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'The protesters are winning' - says the Financial Crimes...

mango | 17.08.2001 12:02

'The protesters are winning. They are winning on the streets. Before too long they will be winning the argument. Globalisation is fast becoming a cause without credible champions.'

Just an excerpt here:-

'...Somewhere in all this there is a cry for a different set of values. It is often hard to find.

But it is there. And it explains why the protesters are winning. Their constituency stretches well beyond the mostly young activists we see on the streets. Many who abhor their tactics share their unease. Globalisation is unsettling, for the comfortable middle classes as much as for the politically disaffected. The threats, real and imagined, to national and local cultures are widely felt. So, too, are the unnerving shifts in the boundaries between governments, business and multilateral institutions. As consumers we are stronger; as citizens, weaker. '

see link for full article, FWIW! :-

mango
- Homepage: http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT33OYZVGQC&live=true

Comments

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Promising

17.08.2001 16:14

This really is an interesting time to be living through. Who actually believes there is going to be a revolution in the near future ? What are the chances that at some point security will be breached at one of the forthcoming summits. (Front page: George Bush held captive by anti-capitalists !?!?!?!)

...Comments please

Al

depends what you mean

18.08.2001 08:47

I think we are witnessing the beginnings of a revolution. BUT not in the traditional barricades in the street, storming the winter palace model.

We have reached a stage where the existing liberal democracies are no longer supported by those who live under them. At the same time the state is increasingly throwing in the towel and letting corporations run everthing.

The revolution, if you can call it that, is the re-emergence of genuinely democratic movements that attempt to put tyhe real interest of people first. It is interesting that the anti-capitalism puts absolutely no faith in the existing parties to affect change.

At the same time people are, even in the UK, beginning to reassess what work is all about. Why the hell are we working such long hours? Why are we do the media and the corporations always try and persuade us to equate our interests with those of our employers? Why are none of the new jobs being created satisfying our socially useful?

Bear in mind also that the service sector now accounts for 80% of the UK's economy. it doesn't take a genius to work out that 80% of the UK's jobs would be under threat by a serious recession as consumer spending dries up.

It would require a massive change to shift all this stuff. But is comes down to the age old maxim - socialism or barbarism.

Tom

:-)

19.08.2001 12:34

Well at least some common awareness of the problem is emerging - if not the soltion!

:-)

Mustermann
mail e-mail: spam@spam.spam

...

19.08.2001 13:18

Yes Tom, I tend to agree with that. The "revolution" is here, the beginnings of it at least. There is certainly violent opposition on both sides, but I do not think that will be a deciding factor.

In the cold light of day, even the non-politicised people are now starting to scratch their heads and vote with their feet and the current system is seems moribund.

And the more people are weaned off TV and get their information from the web, the more people are asking salient questions.

I think civil war is undesirable. It has a bad track record for implementing sustainable change and in this day and age that kind of instability could bring things far worse than our present predicament.

:-)

Mustermann
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