Bello, "What is Deglobalization?"

"I am not talking about withdrawing from the international economy. I am speaking about re-orienting our economies from production for export to production for the local market; ...about de-emphasizing growth and maximizing equity in order to radically reduce environmental disequilibrium; about not leaving strategic economic decisions to the market but making them subject to democratic choice; about subjecting the private sector and the state to constant monitoring by civil society;... about enshrining the principle of subsidiarity in economic life by encouraging production of goods to take place at the community and national level if it can be done so at reasonable cost in order to preserve community. "

Localization reverses the trend of globalization by discriminating in favour of the local. Depending on context, the 'local' may be part of a nation state, the state itself, or even a regional grouping of states. At the heart of localization is a rejection of today's environmentally and socially damaging subservience to the shibboleth of 'international competitiveness'.

In its place we must prioritize local production and the protection and diversification of local economies. What can sensibly be produced within a nation or a region should be. Long-distance trade should supply only what cannot be produced within the local economy.

Localizing policies will increase control of the economy by communities and nations, creating greater social cohesion, reduced poverty and inequality, improved livelihoods, social infrastructure and environmental protection, and with these, a marked enhancement of the all important sense of security.

Cavanaugh, Ten Principles

"These principles stand in stark contrast to those that guide economic globalization, which are narrow and serve the few at the expense of the many and the environment. Economic growth has been the central
goal of the IMF, the World Bank, and the GATT, as well
as its successor, the WTO. Expanding international trade and investment flows has been viewed as an end in itself."(78)

"The time has come to create healthy, sustainable societies that work for all. Healthy, sustainable societies vest power in institutions that measure their performance by their contribution to the long-term well-being of people, community, and nature and distribute power equitably among all of society's stakeholders. Such societies are measured by their essential quali­ties, primarily the well-being of all their people. Each sustainable community and nation seeks to achieve sufficient self-reliance in meeting basic needs--including food, shelter, clean water, energy, education, health, polit­ical participation, and culture--to assure the livelihoods, civil liberties, and sense of meaning and identity of each of its members."(78)

"The rallying cry of the amazing diversity of civil society that converged in Seattle was the simple word democracy. Democracy flourishes when people organize to protect their communities and rights and hold their elected officials accountable. For the past two decades, governments have transferred much of their sovereignty into the hands of global corporations." (79)

"The principle of new democracy means creating governance systems that give a vote to those who will bear the costs when decisions are being made. It also means limiting the rights and powers of absentee owners and ensuring that those who hold decision-making power are liable for the harms their acts bring to others. The dominant institution of the global economy--the publicly traded, limited liability corporation--violates these conditions by institutionalizing an extreme form of absentee ownership and by insulating the shareholders in whose name the corporation acts from liability for the harm these acts may inflict on others. It is an institutional form poorly suited to the needs of sustainable societies."(80)

"It is necessary to create new rules and structures that consciously favor the local and follow the principle of subsidiarity--that is, whatever decisions and activities can be undertaken locally should be. Whatever power can reside at the local level should reside there. Only when additional activity is required that cannot be satisfied locally should power and activity move to the next higher level, that of region, nation, and finally the world. Site-here-to-sell-here policies and the grounding of capital locally should be codified. Economic structures should be designed to move economic and political power downward--toward the local rather than in a global direction." (82)

"The principle of subsidiarity recognizes the inherent democratic right to self-determination for people, communities, and nations as long as its exercise does not infringe on the similar rights of others. This right is properly secured through (a) the local and national ownership and control of resources and productive assets; (b) local and national rule-making authority in a system in which more central levels of authority support the local in achieving self-defined goals; and (c) local and national self-reliance in meeting essential needs with local and national resources to the extent feasible." (84)

"If we are going to reverse paths in the future--and given the already emerging crisis of climate change and others, it must be in the near future--a redesigned system is mandatory, one that observes the fundamental rules of ecological sustainability. We already know the goals. The great need now is for a new system that reverses a current dominant hierarchy of values that places corporate profits and wealth creation at the top and leaves sustainability out of the mix. That is a formula for disaster. The survival of the earth and all natural systems is basic and cannot be compromised." (87)

"The first category [ of common heritage resources] includes the water, land, air, forests, and fisheries on which everyone's life depends. The second includes the culture and knowledge that are collective creations of our species. Finally, more modern common resources are those public services that governments perform on behalf of all people to address such basic needs as public health, education, public safety, and social security, among others. All of these common heritage resources are under tremendous strain as corporations seek to privatize and commodify them.

