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Taking back democracy.

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Tracing the birth of the anti-globalization movement is difficult. Many believe the movement's flashbulb moment came with the public embarrassment of Kathie Lee Gifford in 1996. That's when it was revealed that the wholesome talk-show host's line of clothing was made by young women in Honduran sweatshops.

Some say it was the Zapatista uprising of January 1994 when poverty-stricken Indian peasants in Mexico seized four towns on the day the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect. Others claim it began at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Back up further to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989: that's the opinion of another group.

One thing the experts do agree on is the moment when the anti-globalization movement entered the consciousness of the general public. For those on the inside of the campaign the moment is known as N30--that's shorthand for November 30th, the first day of street protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, Washington in 1999. Tens of thousands of people had converged on Seattle. Their aim was to stop the WTO from kicking off a round of free trade talks. Their tactic was to block all streets leading to the site of the meeting so as to prevent the delegates of 135 countries from attending.

The huge crowd was made up from a wide variety of groups. Large numbers of U.S. trade union members showed up to protest the watering down of labour laws. Environmentalists were there to draw attention to deforestation, habitat destruction, and species extinctions. Social activists wanted an end to sweatshop labour in the developing world, justice for peasants in Mexico, and a closing of the gap between rich and poor. Others called for a halt to the use of genetically modified crops, cancellation of Third World debt, or an end to government subsidies for corporations. And, some were there to create trouble, smash a few windows, trash a few cars, and advance their agenda of anarchy (see sidebar: The Anarchist View).

These different groups have all been lumped together as the "anti-globalization movement." But, that name is misleading; it suggests some sort of organization. There...

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