Notes from the People's Summit on Globalization

Corporate CEO's, heads of state, and other power-holders meet periodically to discuss how globalization will benefit themselves and their companies. The mainstream media looks on at these gatherings with hushed respect, asking only how this or that policy will affect corporate profits or help the "downtrodden of the earth."

Left unreported is the fact that free trade policies that force national borders wide open for investment by multinationals enforce a regime of global corporatization. Silent, also in the New York Times and on the nightly news are the voices of dissent. However, grassroots voices are becoming more articulate and persistent with each passing day and each corporate merger. But when activists gather to shed light on the realities of globalization, the press write them off as "anti-trade protectionists."

	"As a high school student, I always like blowing the perception that we all happily wear our Abercrombie and Fitch uniform and are content to relinquish our role as citizens for that of consumer."

For the two thousand attendees of one such recent gathering in March, the People's Summit on Globalization, the term protectionist applies only in that there was a strong consensus among participants to struggle in defense of democracy, human rights, and the environment in the face of corporate-led globalization.

The Summit took place in Boulder, Colorado and brought together participants and speakers from around the nation and the world. It was an introduction to the strategies and tactics of an incredibly diverse movement which is working against thousands of injustices and for thousands of visions of a more just world. It was also an opportunity for activists to remind ourselves that we are not alonein our cities, in our country, and even more importantly, on a global scale.

I am part of the Coalition for Economic Justice, a group of mostly college activist groups at Colorado University-Boulder that organized the Summit over a period of about six months. What follows is a diary of one of my days at the Summit, which I hope conveys both the breadth of topics addressed and the spirit of celebration and solidarity that infused the weekend.

7:30 AM

Arrival

The three days of the Summit are packed, so we're all up bright and early for the first set of workshops. I biked down to the university campus where the Summit is taking place to gather everyone who signed up for the tree-climbing workshop I'm helping to lead. Summit participants are stumbling to the registration table and filtering off from there to workshops like "Women's Rights as Global Rights," a non-violence training, and "Jobs With Soul: Above and Beyond the Corporate Treadmill."

8:00 AM

Tree Climbing

How does spending a couple years up in a tree, protecting it and the surrounding forests from chainsaws wielded by the likes of Pacific Lumber, sound to you? Well, participants in this morning's tree climbing workshop didn't have to sign up to be Julia Butterfly to learn the basics of how to do a tree-sit. The other trainers and I got to the trees early to set up a traverse between two trees and some ropes hanging from limbs for new climbers to presic (a rope-climbing technique) up the rope and rappel down. Luckily the weather is beautiful and unseasonably warm. The fifteen participants listened to the explanations of tree-sitting as a tactic, watched the demonstrations and safety-checks patiently, and then strapped themselves into harnesses, leaving the ground behind (at least for a few minutes). For most people, it was the first time they had put on a rock-climbing harness, and everyone had a great time getting up in the trees.

I worked with two women from Arizona as they made their way up and down the rope. We exchanged stories from the actions that we'd been involved in on Buy Nothing Day (the day after Thanksgivingthe biggest shopping day of the year) and discussed the logistics of banner drops and tree-sits. There are several active tree-sits going on right now in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, and they always need more people to reinforce support teams and take a turn up in the tree. [For more information on tree-sits as a direct action tactic, visit Earth First. For information on general direct action training, check out the Ruckus Society.]