Global Justice Movement - Movement of Movements

Movement of Movements

The global justice movement describes the loose collection of individuals and groups—often referred to as a “movement of movements”—who advocate fair trade rules and are negative to current institutions of global economics such as the World Trade Organization. Furthermore, ‘global social justice’ surely has to mean more than simply ‘achieving income, health opinion and education targets as defined by the MDGs’. The net is cast much wider in the Millennium Declaration (freedom, equality, solidarity etc. ...), and this is reflected in the current emphasis on ensuring a voice for stakeholders, as well as the accountability of public institutions. These are critical, not just as routes to good government, but also, at least in the case of ‘voice’, as goods in their own right. also, rights are central – especially economic, social and cultural rights. Having the right to education or health, is about more than access to schooling or treatment. Having a right to education means not only being able to go to school, it also means having recourse, through the administration or the courts, if a school is not provided. In other words, somebody, somewhere, is accountable.

The movement is often labeled the anti-globalization movement by the mainstream media. Those involved, however, frequently deny that they are anti-globalization, insisting that they support the globalization of communication and people and oppose only the global expansion of corporate power. The term further indicates an anti-capitalist and universalist perspective on globalization, distinguishing the movement from those opponents of globalization whose politics are based on a conservative defence of national sovereignty. It is, however, argued by some scholars of social movements, that a new concept of justice, alongside some old notions, underlies many critical ideas and practices developed in this movement. S. A. Hamed Hosseini coins this new mode of conceptualizing justice accommodative justice and argues that both the very unique nature of the movement and the global complexities of the post-Cold War era can be accounted for the rise of such notion. According to him, "this new concept of justice has emerged from many activists’ experiences of and reflections on the complexities of globalization".

Important organizational pillars of the movement are Via Campesina, the family farmers' international; Peoples' Global Action, a loose collection of often youthful groups; Jubilee 2000, the Christian-based movement for relieving international debt; Friends of the Earth, the environmentalist international; and some think-tanks like Focus on the Global South and Third World Network. Participants include worldwide student groups, NGOs, trade unions, faith-based and peace groups, and publications such as New Internationalist. A loose coordination of the movement is taking place on the Social Forums. However, although formal power is often situated in the global South, the resources of North-based NGOs give these disproportionate power to often informally marginalize popular organizations from the South.