Elite resort to armed force signals the breakdown of globalization’s assumed inevitability

Evidence

Globalization is not a natural process but one designed for the benefit of a small group of corporations and the people who own them. Globalization is not inevitable and widespread resistance, as we have noted in this chapter is growing, rooted in the increasingly obvious disparity between those who benefit and those who don’t. One indication of the resistance is that whenever the WTO meets now, it must hide behind legions of police who are mobilized to keep the massive demonstrations from shutting down the WTO. When the powerful use armed force, it’s because the assumption of inevitability—which leads people to accept globalization—has broken down and forced the elites to reveal that power to kill is ultimately all they have to offer. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1534

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes chapter 34’s claim that free-trade treaties criminalize displaced people and southern debt functions as war; also relevant to the law/institutions polyad thread.