Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Women Activists' Accounts

Abstract

Anti-globalisation activists have been thoroughly demonised in the UK national media in the past year, receiving the kind of coverage usually reserved for ‘anarchists’ in the tabloid press. That is, the ‘mindless thugs’ caricature of young white men in black ‘hoodies’ intent on violence. Needless to say, this type of coverage isn’t often accompanied by any representation of protestors’ own views. In fact, when reports of protest can focus on ‘violence’, actual political grievances – the issues and the need for direct action responses to them - are ignored. Even more rare is the chance to hear women’s anger at the injustice of global capitalism and frustration at the broken promises of democracy. This piece presents the accounts of UK-based women activists against global and globalising capitalism. Contested though they are within ‘the movement’, at least the terms ‘anti-globalisation’ or ‘anti-capitalism’ say something about what is protested against, and understood together best represent the perspectives of women such as these.