Introduction

‘Globalisation’ is increasingly taking hold as an integrating force for contemporary social movements. With the processes and effects of globalisation spreading throughout the world, a range of groups and organisations – trades unions, women's groups, environmental groups, tribal and indigenous groups, consumer groups, religious groups, human rights groups, civil liberties groups, and anti-nuclear groups – have organised to oppose globalisation at local, national and international levels and on a transnational scale. These groups are increasingly taking their complaints directly to institutions, particularly those of the multilateral economic kind, pursuing a ‘free trade’ agenda. Through a series of campaigns during the latter part of the 1990s, most notable of which were the anti-MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) campaign (1998) and the ‘Battle of Seattle’ (1999), they have challenged the infringement of democratic and human rights, drawn attention to the neglect of social and economic justice issues and presented broad alternatives to the neo-liberal approach to globalisation (O’Brien et al, 2000; Ayres, 2001;). Although the focus of these campaigns has been on international institutions, they have also organised against some of the most basic elements of the international economic order.

Through an examination of these protests and the responses to them, this chapter considers the implications of globalisation for social policy. The chapter begins by reviewing recent ‘anti-globalisation’ campaigns (section one) and then proceeds to examine the composition and methodologies of the ‘anti-globalisation’ movement (section two). The following two sections focus on the impact of the movement on social policy through a consideration of statist responses to the protests. Thus, section three examines repressive and regulatory/cooptive strategies, while section four focuses on the changes in social policy areas. The final section examines what ‘anti-globalisation’ movement activity implies for social policy analysis, by outlining in broad terms an internationalist intellectual agenda to structure future scholarly attention in this area.

The anti-MAI and anti-WTO campaigns

The anti-MAI and anti-WTO (World Trade Organisation) demonstrations – particularly those that took place in Seattle in 1999 – are said to have marked a watershed in the struggle against globalisation and free trade.