist hat tricks that the power-holders use to distract them from planetary crisis. Vision inspires us, because it not only clarifies what we want but reminds us why we want it. Vision reduces cooptation, because its integrity is a rebuke against meaningless compromise. Vision builds unity, because tactical disagreements and personality clashes are smaller when seen against the perspective of our goals."
June 5, 2007
Besides being an influence in my life directly, David's book is an introduction to relevant social movements, the problems facing the global community, what has worked and collective answers to them. It is profound, inspiring and informative. It is sure to reframe complicated ideas, inform and shape thinking about resistance and better unify concepts important to us now and in the future. I also like that is is an edited compilation of essays by people in their own words describing their work (not just their ideas). This is an incredible resource.
February 28, 2007
I really love the format of this book - perfect for my attention span and what I'm looking for in this type of book - a strategic analysis of specific campaigns, but written in a way that isn't pretentious.
I especially liked the essay on how 15 Scottish anarchists toppled the Thatcher government through their anti-Poll Tax campaign. I liked the quote from one of the organizers about about how he spent half his time fighting off the ISO and the other half fighting off the Right.
I especially liked the essay on how 15 Scottish anarchists toppled the Thatcher government through their anti-Poll Tax campaign. I liked the quote from one of the organizers about about how he spent half his time fighting off the ISO and the other half fighting off the Right.
August 13, 2007
For most of the book I felt as if I was sitting at a rally listening to a never-ending line of speakers. It is a very important book in the sense of understanding movement building, but tends to lack a well formed line of argument.
Want to read
February 25, 2008recommended by ruth
May 30, 2009
i like the perspective of this book- that it's not "anti" but about liberation and possibilities and real movements.
August 5, 2008
inspiring to pick up when i need a little something to keep me going
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews