Amory Starr

The Bigs and the Littles

28 January 2009

I simply MUST tell you (as if anyone can tell anyone anything anyway) about a recent BREAKTHROUGH I have birthed in my work life – with help, as is usually required, but not always taken best advantage of… Long ago (like at least two years ago), the ever-vigilant B.D. and I, upon returning from our computer programming class (once MIT put its curriculum online it became possible to take computer programming classes in Burning Man workshops near the Pacific Ocean), observed and identified two species of tasks…

About social movements…

21 July 2008

My overview of the literature Key points to keep in mind about social movements there is considerable debate about how to define them. it’s not always a problem. where it does become a problem of course is when you are not sure you’ve got ahold of one or not. Verta Taylor’s 1996 claim that women’s post-partum self-help groups are a social movement is at the core of the controversy, and she waded in there quite intentionally.[1] obviously there is a difference between fashion/fad and movement for social change. particularly since we are talking about, er, shopping, this is relevant. and the definition we use may well determine whether we find that consumer activity can be a movement or not. so we need to decide if we want to go with a traditional definition, or perhaps to go with whatever verta comes up with in the end, which i don’t know having assiduously not read the book. but we have a lot of freedom with this; we can choose someone famous and use their definition arbitrarily but safely or we can search about for or meld our own definition. I propose, for reasons that will become clear in a bit, that

Technophilic Development

29 May 2008

No one existed for them who could not be governed by their intentions, Patricia Wiliams, The Alchemy of Race & Rights M.I.T. has recently discovered third world poverty. A number of institutional projects have emerged which endeavor to put M.I.T.’s considerable resources to use in service of poverty alleviation and development. In 2007 and 2008 I had the opportunity to spend nine months doing ethnographic observation of these projects. As a sociologist of political economy, development, and social movements, I became fascinated with their discourse of poverty and development. I draw on my experience with discourse analysis methods to examine the logics, and subjectivities of these projects. My personal biases in engaging this project should be revealed. As an M.I.T. undergraduate, I have a subtle and sympathetic understanding of its unique culture and the subjectivities it creates, perceptions of which are often distorted by stereotypes about various kinds of privilege and also by commitments to certain visions of the world. As an alumnus of M.I.T’s Urban Planning program as well as its undergraduate experience, I was interested to explore and engage with cutting edge projects.As a scholar of grassroots social movements in resistance to colonial projects, I have a healthy

Alternative Consumption Projects’ Use of Social Movement Strategies

22 April 2008

4.22.08 Amory Starr Boston College Sociology Seminar Alternative Consumption Projects’ Use of Social Movement Strategies The paper I distributed is about local food as a social movement. That paper provides a model that I am wanting to apply to a different, more cutting edge arena, which is what I call “local stuff”. Both in the case of food and in the case of stuff, it seems necessary to consider the possibility that consumption can be political, can be a social movement, and, if so, how. Now the form of my presentation is intentionally designed to avoid the arbitrary closures and authoritative logic of powerpoint. I am giving you a technical handout later, which is more precise than possible with powerpoint, which will enable you to join me in analysis. I am also offering you some visual stimulus, but it does not provide an argument. It is to engage you in making other kinds of connections analysis than the ones I have made. So the paper I distributed provides a background of the synthetic analytic framework I am using for identifying and evaluating a social movement. You can see that I am using mostly newer social movement theory, regarding the

The Local Objects Manifesto

13 April 2008

I’ve been writing about the ravages of globalization and peoples’ ferocious rejection of its conditions for a long time. I researched and wrote about the emergence of an anti-globalization movement before the Seattle protests of the WTO in 1999.[1] Now that circumstances are…er…changing, it’s time to get serious about finding alternatives. Thirteen years of avoiding corporations has delivered a detailed knowledge of alternative production and retail. In addition, I’ve been part of the local food movement from its beginning, and recently I analyzed how it’s been so successful.[2] Just a few years ago, consumers’ fears about pesticides were trivialized and organic agriculture was dismissed as impossible at large scale. Today organic is a $60-90B global industry ($12B in the US alone), 80% of which is owned and operated by the same companies which sell “conventional”/chemical-grown produce.[3] The New York Times described 2006 as “the year of food.”[4] The Times participated in this development early and consistently, noting in 2004 that “the adage in agriculture to ‘get big or get out’ is being turned on its head by growers who are staying small, and getting much more profitable…”[5] A June 2005 weekly Dining section devoted the cover page and another full