Together, these three categories of resources form the foundation of all real wealth. After all, without them there is neither life nor civilization." (88)

"Diversity is the key to the vitality, resilience, and innovative capacity of any living system. So too for human societies. The rich variety of the human experience and potential is reflected in cultural diversity, which provides a sort of cultural gene pool to spur innovation toward ever higher levels of social, intellectual, and spiritual accomplishment and creates a sense of identity, community, and meaning. (See Boxes L and M.) Economic diversity is the foundation of resilient, stable, energy-efficient, self-reliant local economies that serve the needs of people, communities, and nature. Biological diversity is essential to the complex, self-regulating, self-regenerating processes of the ecosystem from which all life and wealth ultimately flow." (89)

"In 1948, governments of the world came together to adopt the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which established certain core rights such as "a standard of living adequate for . . . health and well-being ... , including food, clothing, housing and medical care, and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment." Building on this declaration, governments negotiated two covenants in sub ­ sequent decades, one on political and civil rights and the other on economic, social, and cultural rights.

Over much of the past half-century, people have struggled to press their governments to advance these rights, which remain as central to human development today as they were in the beginning. The goal of trade and investment should be to enhance the quality of life and respect core labor, social, and other rights." (96)

"The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms every person 's "right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment." Most of the people in the world ensure the livelihood of their families through work outside the formal sector. In indigenous societies, the majority participate in activities that offer sustenance but are often not integrated in the national or global market. In rural areas, most make a living off the land, often engaged in subsistence agriculture or small-scale entrepreneurial activities that do not offer regular incomes. In urban areas, most people in poorer nations make ends meet without regular jobs or incomes. In each of these cases, corporate globalization is displacing greater numbers of them from dignified livelihoods than it is helping." (97)

"Communities and nations are stable and secure when their people have enough food, particularly when these nations can provide their own food. People also need safe food, a commodity that is becoming increasingly scarce." (98)

"New rules of trade must recognize that food production for local communities should be at the top of a hierarchy of values in agriculture. Local self-reliance in food production and the assurance of healthful, safe foods should be connsidered basic human rights. Shorter trade distances and reduced reliance on expensive inputs that need to be shipped over long distances are key to a new food system paradigm." (98)

"Under the current rules, economic globalization has widened the gap between rich and poor countries, between the rich and poor in most countries, and between women and men. The social dislocations and tensions that result have become among the greatest threats to peace and security the world over. Greater equity both among nations and inside them would
reinforce democracy and sustainable communities." (98)

"The claim of economic globalization advocates that those who accumulate great wealth take nothing away from those less fortunate is at best disingenuous. When those who have the money to enjoy meat-rich diets cause the market to redirect available supplies of grain away from the tables of people who cannot pay in order to feed livestock to provide meat to those who can, they contribute to the dynamics of hunger. When banks foreclose mortgages on family farms and put them up for sale to corporations to grow crops for export, they are depriving the displaced families of their means of livelihood and often condemning them to a marginal, dependent existence as landless laborers or sweatshop workers producing products for export that they cannot afford themselves. When the rich buy opulent second, third, and fourth homes, they drive up the price of land and housing and force the less fortunate onto the street. Those who profit from clear-cutting hillsides contribute to the floods that sweep away the homes and crops of those living below." (99)

"Social justice and greater equality--among nations, within nations, between ethnic groups, between classes, and between women and men--are cornerstones of sustainable societies." (100)

"In recognition of this problem, the 1992 Declaration of Rio, signed by country participants at the Rio Earth Summit, codified the precautionary principle as international law, as follows: "In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied.... Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental damage."
(101)

"In February 2001, the European Commission, a branch of the European Union, also took a helpful stance: "When there are reasonable grounds for concern that potential hazards may affect the environment, human, animal, or plant health, and when at the same time the data preclude a detailed risk evaluation, the precautionary principle has been politically accepted as a risk management strategy." Alas, however, not by all." (101)

