The Global Resistance
Posted on 9 January 2020
The Global Resistance is the new politics of the 21st-century that uses the power of social media to protest.
Since the dawn of the new millennium, there has been a rise of popular movements all over the world and a resistance to the forces of authoritarianism, capitalism, and human rights abuses.
Roots of The Resistance
The Global Resistance has its roots in the 1990s and the emergence of the World Wide Web. Paradoxically, it began as a movement against globalization. The Anti-Globalization movement campaigned against unregulated and unrestricted free-trade agreements between countries as the world became ever more interconnected.
These free-trade agreements were seen as not being ‘free’ at all. They were seen as maximizing corporate profits at the cost of eroding individual rights, uneven wealth redistribution and environmental damage. The philosopher and social activist, Noam Chomsky, stated in 2002:
“The term ‘globalization’ has been appropriated by the powerful to refer to a specific form of international economic integration, one based on investor rights, with the interests of people incidental.”
Noam Chomsky
Therefore, the Anti-Globalization movement wasn’t against a more co-operative world trading among it countries, rather it was against the global greed and unbridled power that was being generated.
From the mid-nineties to the millennium, the Anti-Globalization movement had followers from across the world but no real action. Then in 2002, the invasion of Iraq was on the horizon. As a consequence, many in the Anti-Globalization movement shifted its focus to an Anti-War movement.
By now, access to the World Wide Web had greatly increased and the anti-war protesters were creating a loud voice across the newly emerging social media platforms. In 2003, the Iraq War was imminent and 11 million+ people gathered across the globe on the weekend of February 15, in protest.
Occupy Wall Street
It would be eight years later in 2011 when the Occupy Wall Street movement began. Grounded in the ideology of the Anti-Globalization movement, Occupy Wall Street was a progressive movement campaigning against worldwide economic inequality.
What made the Occupy Wall Street a pioneering protest was that it was the first major movement to harness the power of the hashtag, which was simply #OccupyWallStreet.
It seems strange now, when hashtags are so commonplace, but in 2011 they were relatively new and so was Twitter. The Occupy Wall Street movement set alight social media and it gained attention across the globe.
Now in 2018, a new hashtag has evolved from the many worldwide movements over the years that have campaigned for equality and peace through social change.
#TheGlobalResistance
The Global Resistance is decentralized and leaderless. The movement promotes non-violent activism for a whole range of issues such as anti-fascism, LGBTQ+, peace not war and a living wage.
There is no slogan for the Global Resistance, but if there was it might read something like this.
Newcomers today, welcome!
Feel free to post.
Advertise your own pages of resistance.
Network until it works.
Use the hashtag #TheGlobalResistance.
Image from unknown source
