RESOURCES

BOOKS ON GLOBALIZATION, compiled by Michael Gibson

Following are ten books that provide a good starting point to become familiar with economic globalization as well as efforts to resist corporate-led globalization.

Field Guide to the Global Economy, Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh
(The New Press, New York, 2000).

A great book to begin with to get a grasp of the basic issues involved with corporate-led globalization. Field Guide to Globalization is illustrated with charts, graphs, and political cartoons and provides a user-friendly introduction to the international economy while revealing the harmful effects of corporate-led globalization. Especially useful is a resource listing of groups active in the fight against globalization and their websites.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization, Wayne Ellwood
(New Internationalist Publications, Ltd., London, 2001)

New Internationalist has a series of No-Nonsense guides that give a very pithy and concise political analysis of different global issues. This No-Nonsense Guide sketches the picture of the global economic system- its history, structure, and failings as well as the forces in whose interest the system works. This guide takes the stance that unless we begin to alter the current global economic system, the tangible benefits of globalization will be swamped by the rising tide of inequality and injustice.

When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten
(Kumarian Press, Connecticut, 2001)

This is a must read book, and is an incisive critique of the unjust international economic order. Korten has impeccable establishment credentials, MBA’s and PhD’s from Stanford University, taught in Harvard University’s MBA Program. Korten shows how global corporations dominate people and their governments and shows practical pathways to a more just, prosperous, and sustainable future.

Globalism: The New Market Ideology, Manfred B. Steger
(Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, MD, 2002)

This book has one of the best presentations of the case for and against economic globalization. Steger lays out the claims made by the neo-liberal Washington consensus and does an excellent job of outlining the range of criticisms, from the far right to the far left.

Global Showdown: How the New Activists are Fighting Global Corporate Rule, Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke
(Stoddart Publishing Co., Ltd., Toronto, 2001)

Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke are prominent Canadian authors and key activists in anti-globalization efforts. They provide evidence that the mechanisms of trade liberalization including the World Trade Organization and NAFTA are widening the current disparities between the rich and poor in all countries, and the lending problems of the World Bank and IMF are not helping to relieve Third World debt. This book documents efforts being undertaken to resist corporate-led globalization and is one of the best and accessible accounts of efforts being undertaken by millions to seek alternatives.

The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance, Walden Bello
(Food First Books, Oakland, 2001)

Walden Bello is one of the most prominent Third World activist and scholars and has written extensively on the problems with corporate-led globalization. In this collection of essays, Bello hones in on the true causes of the worldwide financial crisis, the IMF, World Bank, and the World Trade Organization that advocate free market economies based on the principles of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization. Bello criticizes the myth of development prescribed by these institutions and offers suggestions to establish the possibility of another world based on fairness and justice.

No Logo, Naomi Klein
(Picador, New York, 1999)

Canadian-born Naomi Klein has become one of the rising stars of the anti-corporate globalization movement, and her expose on the negative effects of 90’s style marketing on culture, work, and consumer choices is well worth reading. No Logo is a cultural critique of corporate-led globalization and is an engaging account of efforts to fight the effect s of large corporations like Nike, Wal-Mart, Disney, and others of their ilk that threaten to create a world based on materialism and consumption.

Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A Better World Is Possible, International Forum on Globalization
(Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 2002)

This book culminates a three-year project by the International Forum on Globalization, an alliance of leading activists, scholars, researchers and writers that offers public education and activism in response to economic globalization. Often the anti-globalization movement is blamed for not having alternatives, this is an attempt to lay out specific alternatives and policies that need to be followed to create a more just and sustainable world. Essential reading.

Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water, Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke
(The New Press, New York, 2002)

Will water be a human right or a human need in the future? If corporations have their way, water will be treated like a commodity that can be sold and for profit. The consumption of water doubles every twenty years- more than twice the rate of the increase in human population. The supply of fresh water is finite and dwindling and corporations are already lining up to control the world’s water supply. The vice-president of the World Bank has declared that the wars of the next century will be about water. Barlow and Clarke document the forces behind the increasing depletion of the world’s freshwater, and the human and ecological impacts.

The Case Against the Global Economy and For a Turn Toward the Local, Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds.)
(Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1996)

This book was one of the first comprehensive analysis of the new global economy, and although somewhat dated, has some great information. It gathers 43 leading economic, agricultural, and environmental experts who charge that free trade and economic globalization are producing results opposite of its claims, and advocates the need to reverse course away from globalization toward a revitalized democracy and local self-sufficiency.