Summary of Gibson-Graham 2006

11 October 2007

J. K. Gibson-Graham, A Postcapitalist Politics. 2006: U Minnesota. This book finds a new way of thinking about and working on economic development based on a critique of “capitalocentrism”, a sophisticated and useful concatenation of theories of resistance, and a surprisingly practical approach. The critique emphasizes that “capitalocentrism” is endemic to both neoliberal and left economic discourse. Capitalocentrism privileges “commodification (marketization), the concentration and centralization of capital, capitalist expansion (capital accumulation), labor-saving technological change”. It has also “devalued and demoted” “precapitalist economic forms”, “self-employment”, and the “creative transformation and proliferation of indigenous economies.” [193] It is the tendency to represent economy as a space of invariant logics and automatic unfolding that offered no field for intervention; the tendency to theorize economy as a stable and self-reproducing structure impervious to the proliferative and desultory wanderings of everyday politics; the tendency to constitute ‘the’ economy as a singular capitalist system or space rather than as a zone of cohabitation and contestation among multiple economic forms; and the tendency to lodge faith in accurate representation that guaranteed and stabilized the prevailing substantive framings.” [xxi-xxii] Capitalocentrism involves the “naturalization of ‘the economy’”, and the “shift from an understanding of the economy as something that

after seattle: an activist history of US politics from 1999-2007

28 June 2007

from After Seattle: A Memoir, work-in-progress On a recent lecture trip to Europe, I was repeatedly called upon to explain “what is going on” in the States. By this, people meant several things. Some of them meant how is it possible that Bush was re-elected. Others wondered what had happened to the anti-war movement. Some wondered what the alterglobalization movement was up to. The answers to these questions were similar, because they are interwoven. Each time I shook my head, took a deep breath, and launched into another intricate explanation, I noticed two things. First, the wonderment on the faces of my well-read listeners – this is a story they have not heard. And second, I wondered if this story had actually been written. I am sure many parts of it have been, but it’s such an epic tale that I wondered if anyone had bothered to write it. We all know that any story is very strongly shaped by the perspective of the writer, and this is one in which it is absolutely necessary and revealing to make that perspective clear. Indeed, I foresee that I will have to include a great deal of my personal whereabouts in order

a law, a city, a citizen

25 April 2007

Being on the Other End(s) of Things… By Amory Starr Progressive Planning: The Magazine of Planners Network Spring 2007 Faith is mad at me today. Faith is an organizer with Power Tenants. I believe in Faith. A recent college grad, she’s doing what I urge my favorite students to do –working as a community organizing intern. She’s a good organizer. I recognize everything she does. She’s trying to get me to organize a house party. She’s offering to come by and pick me up for the neighborhood council meeting tomorrow. In a gentrifying neighborhood, fighting eviction from my building for a condo conversion, I’ve learned what it feels to be on the other side of community organizing – trying to work on an individual problem with a collective, long term strategy, fighting my own rage, exhaustion, and disempowerment. I’m also fighting my internalized classism – my belief that because I don’t have money I don’t really deserve anything after all. Today I was supposed to make a flier to hand out down our street. Rose Avenue is clearly the next wave of gentrification-speculation in Venice. The real estate agents have signs on almost every building now. The homeless services center

Is consumption a social movement? investigative questions

13 July 2006

This is written in the context of my summary of social movements literature questions: how shall we understand politicized consumption theoretically. for example, Melucci requires that a movement be in fact “antagonistic towards the logic of the rules governing the system” not just a conflictual “demand for inclusion”? [Melucci 1989: 39] can it be a social movement? (we need to choose a definition) what can we say about it as a possible social movement? strengths? weaknesses? possibilities? directions? (we look for themes and practices discussed in social movements theory and enter into praxis with this movement/activity) – obviously much of the literature above would call into question the objective of “changing corporate behavior” Some options for question 1: MATERIALIST ecological materialism: builds an ecological society by analyzing throughputs, rebuilding life and production one material at a time, internalizing costs and creating “positive externalities” (Naess, Elgin, Hawken, etc.) I think this is sort of the ecological version of socialism, rational organized solidary, etc. NOT driven by expressive purposes. liberation theology/anti-imperialism/take the boot of the neck of the third world = protest the SOA and build Fair Trade shops… (a different –anti-sensual– constituency…) cross-class co-production of [anti-capitalist] ideology: Thompson & Coskuner-Balli [2007.08]

13 Myths about Globalization

4 July 2006

13 myths about globalization this is a very simple lecture. it is not about my research. it is a simple summary of the perspective of global south scholars. everything in it is very easily verified. globalization is the same thing as internationalism. it’s constantly presented to us through the images of family, multiculturalism, and communication. all these things pre-existed colonialism and it simply appropriated them! those policies are essentially a bill of rights for corporations. the WTO describes itself as a constitution for a new global economy. what makes these policies so powerful is that they include the rights to usurp and override any other law, whether it’s local, national, or international. globalization is a set of policies which corporations the right to do business. the images of multiculturalism, family, and communication are used to obscure the policies, priorities, and institutions of globalization which in fact damage families and culture, making multiculturalism impossible. globalization is not trade, that is very old. it is not travel, people have been traveling across the pacific for thousands of years — in canoes! people have been sharing wisdom and enjoying one another’s cultures for thousands of years. and now multinational corporations appropriate those images

