Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 11 Jan 2008
Spillover or Spillout? The Global Justice Movement in the United States After 9/11
Spillover or Spillout? The Global Justice Movement in the United States After 9/11
and
Page Range: 359 – 376
This article focuses on a seemingly paradoxical sequel to the 1999 Seattle WTO protests: the weakening of the global justice movement in the United States. While the movement has flourished in Europe, it seems largely to have stagnated in the American context. This outcome cannot be explained by either American exceptionalism or by a general decline in activism in the wake of the tragedies of 9/11 and the Iraq War. First comparing expressions of the American and European global justice movements and then turning to original data on social movement organizing in Seattle after 1999, we argue that the weakness of the American global justice movement can be tied to three key factors: (a) a more repressive atmosphere towards transnational protest; (b) a politically inspired linkage between global terrorism and transnational activism of all kinds; and (c) what we call "social movement spillout." We further argue that the strongest movement since September 11th—the antiwar movement—exemplifies a broader trend in the United States towards the "spillout" of transnational activism into domestic protest.
ACLU. 2007. "No Real Threat: The Pentagon's Secret Database on Peaceful Protest." Retrieved April 8, 2007 http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/spyfiles_norealthreat_20070117.pdf.
Anonymous activist. 2007. Interview with author Jennifer Hadden, January.
Anonymous participant. 2007. Interview with author Jennifer Hadden, January.
Bandy, Joe and Jackie Smith, eds. 2005. Coalitions Across Borders: Transnational Protest and the Neoliberal Order. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Becker, Marc. 2006. [Report on the Midwest Social Forum.] Retrieved October 9, 2007 http://www.nigd.org/docs/MidwestSocialForumMarcBecker2006
Bullock, Cathy F., Michael McCluskey, Keith Stamm, Keiko Tanaka, Marcos Torres, and Cathie Scott. 2002. "Group Affiliations, Opinion Polarization, and Global Organizations: Views of the World Trade Organization Before and After Seattle." Mass Communication and Society 5: 433-50.
Cooper, Marc. 2002. "From Protest to Politics." The Nation. Retrieved April 8, 2007 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020311/cooper
Cortright, David. 2004. A Peaceful Superpower: The Movement against War in Iraq. Goshen, IN: Fourth Freedom Forum.
della Porta, Donatella, ed. 2007. The Global Justice Movement: A Cross-National and Transnational Perspective. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
della Porta, Donatella, Abby Peterson, and Herbert Reiter, eds. 2006. The Policing of Transnational Protest. Aldershot: Ashgate.
della Porta, Donatella, and Herber Rieter, eds. 1998. Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
della Porta, Donatella, and Sidney Tarrow, eds. 2005. Transnational Protest and Global Activism. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Democracy Now. 2007. "City of Seattle Agrees to Pay WTO Protesters $1 Million." Democracy Now, April 3. Retrieved April 11, 2007 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/03/1346209
Evans, Peter. 2005. "Counterhegemonic Globalization: Transnational Social Movements in the Contemporary Global Political Economy." Chap. 32 in The Handbook of Political Sociology, edited by Thomas Janoski, Robert R. Alford, Alexander M. Hicks, and Mildred A. Schwartz. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fisher, Dana R. 2006. "Taking Cover Beneath the Anti-Bush Umbrella: Cycles of Protest and Movement-to-Movement Transmission in an Era of Repressive Politics." Research in Political Sociology 15: 27-56.
Gamson, William A., and David S. Meyer. 1996. "Framing Political Opportunity." Pp. 275-90 in Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, edited by Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gerhards, Jurgen, and Dieter Rucht. 1992. "Mesomobilization: Organizing and Framing in Two Protest Campaigns in West Germany." American Journal of Sociology 98: 555-595.
Gillham, Patrick, and Bob Edwards. 2003. "Global Justice Protesters Respond to the September 11 Terrorist Attacks: The Impact of an Intentional Disaster on Demonstrations in Washington, D.C." Pp. 483-520 in Beyond September 11: An Account of Post-Disaster Research, Boulder, CO: Natural Hazards Research and Information Center, University of Colorado.
Graeber, David R. 2007. "On The Phenomenology of Giant Puppets: Broken Windows, Imaginary Jars of Urine and the Cosmological Role of the Police in American Culture." Chap. 12 in Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion and Desire, by David R. Graeber. Oakland, CA: AK Press.
Guerrero, Michael Leon. 2006. Interview with author Jennifer Hadden, August 31.
Independent Media Center. 2004. "IMC: FBI and Other Legalbreaking News." News thread, last updated October 28, 2006. Retrieved April 8, 2007 http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/08/111732.shtml
Kitschelt, Herbert. 1986. "Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies." British Journal of Political Science 16: 57-85.
Kriesi, Hanspeter, Ruud Koopmans, Jan Willem Dyvendak, and Marco G. Giugni. 1995. New Social Movements in Western Europe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Levi, Margaret, and Gillian H Murphy. 2006. "Coalitions of Contention: The Case of the WTO Protests in Seattle." Political Studies 54: 651-70.
