Mass protests have raged since the global financial crisis of 2008.
Across the world students and workers and environmentalists are taking
to the streets. Discontent is seething even in the wealthiest countries,
as the world saw with Occupy Wall Street in 2011.
Protest Inc. tells a disturbingly different story of global activism. As
millions of grassroots activists rally against capitalism, activism more
broadly is increasingly mirroring business management and echoing calls
for market-based solutions. The past decade has seen nongovernmental
organizations partner with oil companies like ExxonMobil, discount
retailers like Walmart, fast-food chains like McDonald's, and brand
manufacturers like Nike and Coca-Cola. NGOs are courting billionaire
philanthropists, branding causes, and turning to consumers as
wellsprings of reform.
Are "career" activists selling out to pay staff and fund programs?
Partly. But far more is going on. Political and socioeconomic changes
are enhancing the power of business to corporatize activism, including a
worldwide crackdown on dissent, a strengthening of consumerism, a
privatization of daily life, and a shifting of activism into
business-style institutions. Grassroots activists are fighting back.
Yet, even as protestors march and occupy cities, more and more activist
organizations are collaborating with business and advocating for
corporate-friendly "solutions." This landmark book sounds the alarm
about the dangers of this corporatizing trend for the future of
transformative change in world politics.
