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Taken from Media Education Foundation (Feb, 2002)
Post-9/11 Global Justice Activism
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I don't think it's any coincidence that what happened with this movement against the World Trade Organization and what's happening with the World Bank, IMF, all these things and the conference in Durban on racism and the fact that the U.S. wasn't there and participating, that they were there as disruptors, and reparations and what's happening with Zionism in Israel-you know I don't know the exact equation behind what happened leading up to September 11th, but I do know that there has been a climate in this world that has led up to a lot of anger and a lot of hostility, and I don't think it's any coincidence that these happened a week after the conference on racism. I think these things are all interconnected.So I what I would say is that I hope that the people who are in the anti-globalization movement would be able to draw the distinction between all these things, to be able to connect the dots and see that the way that we are economically hijacking the rest of the world is only creating a soil and an environment for angry people to lash out, and that is the only way that some people feel that they can communicate their message.
And so what that means on the level of the [global justice] movement is that we have to think about our methods of what we're doing to communicate. If we're going to go to a protest and throw some bottles at cops, it's maybe fun, maybe exhilirating it may be adrenalizing, but it's doing a disservice in communicating our message-our message being peace, our message being economic justice, our message being environmental care-taking rather than environmental destruction, our message against genetically modified foods. Our message of social justice across the board is being disserved when we resort to violence.And those people who have chosen violence have done so in a way that is maybe smart for using that means-they go off in the jungle or the desert, and they train, they learn violence, they learn how to do it. For us as peace people, who spend most of our time going to our jobs and doing the things we do on a daily basis, to go out in the street and engage in throwing bottles against police who have armed themselves to the hilt is insanity on a personal level and is doing a disservice to our goals. So I think it calls upon each of us to find that peace in our hearts, and whatever peace that we find is going to be fuel for this movement, to grow and to sustain itself.
And we have to become very mindful or our approach to it, but I think that right now is a winter-we had the wind knocked out of us by this thing, all of us, as a world, had the wind knocked out of us. Now is the time when we're finally being able to inhale again and to take stock.The wintertime is the time when we cut the dead branches, when we prepare for the spring, we prepare for what is the next creative process of growing something beautiful out of this dark time.And so now is the time when we have to prepare.So when this new year comes about, let's use that use the changing of the clock as not just a marking of time, but let's use that as a time when we're going to start something new, and let's re-galvanize this movement and figure out specifically what our goals are, what we're trying to communicate, and let's go and communicate it to the world in the most peaceful and positive and loving way that is going to be an invitation to others to come on board. Because as time goes on, this war, like all wars, is going to sour, and people who supported it at the beginning are going to say, "Is the world really safer now? Do I really feel happier? Are the billions of dollars that we took out of the schools and out of all the other things domestically worth going over and bombing this poor country?" And I think that the answer is always going to be that you can never lose if you choose the side of peace-you're always going to be right. It's an oxymoron-a Just War-there is no just war, there is just war.
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