Lichbach, Mark. 2003. "Global Order and Local Resistance: Structure, Culture, and Rationality in The Battle Of Seattle." (formerly available at http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/lichbach
Martinez, Elizabeth Betita. 2000. "Where Was the Color in Seattle?: Looking for Reasons Why the Great Battle Was So White." In Colorlines: A National Newsmagazine on Race and Politics (Spring 2000). Retrieved April 8, 2007 http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=82
McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McAdam, Doug, John McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald, eds. Comparative Approaches to Social Movements. New York: Cambridge University Press.
McAdam, Doug, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly. 2001. Dynamics of Contention. New York: Cambridge University Press.
McCarthy, John D., and Clark McPhail. 1998. "The Institutionalization of Protest in the United States." Pp. 83-110 in The Social Movement Society, edited by David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
McMichael, Philip. 2005. "Globalization." Chap. 29 in The Handbook of Political Sociology, edited by Thomas Janoski, Robert R. Alford, Alexander M. Hicks, and Mildred A. Schwartz. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Meyer, David S., and Suzanne Staggenborg. 1996. "Movements, Countermovements, and the Structure of Political Opportunity." American Journal of Sociology 101(6): 1628-60.
Meyer, David S., and Nancy Whittier. 1994. "Social Movement Spillover." Social Problems 41: 277-98.
Noakes, John and Patrick F. Gillham 2006. "Aspects of the ‘New Penology’ in the Police Response to Major Political Protests in the United States, 1999 to 2000." Chap. 5 in The Policing of Transnational Protest, edited by Donatella della Porta, Abby Peterson, and Herbert Reiter.
Noakes, John A., Brian V. Klocke, and Patrick F. Gillham. 2005. "Whose Streets? Police and Protester Struggles Over Space in Washington, D.C., 29-30 September 2001." Police and Society 15: 235-254.
Pianta, Mario. 2001. "Parallel Summits of Global Civil Society." Chap. 7 in Global Civil Society 2001, edited by Helmut Anheier, Marlies Glasius, and Mary Kaldor. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pianta, Mario, Federico Silva, and Duccio Zola. 2004. "Parallel Summits, Social Fora, Global Days of Action (Update)." Part 4 in Global Civil Society 2004/5, edited by Helmut Anheier, Marlies Glasius and Mary Kaldor. London: Sage.
Rebick, Judy. 2006. Interview with author Jennifer Hadden, June 28.
Reitan, Ruth. 2007. "Constructing ‘The World's Other Superpower’: Antiwar Movements Go Global to Counter US Global War on Terror." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Chicago, February.
Rootes, Christopher, and Clare Saunders. 2007. "The Global Justice Movement in Britain." Chap. 6 in The Global Justice Movement: Cross-national and Transnational Perspectives, edited by Donatella della Porta. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Rucht, Dieter. 2006. "Social Fora as Public Stage and Infrastructure of Global Justice Movements." A paper presented at the Contentious Politics and Social Movements in the 21st Century conference, Athens, Greece.
Scheppele, Kim Lane. 2006. "The Migration of Anti-Constitutional Ideas: The Post-9/11 Globalization of Public Law and the International State of Emergency." Pp. 347-73 in The Migration of Constitutional Ideas, edited by Sujit Choudhry, New York: Cambridge University Press.
Shokovsky, Paul. 2007. "WTO Could Cost City Millions." Seattle P.I., January 8. Retrieved April 11, 2007 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/298819_wto08.html
Snow, David A., Rochford, E. Burke, Worden, Steven K. and Benford, Robert D. 1986. "Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation." American Sociological Review 51: 464-481.
Tarrow, Sidney. 1996. "States and Opportunities: The Political Structuring of Social Movements." Pp. 41-61 in Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, edited by Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tarrow, Sidney. 1998. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tarrow, Sidney. 2005. The New Transnational Activism. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tarrow, Sidney, and Doug McAdam. 2005. "Scale Shift in Transnational Contention." Pp. 121-150 in Transnational Protest and Global Activism, edited by Donatella della Porta and Sidney Tarrow. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Transfair USA. 2007. "Where to Buy." Retrieved April 7, 2007 http://www.transfairusa.org
UE Vermont. n.d. "Promoting the Social Forum Process in the United States: WSF International Council Statement." Retrieved June 2006 http://www.uevermont.org/politicalaction/wsf_ussf.html
United States Social Forum. 2007. "List of Accepted Manuscripts." Retrieved July 7, 2007 https://www.ussf2007.org/en/submitted_proposals
University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies. 2006. American National Election Study. Pre- and Post-Election Survey 2004: [Computer file]. ICPSR04245-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].
Wood, Lesley Ann. 2004. "The Diffusion of Direct Action Tactics: From Seattle to Toronto and New York." Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Columbia University, New York.
Verhulst, Joris, and Stefaan Walgrave. 2003. "Worldwide Antiwar in Iraq Protest: A Preliminary Test of the Transnational Movements Thesis." Presented to the Second ECPR Conference, Marburg.
WTO History Project. 2001. Portions available online: http://depts.washington.edu/wtohist/