The anti-globalization movement and OWS

Abstract

In this chapter, I sketch out broadly some comparisons and contrasts between OWS and the Anti-Globalization Movement, which came to world attention with the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO).1 As Naomi Klein put it in a speech at Zuccotti Park on October 6, 2011, "That was the last time a global, youth-led, decentralized movement took direct aim at corporate power."2 At the time, mass protests and direct action shut down the WTO meeting in Seattle, making Seattle shorthand for a new social movement. Today, Zuccotti Park and OWS have emblazoned themselves into the public mind, establishing OWS as a similar benchmark.