Re: altermondialistes, altermondialisation, altermondialisme (Le Monde)

In reply to:
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Subject: altermondialistes, altermondialisation, altermondialisme (Le Monde)
Date: June 3, 2003

Sepp Ludwig wrote:
It is NOT new. Sometime ago (one or two years?) anti-corporate-globalists
insisted to the Belgium Prime Minister, Verhofstadt, that he and others
should stop using the terms anti-globalists and anti-capitalists. He
agreed.
. . . snip>

COMMENT:
From the viewpoint of praxeology, the expression "altermondialistes" has
some advantage. (I agree that alternative movements were not invented by
Attac and have a long history. But the expression "altermondialistes" is new
as of the year 2003 and has no English or German equivalent yet. Show me
otherwise!)

By praxeology I mean the teaching about visions, goals, strateggy, tactics,
public relations (agit-prop), and related issues. In the North American
media, people who demonstrate in Geneva against G8 etc. are called
"anti-globalization demonstrators". In the French media the usual
description is "antimondialiste". In the German media they are called
"Globalisierungsgegner" (=opponents of globalization). In PR terms
(agit-prop terms) these descriptions put the demonstrators at a tactical
disadvantage - it implies that they are trouble-makers and nothing but
trouble-makers. The fact that they have alternative goals and visions for a
more democratic world is filtered out, obscured, and oppressed in the very
terminology of "anti-globalization demonstrators", "anti-mondialistes", and
"Globalisierungsgegener". I have read various pamphlets, leaflets, and web
communications from alternative movement sources that try to counter that
media bias and try to get the message across that movement members are not
simply "anti", but have positive alternative visions and goals (notably,
ecologically sane globalization or socially just globalization or socialist
globalization or peaceful globalization or democratic globalization).

This public relations struggle is comparable to other naming struggles -
e.g., is Taiwan a "country" or a "province of China"? Is a person XYZ who
uses deadly force in order to achieve certain objectives a "policeman",
"soldier", "combatant", "freedom fighter", "guerrilla", "member of the
resistance", "terrorist"?

When the media use something like "alter-mondialistes", they imply a
positive evaluation. When the media say "anti-mondialistes" they imply a
negative evaluation. Metaphysics, sociological theory, etc. aside, what is
better PR (public relations / propaganda) for the alternative movement(s)?

GK