Applying the Principles to Globalization

"These ten principles seem to be mirror opposites of the principles that drive the institutions of the corporate global economy. The imperatives of this powerful system create a self-reinforcing drive toward the privatization and monopolization of common heritage resources; the centralization of power and authority for the few who are shielded from legal accountability for the impact of their decisions on the well-being of people and planet; a life-and­death competition that divides the world into big winners and even bigger losers; the unaccountable externalization of costs; the destruction of cultural, biological, and economic diversity; and the disregard of deadly risks to human and environmental health. It is time to reclaim the power taken by the institutions of corporate globalization and replace them with institutions and rules that better serve the needs of people and planet." (103)

"International trade and investment systems should respect the legitimate role of democratic governments at all levels. In collaboration with civil society, governments should be allowed to set policies on the development and welfare of their people. This means respecting the right of every community and nation to democratic self-determination, including the right to determine the terms--in cooperation with other communities and nations--under which they wish to enter into trade with others or invite others to invest in their economies." (103)

"International trade and investment systems should safeguard the global commons and respect and promote human rights, the rights of workers, women, indigenous peoples, and children. The rights of local communities to protect and use their natural resources to secure the needs of their people in a sustainable manner need to be respected. Societies need rules to protect the public interest." (104)

James,"10 Ways to Democratize the
Global Economy,"

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Alternatives to Economic Globalization:
Another World is Possible Book Summary

Subsidiarity: Subsidiarity refers to local control, self-reliance, and self-determination. Subsidiarity respects the notion that sovereignty resides in people. In other words, legitimate authority flows through the expression of their democratic will. Thus the authority of more distant levels of administration is subsidiary, or subordinate, to the authority of more local levels, which allow a greater opportunity for direct citizen engagement...Most of the affairs of self-reliant local economies are properly left to local people and institutions.

Subsidiarity — Subsidiarity refers to local control, self-reliance and self-determination. Instead of international trade agreements having precedence and international institutions calling the shots, the needs and capacities of local economies should guide decision-making. Whatever decisions can be made locally, should be. Whatever power can reside at the local level, should reside there. Cooperation with other communities, as well as regional, national and global cooperation, are necessary and central to this concept. Bringing economic decisions back to the local level—where people are closer to the sources of power—offers far greater opportunity and promise for democratic participation than today's domination by corporations.

Key terms in this document: democracy, ecological sustainability, localism, localization, subsidiarity, human rights, labor rights, public interest, clean and safe environment, public health, community health, environmental health, common heritage resources, diversity,"civil and political rights," and "economic, social, and cultural rights," equity, sustainable societies, the precautionary principle.

2. Publicly fund elections and limit campaign spending.
Force the broadcast media to provide free air-time
for political campaigns.

3. Limit the size of media ownership to prevent large
corporations from controlling the airwaves.

4. Create alternative economy--community enterprise
system-- where business serves a local economy.

5. Eliminate subsidies, corporate welfare, and tax
breaks for corporations and the wealthy.

6. Use anti-trust laws to break up large corporate
oligopolies and enforce a competitive market.

7. Tax financial transactions, surtax on short-term
capital gains, tight regulations of stock market, hedge
funds, and derivatives.

8. Force Large Banks to pay for their own deposit
insurance so that they pay for the financial risks
they take when they loan money to people outside
of their local and regional economy.

9. Shift taxes from income and social security taxes
to taxes on resource extraction, packaging, pollution,
corporate lobbying, advertising, luxuries, and imports.

10. Provide a guaranteed income adequate to meet
a person's basic needs.

11. Progressive taxes on income and consumption
of luxury goods. Tax inheritance and trust income.

12. Limit the pay ratio between workers and CEOs
to no more than 15 to 1.

13. Reduce the work week and ensure equal
employment opportunity for all those who want
to work.

14. Deny corporations the same rights as individuals.
Take away charters to operate from corporations
that have committed crimes against the society.

15. Decommission the Bretton Woods institutions--
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund,
and the World Trade Organization.

16. Make the United Nations' responsible for
managing national debt, global trade, bankruptcy
or insolvency, and controlling global corporations.