People are demanding greater participation in decision making at all levels -- including mechanisms to exert more democratic control over the transnational corporations whose activities are at the root of so many problems...

Globalization does not only happen from above. Public opposition to corporate-led globalization is on the rise worldwide. Grassroots movements and communities around the world are increasingly working together to stem the tide of corporate-led globalization. At CorpWatch, that's what we mean when we refer to "grassroots globalization."

In 1999 more than 50,000 people took to the streets in Seattle in overwhelmingly non-violent protests against the WTO, effectively shutting it down for a day. These protests, combined with a strong stance by developing nations, caused the WTO talks to collapse.

During 2000 and into 2001, Seattle inspired protests brought people into the streets to demonstrate against the other institutions that form globalization's infrastructure: The World Bank, the IMF, and the World Economic Forum. These protests took place in such far flung places as Brazil, the Czech Republic, India, Switzerland, Thailand and Washington DC.

These demonstrations represent a coming of age and coming together of a series of broad and diverse social movements that are pressing for balancing power away from corporations toward a new, more democratic and accountable political process. These movements are made up of trade unionists and scientists, peasants and small farmers, community leaders, lawyers and politicians, student activists, parents and teachers, religious leaders, small business owners and environmentalists, among others. And they are organizing locally, nationally, and increasingly, on an international level. This explosion of activism by a plethora of organizations, communities and networks reaching across borders, forms the vibrant web that is grassroots globalization.

People are demanding greater participation in decision making at all levels -- including mechanisms to exert more democratic control over the transnational corporations whose activities are at the root of so many problems. Some are even questioning the right of a corporation to operate in their community. Others are beginning to ask whether a company that has repeatedly broken the law, poisoning people and their land, should be severely punished or even dismantled. Many are seeking alternative forms of economic development. Increasingly they are coming together to challenge the institutions of corporate globalization such as the WTO. Although these incipient forces of grassroots globalization are not yet nearly strong enough to check corporate globalization head on, they have raised the public's consciousness on a global scale. They have also triggered many important changes and set forth a series of challenges that contain the seeds of an effort that could reverse the trends of corporate globalization.