Review of Gibson-Graham, A Postcapitalist Politics

24 June 2006

Interview: Food is THE Connecting Issue

13 April 2006

By Christine Petit LOUDmouth 12 Spring 2006. According to activist scholar Amory Starr, she was politicized pretty late in life. She was 20. As an urban-studies graduate student, Starr was turned on to activism through anti-racist, anti-colonialist neighborhood organizing. While continuing her activism, Starr went on to earn a Ph.D. in sociology. She currently teaches at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and at Colorado State University. Her books include Naming the Enemy: Anti-corporate Movements Confront Globalization(2000) and Global Revolt: Guidebook to Alterglobalization(2005). While most of Starr’s work is not specifically food-focused, the implications of corporate globalization for food and farmers often come through. This Is What Free Trade Looks Like,a documentary written and directed by Starr, for example, highlights the impacts free trade has on several stakeholders, including farmers impacted negatively by World Trade Organization policies and agriculture subsidies. Starr also stewards a small permaculture in Colorado and has helped students in the same state protect a campus vegetable garden from institutional attempts to get rid of it, participated in activism around biotech and trade and worked on a research project that helped Colorado farmers direct-market to local restaurants. Her most recent food-related social-justice activism has been in solidarity with

Global Revolt: A Guide to Alterglobalization

25 June 2005

‘A guidebook helps those who search. In a time of “infinite war”, when we confront the infinite stupidity, lies and arrogance of power, we search for those values and practices that keep us true to our dreams and aspirations for another world. This book guides us into that search, and it does it beautifully.’ Massimo De Angelis, Editor of The Commoner ‘A demystifying roadmap of the ideas and events which have shaped the movement.’ Robert Ross, environmental activist ‘Exciting, heartfelt, eloquent. This is the most coherent elaboration so far of globalization-praxis. Its arguments should be taken on board by activists and intellectuals who are serious about social change.’ Patrick Bond, author of Against Global Apartheid “Don’t Owe! Won’t Pay!” “Get Rid of them All!” “No Patents on Life!” “Food Sovereignty” “Another World is Possible!” …The struggles against corporate power and the institutions of globalization grow more courageous and confident year by year. Millions of people have already become active in rejecting corporate globalization and developing alternatives to it. Millions more know that something is terribly wrong and are ready to begin taking action. This book is for them. Amory Starr is author of Naming the Enemy, a precognition of

Crash: Racism as Americana

5 May 2005

Last weekend’s otherwise visionary annual Denver Pan African Arts Society Film Festival included a pre-release screening of Crash, honoring actor and producer Don Cheadle for his recent film, Hotel Rwanda. Crash is an important film to understand. Cheadle argued that he likes the film because it shows people to be imperfect and human. In a lightweight version of Tarantino’s charming intervention, Crash makes us hate the heroes and love the villains — at least for a moment. But the lynchpin of the humanity portrayed is racism. In Crash, racism is the humanity we have in common. Crash is in the genre of those laugh-at-Los Angeles movies, the ones that make even Californians mock our special wierdness (ordering decaf double nonfat lattés) with more than a little secret pride. Only this time the cultural kookiness being celebrated is racism. It’s racism as Americana: everybody has it, it’s who we ARE in this crazy multicultural city. We all get the latest jokes, nobody takes offense, we all partake…In the closing scene the fierce Black woman who stood up to the racist white villain turns out to be a racist too. Of course the movie provides no vision whatsoever of anti-racism. It’s racism

About biotechnology: lecture notes (last update c 2005)

23 February 2005

biotech lecture © amory starr 2005 three kinds of biotechnology biotech crops biotech pharmaceuticals bio-prospecting/biopiracy/biopatenting four kinds of biotech crops increased nutrition/shelf life/freeze tolerant/consistent size/ease of processing (some benefit to consumer) chemical tolerant or chemical-producing varieties traitor/terminator crops designed as a production system for pharmaceuticals or other non-food products the first clue that something is wrong is self-contradiction in the biotech industry industry claims they have created something so “new” that it deserves a patent and they can go to farmers’ fields to check if it’s there and will sue if it’s found and royalties have not been paid but when consumers want it labeled they say “you can’t tell the difference; it’s impossible to sort it out” they claim that buffer zones are enough to control drift contamination, which worries organic farmers, environmentalists, etc. but they are suing outside their buffer zones. and they’re going to places like russia with their test plots presumably because there are no laws and regulations and oversight about drift. drift may be intentional, so that there won’t be any possibility of rejecting the technology. australian farmers, having won the european market which demands non-gmo are now losing their genetic purity because of drift.

