Globalisation, inequality, injustice and protest

In an article on the worldwide Occupy movement, Saul Eslake concluded:

… the fact the economic gains from the policy agenda pursued, to varying degrees,around the world over the past three decades have accrued so disproportionately to upper income groups has undermined political acceptance of (let alone support for) the key elements of that agenda - including deregulation of markets, reductions in barriers to cross-border trade and investment, and lower rates of corporate and personal income tax.

In short, globalization sharply increases the injustice and inequality it claims to reduce.

The links between globalisation, injustice and inequality were highlighted in 2011 by worldwide protests. There has been much speculation about possible common denominators between 'popular protests' that helped topple regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, have rattled regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, and have highlighted grievances in countries as different as Mexico, Spain, Greece, the United States, Russia, England, Pakistan, India and Thailand. Moreover, the Occupy movement by the end of 2011 boasted protests in '951 cities in 82 countries'.

Compared with the widespread protests of the late 1960s, what stood out in 2011 was the breadth, variety and depth of protests, the range of grievances, the global media coverage, and the determination and courage of the protesters. This was acknowledged when Time chose 'THE PROTESTER' as its 'Person of the Year' for 2011. In his Introduction explaining this choice, Rick Stengel wrote that:

Protests have now occurred in countries whose populations total at least 3 billion people, and the word protest has appeared in newspapers and online exponentially more this past year than at any other time in history.

What also united the protesters was anger about social, economic and political inequality and injustice.

This point was made many different ways. Spanish protesters called themselves Los Indignados (The Outraged) and united under the banner: 'We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers.' Veteran Russian human rights activist Lyudmilla Alexeyeva recently branded Vladimir Putin's economic policies as 'capitalism for friends'. Even Sarah Palin has railed against 'corporate crony capitalism' in America, though it's a strange grievance for her side of politics. The Occupy Wall Street protest movement, which began in mid-September in Zucotti Park in the heart of New York's financial district, targeted social and economic inequality, mass unemployment, and the greed and corruption enmeshing big business, finance and government.

The Occupy protest slogan, 'We Are the 99%', rapidly became the banner for worldwide imitation. Commenting on this, the 'Occupy Wall Street' website wrote: 'The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99%that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.' Kurt Andersen wrote of the protesters: 'they believe they're experiencing the failure of hell-bent megascaled crony hypercapitalism and pine for some third way, a new social contract.' The American Dialect Society voted 'Occupy' as the 2011 Word of the Year.

Former Sydney Peace Prize winner Arundhati Roy, visiting Zucotti Park just after it had been cleared by police and then re-occupied in mid-November, made the point: 'We are fighting for justice. Justice, not just for the people of the United States, but for everybody.' She went on to comment on globalisation:

The Indian government worships US economic policy. As a result of 20 years of the free market economy, today, 100 of India's richest people own assets worth one-fourth of the country's GDP while more than 80% of the people live on less than 50 cents a day; 250,000 farmers, driven into a spiral of death, have committed suicide. We call this progress, and now think of ourselves as a superpower. Like you, we are well-qualified: we have nuclear bombs and obscene inequality.

Most protests in 2011 challenged not just the outcomes, but the very systems that produced them. As Kurt Andersen wrote in his Time cover story on 'The Protester':

All over the world, the protesters of 2011 share a belief that their countries' political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt - sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change. They are fervent small-d democrats.

Greed, corruption, inequality and injustice, the four horsemen of globalisation, were seriously challenged in 2011. But persistence, activism and courage on a large scale will be necessary in 2012 if peace with justice is to be achieved on the global stage.