Alterglobalisation

From Green City Wiki

Alterglobalisation - The 80 percent of people living in cities in the EU have enormous power to influence the process of globalisation, which is increasingly affecting every person’s life.

We constantly hear about globalisation, the dominant model of which is one of corporate neoliberalism, which plays a part in the exploitation of people and the destruction of the natural environment. The Greens are not opposed to globalisation, but instead are proponents of an alternative model of globalisation – one of fair trade, the globalisation of human rights, the protection of the world’s natural resources etc. These values can be fought for not only internationally, but also at the city level. In promoting an alterglobal city, the Greens encourage You to:

• find out whether your city has adopted a local policy of protecting the global climate
• encourage your city to become twinned with less wealthy cities in Africa, Latin America or Asia. Europeans must show solidarity in the global village
• buy fair trade products (again put pressure on your city council to do the same). The producers are guaranteed a fair wage and are given the opportunity to improve their quality of life and to develop sustainably
• make contact with environmental groups and groups campaigning for human rights, peace or development policies. Support their international campaigns and encourage your city council to do the same
• show your city council that acting alterglobally will give them international prestige!

[edit] Did You Know?

• Margaret Thatcher, the conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain in the eighties, used the slogan “There Is No Alternative” – TINA to describe the lack of an alternative to corporate neoliberal globalisation. The alterglobalist movement which has been developing world-wide since the nineties uses the slogan “Another world is possible”.

This movement, which Green parties participate in actively, criticises neoliberal and corporate globalisation. We stress the need for: the global protection of human rights, especially women’s and children’s rights, a peaceful resolution of conflicts, measures to prevent climate change and to halt the destruction of biodiversity. In the “alterglobal village” we also call for the democratic control of international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and democratic control of the rules of world trade, currently controlled by the non-democratic World Trade Organisation.