Get Rid of Them All & Become a Zapatista

13 August 2004

amory starr “Get Rid of Them All & Become a Zapatista: Autonomy in the Anti-Globalization Movement” Critical Sociology mini-conference, American Sociological Association, San Francisco, 13 August, 2004. i’m sad that Walden Bello is not here, but it’s a bit of a relief too, because i was nervous to speak alongside someone who i see as one of the best models of praxis today. the last time i saw Walden was in cancún, during the wto meetings last September. he was standing on a truck, drenched, having just made the 40km trip around the fence to report to the front lines of activists on the crisis within the wto meetings. he had been working inside the meetings, sharing his research, to facilitate the growing solildarity, resistance, and vision among the global south nations. and then he went back around the fence and was on hand in the press centre to interpret the collapse and to explicitly connect it with anti-imperialist struggle in iraq and Palestine. maybe that’s public sociology. [the theme of the annual sociology meetings this year] i think my role today is to demystify the tactics of this movement, particularly the meanings of autonomy and direct action. i’ve

This is What Free Trade Looks Like

6 June 2004

documentary film by Activist Media Project, 2004. 60 minutes. this is what free trade looks like the NAFTA fraud in México, the failure of the WTO, and the case for global revolt Designed for educational and community use as a companion film to This is What Democracy Looks Like, this is one of the first activist films to carefully explain how free trade operates. It does so from the perspective of the Mexican experience with ten years of NAFTA. Activists and scholars authoritatively condemn free trade as a solution to poverty and discuss the impacts on farmers, workers, youth, and immigrants. Shot in Cancún, México on the occasion of the 5th WTO ministerial in September 2003, it contextualizes the growing international resistance to free trade policies. Music from the streets of Cancún. 2004. Available in English and Spanish. English version Versión en Español represented organizations Vía Campesina www.viacampesina.org Coordinadora Campesina Europea www.cpefarmers.org UNORCA www.unorca.org.mx Unión Nacionál de Trabajadores www.unt.org.mx Congreso Nacionál Indígena www.laneta.apc.org/cni/ Red Mexicana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio www.rmalc.org.mx Comité de Unidad Campesina cuc.mundoweb.org Action Group on Erosion,Technology and Concentration www.etcgroup.org Public Citizen Global Trade Watch www.citizen.org México Solidarity Network www.mexicosolidarity.org Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, Anti-Privatization

Sunstroke in Cancún: WTO Can’t Take the Heat

15 January 2004

s/r home | issues | authors | 33 contents Synthesis/Regeneration 33 (Winter 2004) Sunstroke in Cancún: WTO Can’t Take the Heat by Amory Starr The World Trade Organization is the cat’s meow for corporations seeking to scoop up the land, labor, natural resources, and markets of third world nations. With 146 member nations and sweeping powers to abridge their constitutions, the monster of multi-lateral trade deals efficiently eliminates pesky labor, environmental, product safety, precautionary principles, and investment regulations. For people who don’t stand to profit from liquidating national resources or wanton international trading, the WTO endangers every aspect of life and society. Opposition to the WTO grew steadily throughout its first decade. Its 1999 third biannual Ministerial foundered on excellent street protests and third world solidarity in Seattle. Two years later, the ministers huddled in Qatar, where civil protest is illegal. Although the first world relaxed its demand for patent payments slightly to mollify African nations’ concerns with the HIV/AIDS crisis, concessions granted in Qatar are yet to be implemented. Facing a burgeoning crisis of legitimacy, the WTO had to come back into the “sunshine” of public discourse. Arriving at the Vegas-esque hotel zone in

Miami FTAA November 2003

29 November 2003

hunted in miami, “the model for homeland defense” amory starr 29 November, 2003 (a shorter version was printed as “Free trade in the Americas: the very best in extrajudicial operations” The Commoner n.9.) audio report “…a sweep”, came the call, but i didn’t know what it really meant. it was just another cop word whispered by another paranoid activist. there were three landlines and twelve cell phones ringing and our internal nextels were beeping and buzzing. i was supposed to “coordinate incoming information” for Miami Activist Defense, the legal collective set up to provide support activists protesting the ftaa meetings.* over the next hours i learned that a sweep means a fifteen-block-wide wall of vaderesque police shoulder-to-shoulder moving north, doing violence to every person in their path. the callers were all breathing hard. i realized that most of my closest friends were being hunted through the streets of miami. the MAD phones had already been ringing fairly constantly for days with reports of detentions, illegal searches, bizarre arrests of medics and legal observers, persistent and intrusive surveillance and invasion of activist spaces, including media and medical spaces. in a chilling echo of the iraq war (for which part of the

Critical Globalization Studies: Lecture Notes & Audio recording (last update c 2003)

22 September 2003

In 2005, LA Sound Posse, asked me to record my lectures on globalization. The audio is available at Radio4All.

