Grounding Global Justice

Book excerpt: The rise of Trumpism and the Covid-19 pandemic have galvanized debates about globalization. Eric D. Larson presents a timely look at the last time the concept spurred unruly agitation: the late twentieth century. Offering a transnational history of the emergence of the global justice movement in the United States and Mexico, he considers how popular organizations laid the foundations for this “movement of movements.” Farmers, urban workers, and Indigenous peoples grounded their efforts to confront free-market reforms in frontline struggles for economic and racial justice. As they strove to change the direction of the world economy, they often navigated undercurrents of racism, nationalism, and neoliberal multiculturalism, both within and beyond their networks. Larson traces the histories of three popular organizations, examining the Mexican roots of the idea of food sovereignty; racism and whiteness at the momentous Battle of Seattle protests outside the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings; and the rise of dramatic street demonstrations around the globe. Juxtaposing these stories, he reinterprets some of the crucial moments, messages, and movements of the era.