A Brief History of the PGA
May 20, 2024
Opposing the Globalisation Plans of Corporate Elites
Peoples’ Global Action was the initial linking network that inspired the decentralized Global Action Days and blockades of corporate globalization summit meetings between 1998 and 2005. It began within the social movements of many peoples taking local action around the world to oppose corporate globalisation and elite governance institutions trying to impose ‘free’ (but unfair) trade rules.
The first Global Action Day, was called for the 2nd World Trade Organisation Ministerial conference in Geneva in May 1998, during which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in over 60 countries. People asked, “is this the first flutter of a new global social movement?” After years of saying “It’s no use resisting here, we would have to organize globally”, people thought “Hey, maybe we can!” And did. A “virtuous circle” developed between these decentralized mobilisations and blockades of summits.
After the first Global Action Day, subsequent days of action - each mobilizing thousands around the world - included those during the G8 summit in Cologne on June 18/1999 (with notably the massive blockades and invasion of buildings in the City of London) ; and those during the 3rd WTO summit in Seattle November 30/1999, where the PGA inspired Direct Action Network successfully blocked the opening day. More worldwide Global Action Days coincided with the massive mobilisations that ran the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting in Prague out of town September 26/2000 , forced the cancelling of a World Bank meeting in Barcelona (2001), besieged the G8 in Genoa (2001) and blocked all accesses to G8 summits in Evian (2003) and Gleneagles (2005). Summits cast as demonstrations of our rulers legitimacy had on the contrary to be held in remote locations, or protected by thousands of police. Massive protests laid siege annually to the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos from 2001 to 2005 despite ever more violent repression. The PGA hallmarks, inspired by the Gandhian tradition of the Indian farmers, popularised (mostly) non-violent disobedience as a radical form of struggle.
Groups involved in PGA also organized Caravans (notably of 300 Indian farmers around Europe), regional conferences, workshops and other events in many regions of the world. Following the first PGA global conference in Geneva, others were held in Bangalore, India (1999), and Cochabamba, Bolivia (2001). European PGA conferences were held until 2008.
PGA built enduring relations of solidarity between activists in very different locations and movements through its activist tours, global and regional conferences and networks, stimulating a global circulation of forms of struggle, values and perspectives. Although almost without material resources (PGA had no budget), its core set of hallmarks attracted and linked incredibly diverse movements worldwide, inspiring organisations, networks and coalitions to this day. They consisted of a rejection of the previously dominant strategy of reforming global institutions; outright refusal of capitalism, patriarchy and racism; an orientation towards confrontation rather than lobbying; a call for direct action and civil disobedience; and an organisational philosophy of decentralisation and autonomy. PGA marked the then highpoint of a practice of radical transnationality, which was nonetheless fiercely assertive of the importance of local situations and struggles, and hostile to attempts to subsume such local specificities under supposedly universal assumptions.
Since then, new generations and cycles of struggle have come forward, but the impact of PGA and the movements and networks it stimulated can still be felt. Many of the activists of this earlier period have stories, and testimonies about what worked (or didn’t), about solidarity, about relations of confidence built across diverse contexts – tales of failure and success. A loose network of movement activists/scholars launched this oral history project to ensure that these stories and insights aren’t lost. This isn’t just about the past, but rather, is suggested as a collective reflection: how can those experiences help the movements of today – and tomorrow.
For more information and to get involved please contact pgaoralhistory.