Cancún, México 5th WTO Ministerial

10 September 2003

Cancún, México 5th WTO Ministerial 2003 daily reports 10-14 September audio reports “Sunstroke in Cancún” Synthesis/Regeneration: A Magazine of Green Social Thought 33: 1, 35-6. 10 September i am in cancún méxico for the 5th wto ministerial. at today’s campesino march there was present a delegation from korea, with drums, puppets, and very forceful speakers (translated into spanish). i don’t know how many they were. they marched with about 5 thousand mexican campesinos (farmers), mostly from the state of quintana roo; a thousand or so mexican students from mexico city; and perhaps a couple of thousand internationals. we arrived at the 12′ orange fence separating the town of cancun from the reef where is the hotel zone and the convention center. arriving at the fence the campesinos’ agreement to pass through was broken by the policia (although we are not sure the exact nature of this agreement) and there was some conflict involving the militants. finally, one of the korean delegation climbed to the top of the fence and commit suicide by knife. he fell back on the side of the protesters and was quickly taken to hospital by proteccion civil (the civil protection which assists people during hurricane and so

critical globalization studies

25 June 2003

this lecture is an introduction to what i call “critical globalization studies”, which reflects the work of an international group of scholars, primarily economists and historians. there are a few premises of critical globalization studies: globalization is not the same thing as humanitarian internationalism, the process by which people sort of travel around and work together and develop sympathy for one another and build relationships and have inter-cultural experiences. we call that ‘internationalism’ and globalization refers to something else, which is a set of economic and political processes. globalization is constantly described as “natural”, “evolutionary”, “inevitable”, and “progress”. CGS does not accept any of those terms. we hear about glob as if it’s a brand new phenomenon. in fact it’s not entirely new, although it has some new components. so CGS sees that it is very important to acknowledge 4 historical phases of globalization. the first phase of globalization was European colonialism british, french, portuguese, Spanish, dutch conquests of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and parts of Asia took place from 1400s to 1900s. the purpose of colonialism was to control land, labor, natural resources, and markets realize: people were doing fine. had agriculture, trade,

Sacramento biotech 22-25 June 2003.

22 June 2003

j23 sacramento 2003 action report/fieldnotes amory starr three months before the cancun WTO ministerial, at which third world resistance to biotech is a huge stumbling block, the US Department of Agriculture invites ministerial delegations from 180 countries to a tightly controlled meeting with biotech companies. only 75 of the countries accept the invitation (123 of 540 invited delegations) and the EU pulls out at the last minute. activists come from the whole west coast. there were 9 of us from fort collins plus a member of our community who now lives in the sacramento area. we also traveled with some denver folk. these are my fieldnotes and observations. they contain some experiences and ideas from other members of the affinity group, but are neither comprehensive nor fully collective. the mobilization wasn’t huge, but it was mostly uncontrolled by police. even the permitted march was apparently seen as a threat, and was attacked by police. the message and focus of the protests was very clear at all times, with great art, lots of leafleting, and informed activists talking, talking, talking about the issues. there were awesome affinity group actions, fantastic infrastructure, much less vanguardism than recent actions, security culture didn’t

THIS is what Democracy Looks Like: Letter to the editor…

13 January 2003

“This is What Democracy Looks Like” letter to the editor, Santa Barbara Independent 1.13.03 I’m home for the holidays, so I strap on my cock rocket (a missile-shaped phallus made of cardboard and tinfoil), slip into my George W. mask, and head down to the weekly peace march. I am happy to find the movement growing rapidly. But I am also attacked by a fellow activist who feels justified in destroying my costume because he feels it discredits the movement. Only one witness involves themselves. It is well known that the WTO protests in Seattle were effective because the only masterplan was trust in the genius of people. The “magic” of Seattle has come to be called “diversity of tactics”, about which I want to convey three points. First, every tactic accomplishes something and makes a contribution to the larger struggle as we converge. In Seattle, some people secured permits and marched, others blocked traffic with sophisticated lock and tripod systems, some hung educational banners from cranes and buildings, some invaded the newspaper boxes to spread the people’s news, some prepared for civil disobedience to raise the costs to the system, some engaged in “property crime street theater”, others wore

Can Industrial Agriculture Feed the World?: 2002 Lecture to the Collegiate Farm Bureau

16 April 2002

Collegiate Farm Bureau Colorado State University Annual Ag Week Lecture Can Industrial Agriculture Feed the World? 16.April 2002 Good evening. I’m really happy that the Collegiate Farm Bureau asked me to speak and be part of this lecture series. And I am very excited that there is interest in questioning and debating mainstream industrial agriculture. What I want to do tonight is to review the major premises that drive today’s industrial agriculture and share with you some of the critical viewpoints and alternatives being proposed to challenge it. I’m going to start by summarizing the premises of industrial agriculture and then i’m going to go back through and present the critiques and alternatives. The most important premise that drives industrial agriculture is the claim that agricultural scientific research and development are devoted to “feeding the world” and have provided important steps forward which address hunger in the third world and elsewhere. This industrial system rests on the economic idea of comparative advantage which encourages nations, regions, and localities to export what they are good at producing and import what they need. In order to export as much as possible, they should monocrop which means grow fields that contain only a

