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A MOVEMENT OF MOVEMENTS Is another world really possible? Edited by Tom Merte

A collection of essays by and interviews with some of the well-known faces of the anti-capitalist/globalisation movement, including Subcommandante Marcos, Naomi Klein and the McDonalds - trashing Jose Bove, amongst others.

Mertes offers insights into the histories and ideas behind the phenomena of the likes of Brazil's Movement San Terre, the US Ruckus Society and the recent World Social Forum's. France's ATTAC and life under the ANC in South Africa also get a mention. The book is divided into three parts - Northern Voices , Southern Voices and an Analysis and gives a good overall view on the state of this new wave of resistance.

The books tone avoids the “happy-clappy” image and sloganerring sometimes preferred by writers on this subject but could have done with a few photographs to illustrate the various movements referred to.

“It was with unconcealed delight that the financial press announced the death of what it called the anti-globalisation movement, following September 11. If the celebrations proved premature – attendance at the WSF in January 2002 was five times that of the year before; in November, 40,000 delegates packed the European Social Forum meeting in Florence, which concluded with a demonstration against the war in Iraq that Italian police estimated at 450,000 strong – nevertheless, the acceleration of US militarism since 2001 has posed a new set of problems for the radical opposition....the imaginative direct-action tactics and communication skills of the new protest movements have generated vast amounts of media coverage, itself helpful as further publicity and propaganda, spreading in widening rings. A large and colourful now exists to applaud the global span and diversity of the new activism. Though in sympathy with these rebel instincts, the interviews and essays published here have a different aim. Namely, to take their measure of the new movements – their actual membership and implementation, funding and internal structure, analysis and goals – without losing sight of the scale of the enemy they confront ; the entrenched political and economic power of liberalization across the globe, backed by the unparalleled military might of the US”.

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