Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Peoples' Global Action Network (PGA) is a global-scale network of grassroots groups, social movements, and trade unions. It was formed in 1998 to oppose neoliberal policies and institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) using extraparliamentary action. Estimates are that 1,500 organizations have participated in PGA-inspired days of action and conferences (Wood 2002). The participants are mostly large peasant/ farmer organizations and indigenous peoples' movements from income-poor countries, and autonomous, environmental, and direct action-oriented groups from income-rich countries.PGA was instrumental in the upsurge of critique and protest around economic globalization and institutions of global governance, such as the WTO and the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations (G8), which were accompanied by large-scale civil unrest in Seattle (November 1999) and Genoa (July 2001), respectively. PGA provided a framework of communication and coordination for radical groups against globalization on capitalist terms. However, by the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, many of the innovations and aspirations of the network were being fulfilled elsewhere.The emergence of PGA can be traced to August 1996 and the rainforests of southern Mexico. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) called an international meeting of groups and social movements ... log in or subscribe to read full text