directions for the anti-corporate globalization movement

14 April 2002

Amory Starr roundtable on “directions for the anti-corporate globalization movement” with Bernard Cassen (President of ATTAC, France), Gerald Horne (U of Noth Carolina), Dennis Brutus (Jubilee), Barbara Garson (author), Dot Keet (Institute for African Alternatives) Socialist Scholars Conference Cooper Union New York City 14 April 2002 Who knows why i’m wearing a tutu? Who’s heard of the Blakc Bloc? Pink Bloc? Good. the Prague September 2000 IMF protests was, as far as i’ve been able to discover, the first manifestation of tactical frivolity, which has the effect of celebrating that we are in resistance, asserting our coinfidence in the thousands of alternatives to the system we are fighting, and reflecting back in the form of the protest the absurdity of the policies and institutions in power. i want to start by saying that i am not representing the movement. i am reflecting on it as a scholar who is also an activist. i want to say something about the perspective that i’m coming from. i am part of what i call a “rank and file” affinity group. We are not part of the non-leadership of the movement. We have taken 69 people to mass actions in Seattle, DC, both

the new imperialism

13 April 2002

Amory Starr panel on “the new imperialism” with Leo Panitch, Sam Gindin, Michael Hardt, Peter Gowan Socialist Scholars Conference Cooper Union New York City 13 April 2002 What i’m going to do is a little tour of what i’m going to call ‘anti-imperialist policies’. i know that ‘policy’ is kind of a strange term to use when we need a revolution, but the reason that i want to use it is to sort of move from high theory of imperialism to what the anti-imperialist struggles on the ground are doing. It’s an activist briefing if you will. Now i am leaving off policies regarding us militarism because it’s been so well addressed already in this conference and we’re only ¼ of the way through. Also i want to note that i’m presenting the policies from a third world perspective. Anti-imperialism is their movement. i’m a black power type, so i try to take my cue from the people most affected. i’m going to do 7 policies. debt: Dot Keet used the phrase ‘repudiation of the debt’ last night. I want to expand on that issue. The South-South Summit in Gauteng, South Africa in 1999 demanded restitution and reparations “in

the international context of anti-globalization: key concepts

15 February 2002

“the international context of anti-globalization: key concepts” Amory Starr Arizona State University, Phoenix Department of Justice Studies 2.15.02 It’s really a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation. And thanks to Luis for all the back and forth to make it happen. Now I’m happy to be here, but I’m not sure where I am. so can i just start by asking you all a few questions, to get a sense. How many of you knew about the WTO before Seattle? Who has been to one of the mass actions? seen a documentary film about the actions? Who uses Indymedia as a news source? If I say Porto Alegre, how many people know what that means? How many of you feel comfortable taking openly anti-war positions here in the department? And how many of you feel comfortable talking about 911 in the context of imperialism? Alright, thank you. This lecture is a series of advertisements, admonishments, and heresies. And there’s a resource list at the back of the room to help you follow up on some of the stuff i’ve talked about. First advertisement is a series of video clips i chose from independent

New York City World Economic Forum 31 Jan – 3 Feb 2002

31 January 2002

Report from F2 manifestations against the World Economic Forum Meetings, New York City (January 31-Feb 3, 2002) The Divas for Democracy, an affinity group including 6 Divas from Colorado and one from Queens, NY, took a week off from work and school and drove to New York City to protest the World Economic Forum (WEF). Five of us were participating in mass actions for the first time. Our organization sent affinity groups to Seattle, DC a16 2000, the RNC, D2KLA, TABD in Cincinnati (Nov 2000), Québec City, the San Diego actions simultaneous with QC, and last September’s DC action. i myself was at all of the above except RNC and San Diego. The organizing structure We attended the Students for Global Justice teach-in on January 31 and February 1st at Columbia University. We attended the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (ACC) spokescouncil on the 31st and the joint ACC and Another World is Possible (AWIP) spokescouncils on the 31st, 1st, and 2nd. We learned from the spokescouncils that AWIP had decided to do a permitted march. They were using the Québec City terminology of zones labeled green (“safe” zone in which mutual promises have been negotiated with police), yellow (classic pacifist non-violent civil

naming the enemy, before seattle: an autochthonous book review

25 January 2002

naming the enemy, before seattle: an autochthonous book review WorldReview, 5:1 (2002): 14-16. other peoples’ reviews… The bulk of the research for Naming the Enemy was done between 1994 and 1998. The idea was to document that communities all over the world were facing off against multinational corporations. I hoped agreement about an enemy might help these communities join together and intended to encourage use of the term ‘anti-corporate’ to this end. Before the book even appeared, ‘anti-corporate’ had become common parlance and i hopped happily off to the mass protests. The WTO Ministerial in Seattle was a tactical smoke signal that said “we are with you”. And that was how it was recognized in places where broken windows were not worth discussing. The book is more useful now than it would have been in advance of the movement. It lays out the various ideologies of all the movements I could find, internationally, which were explicitly or implicitly fighting corporations before they reframed themselves around the new signifier, “Seattle”. This attention to ideology accomplishes two tasks: First it documents the sound empirical bases for movements’ diverse grievances with corporations, demonstrating that activists the world over are well-informed about what we

