Customer comments on this selection.
 Another World Is Possible
In light of the recent U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, this short history of globalization and resistance by Brazilian intellectual Jose Correa Leite proved surprisingly helpful, and at times, inspiring. As a leading organizer of the WSF from the beginning, Correa Leite's analysis is extremely insightful.
Correa Leite begins with the difficult task of summarizing the 20 year era of modern globalization, from 1991 to the present. These are the densest chapters that attempt to describe the economic/political processes which ultimately led to massive rebellions from Seattle to Argentina. From there is the more readable and inspiring history of the global justice movement which produced the World Social Forum--the beautiful "movement of movements".
There Is An Alternative
Hands down the best history of the World Social Forum movement. José Correa Leite, one of the WSF founders, discusses differing strategies of resistance to neoliberalism and what kind of movement building a democratic & just global economy would require; to my knowledge, no other book on the WSF does this. The next generation of global justice activists should refer to this work in order to understand what was accomplished, attempted, and learned through struggle in the 90's (before the U.S. left's political unpreparedness for 9-11 largely hamstrung the movement here). I think it's key to collectively develop a correct understanding of the role of the State in order to build successful opposition to the designs of multinational capital. On that note, this book provides basic ammo along with Cochabamba! by Oscar Olivera.
A good summery of the Global Movement
A good introduction to the Global Movement. The first chapter "Spirit of Seattle" provides a critical, big picture view of neo-liberalism and late capitalism, which the subsequent chapters dive into the specific historical background of the World Social Forum. The book also offers various nifty explinations of basic global institutions such as the IMF and WTO and includes some of the manefestos produced at the WSF.
A good, easy read.
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