The Role of the University and the Role of Student Power

10 October 2001

“The Role of the University and the Role of Student Power” The University: Fortress or Beacon: Open Forum Colorado State University, 10 October, 2001 I want to start with a quote from the former President of Tanzania, Julius K. Nyerere. “There is, in fact, only one reason why underdeveloped nations like ours establish and maintain universities. We do as an investment in our future. We are spending large and disproportionate amounts of money on a few individuals so that they should, in the future, make a disproportionate return to society.” (Man & Development, 1974) That was the first thing I read during college that suggested that I wasn’t just in college for my own development, to make money, to build a career. you’re not here for you. Next I want to read from Oscar Arias, the former President of Costa Rica, who spoke at the 1988 Harvard University Graduation: “The majority of young people in this world are neither here nor in the other university graduations. That majority, if they are lucky, got up early today to plow fields or to start up machines in factories. Others face a day of begging for food and water. Young people like yourselves

Why Imperialism is Important

1 October 2001

“Why Imperialism is Important” article printed in Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, 1 October 2001 Why Imperialism Is Important Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, 1 October 2001 In the past days there have been a lot of interesting things to talk about. I particularly enjoy conspiracy theory and feminist readings of the events. However, I see such speculation as an entertaining break from the real work that faces critical citizens today: understanding and explaining the United States’ imperialism. Most critical analysts responded to the “attack” by expressing grief and then enumerating similar or even more grand “tragedies” elsewhere which were actually massacres armed and engineered by the U.S. These are well documented, constant and damning. (William Blum’s Rogue State is a good starting place.) We must keep the focus on the history of U.S. intervention, not only in the Middle East, but also in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. Those of us who have been fighting neoliberalism, globalization and capitalism need to learn better the connections of militarism to U.S. economic projects. Both U.S. military policy and economic policies we enforce through the World Bank, IMF and Free Trade Agreements actively undermine any nations that erect socialist, fundamentalist or even democratic regulatory

Washington DC anti-war 29 & 30 September 2001

29 September 2001

updates from the dcS29 crew Friday in DC: DC seems quite normal to us, we have not seen significant police or military presence at all. But we learned that the HUM-Vee’s were in the streets until just a couple of days ago and that cops have been making very threatening public statements against protesters. There is local media torpor about anti-globalization activists being terrorists. Also normal rights in jail have been suspended, such as phone calls and speedy trials. Attended the People’s Summit Teach-In with useful sessions on structural adjustment, Palestine, and U.S.-Gulf States Relations. (I learned that the US underwrites the Gulf States regimes, most of which are emirates and other kinds of royal/dictatorial regimes. This means that the people of most Arab states are resentful of how our support for their elitist diminishes the possibilities of any kind of social movements there. We control Arab oil not for our own purposes of consumption but because it is the “gas pump for capitalism”, meaning that we control the supplies for Japan and Europe, which is part of our power over the whole capitalist system. Israel is more often than not an inconvenience to this project because the Arab states

naming the “anti-“: interview in the Manitoban

26 September 2001

naming the “anti-“ Amory Starr confronts globalization by Michelle French Features Editor The Manitoban, 26 September 2001. Amory Starr is an activist and professor of sociology from Colorado State University. She is the author of Naming the Enemy: Anti-Corporate Movements Confront Globalization. Amory spoke at the Mondragon on Saturday, September 8. Picture this: I’m “conducting an interview” with Amory Starr in the back of the Mondragon Bookstore and Coffee House. Besides being interrupted by a collective member in search of tortilla chips, and another looking for brownies, everything is going smoothly, except that I can’t get my minidisk recorder to work (Amory fixes it for me), and the batteries are dead – (we search out a wall plug). In the end Amory and I keep the freezer warm (it was the closest place to a plug). I’m standing up against it, Amory’s sitting on it, and the minidisk recorder is sometimes in proper operation between us. It’s not your standard interview, but then what do you expect with a non-standard activist? I say this because when I think “professor of sociology,” I don’t automatically acquaint this with “mass protest hopper.” The closest merger I can accomplish is the “sociological advocate.”

Harbor Lights

12 September 2001

“Harbor Lights” (9.12.01) context of the Sept 11 attacks on the WTC & Pentagon, The Manitoban, 26 September 2001. A British analyst on late night NPR Tuesday night emphasized that this is exactly what it is like in most of the rest of the world most of the time — the sense of not knowing what is going to happen next, the fear for safety of family members, the sense of outrage and injustice. Knowing this, one of my students cried as she described how hard it was to hear her mother say “this wasn’t supposed to happen to us”. If we are to avert future civilian deaths, the most important thing we must do is reflect on the role we play in that reality of constant violence and in the unresolved conflicts which visit terror on so many peoples every day. The violence which threatens most of the world is done with weapons we made and sold, according to military advice and training we provided, almost always with the tacit tolerance when not the explicit support of our nation. Why might people burn our flag yesterday or any other day? Because the bullets that fall on their children carry

People of color and work in the United States

25 June 2001

People of color & work in the US compiled by Professor Amory Starr Historical Resources Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White Stephen Steinberg, The Ethnic Myth I’m going to give you a little tour of ‘people of color’ and work in the US. After the civil war, the freed slaves wanted land. You may have heard the phrase “40 acres and a mule”. And this was done temporarily in some places. But very quickly that land was restored to the white landowners, leaving most slaves landless. The system of sharecropping emerged. In this system, freed slaves did much the same sort of work they had done, but they were officially being paid. But this wasn’t the end of the story. Since the slaves now had to buy items for their basic needs like food and clothing from the owners, they were constantly in debt. This could be called “debt slavery”. So the end of what was called “chattel slavery” meant that the person’s body was no longer owned, but since their debt was owned they still didn’t have much freedom

Québec City FTAA 20 & 21 April 2001

20 April 2001

The Manifestation Québec City, Friday & Saturday April 20 & 21, 2001 It’s a bit hard to figure out what happened in Québec City, even if you were there. Everyone does seem sure that there was a lot of tear gas. There was little to no information in the streets and the CMAQ/IndyMedia center was mysteriously non-operative during the protests, failing to post until late Saturday night. Despite the lack of information, already some are claiming the Québec City protests a success. But the difference between us and them is supposed to be that we don’t lie. Did we disrupt the meetings? Friday night television showed all the relevant heads of state successfully ensconsed in wing chairs on a diaz. The meetings were briefly delayed, but not seriously affected, due to tear gas in the buildings — but a combination of police overkill and a west wind is hardly our victory. Did we encourage dissent within the Summit, as in Seattle? Apparently not, as they all signed the “onward with the FTAA” communiqué. Did we contribute to raising the level of public debate on neoliberalism? Our preliminary media analysis suggests that this did occur, but credit may well be primarily

Whose FTAA?

1 April 2001

Whose FTAA? Rocky Mountain Bullhorn, 1 April 2001 Amory Starr Why can’t we leave all the complicated economics to the professionals? Because these agreements affect not only “trade”, but every aspect of life. Despite this, the “free trade agreements” (NAFTA, GATT/WTO, and the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas, FTAA) are crafted in secret, with input only from multinational corporations. Citizen organizations of all kinds are kept out, as are our elected representatives. It’s time for everyone to learn how, and for whom, free trade agreements work. What’s a “tariff”? Under NAFTA, Mexico was forced to drop import tariffs designed to protect the national corn market. This meant that subsidized American corn could be sold in Mexico under the price of production, driving millions of small-scale Mexican corn farmers out of business. Now they stand outside the border sweatshops, hoping for a job that used to be worked by a unionized American. Welcome to the global economy! The FTAA demands all tariffs to be dropped to “facilitate trade”, but for Caribbean countries tariffs are a main source of income with which to pay their crushing debts to the IMF and World Bank. What’s a “non-tariff barrier”? Well, 80% of

Visions of a Post-Corporate Society

19 November 2000

Visions of a Post-Corporate Society at Parkland Institute, November 2000 I just came from the streets and it’s hard to make the transition. So help me out here with a little chant. “Disease & Starvation. Will not be cured by corporations. That’s Bullshit. Get Off it. The enemy is Profit.” Good morning. I’m very happy to be here, finally. I’m sorry to have missed the first part of the conference and the opportunities for dialogue. Well here I am again, me & the socialist talking about how we ought to rebuild the world. Last time I did this I had Ramona Africa in my corner, which was a great help, but I’ll have to go it alone this time. I do want to begin by repeating Kevin Danaher’s point that our most important priority right now is building the movement. It is not up to us in this room to make vanguard proclamations about where to go and how. What we can do, and what the International Forum on Globalization has been particularly helpful in doing, is to provide scholarship that encourages, inspires, and instigates all kinds of struggles and helps people get through the many difficulties they will face

Los Angeles Democratic National Convention August 2000

14 August 2000

What happened to DAN in LA?: speculative notes I am an activist from the anti-globalization movement and am also an anti-racist activist. I spent Aug 5th – 19th in LA in and around the DAN movement as an ordinary participant, as I did in Seattle and DC. In LA, I volunteered with the Midnight Special Law Collective and attended Spokescouncil and actions with my affinity group. I worked “security” for the Q&A march, in response to a request at Spokescouncil. This article is written from the perspective of an ordinary so-called “Continental DAN” person (in LA terminology, an “outsider”) who came to LA to further the struggle against corporate colonialism. The stories of what must be called DAN-LA “insiders” will be very different than this one, and I hope to hear them. The purpose of this article is twofold: First, I hope to convey some promising and some problematic aspects of what happened in LA to allies who were not there, in order to enhance their understanding of what happened. Second, I am worried about how democracy and diversity played out within DAN-LA and hope by publishing my incomplete understandings of these very difficult issues to inspire people who were

AMORY STARR