ALTERNATIVES TO CAPITALIST GLOBALIZATION
The Evergreen State College Winter 2006
Faculty:
Office
Mailbox
Phone
Email
Peter Bohmer
Lin Nelson
Steve Niva
Lab 2, 2271
Sem2, 3102
Lab1, 1005
Lab 2
Sem2,
Lab1
X6431
X6056
X5612
bohmerp
nelsonl
nivas
Office Hours
Tu, 4-5:30
Tu, 4-5
Tu 4-5
Weekly Schedule: all classes in Seminar 2 Bldg.
Tuesday
10-12:30
1:30- 4
Wednesday 10-1
Friday
10-12:30
1:30-4
Lecture/Presentation
D1107
Seminar D2107(Peter), D2109(Lin), D3107(Steve)
Workshop
D1107
Lecture/Presentation
D1107
Seminar
E3107(P), E3109(L), B2107(S)
Description:
We have been told that there are no alternatives to capitalist globalization,
“free market” and “free trade” systems. In the Fall, this program studied social
movements and thinkers who questioned this premise and offered alternative
ideas for organizing global society and meeting human needs. We addressed
case studies like Bolivia, Argentina and the Zapatista movement in Mexico. We
also examined questions around health and the environment as it related to
alternative models to capitalism.
In the Winter Quarter, we will first critically examine the alternative model
being developed in Venezuela and then devote several weeks to studying the
discussion and debates that will be taking place in late January at the World
Social Forum in Venezuela. This event will offer an exciting laboratory to study
the current discussion and organizing around global alternatives. We will then
examine the role of gender and the demands of women activists and movements
in the creation of alternative economic, health and social systems. Finally, we
will look at the efforts of community movements, from South Africa to India to the
United States, that are seeking to take control over their economic and social
futures in more just and sustainable ways.
Students will participate in several group and individual projects, class
presentations and writing assignments.
Required Books: (in order of use)
(available at Evergreen Bookstore, except for Sen et al, WSF)
Steve Ellner, ed.,
Venezuelan Politics in the Chavez Era: Class,
Polarization, and Conflict
Sen et al,
The World Social Forum: Challenging Empires
http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1557.html
Cavanagh and Mander,
Alternatives to Economic Globalization:
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Rosalind Petchesky,
Maxine Molyneux,
Ashwin Desai,
David Ranney,
A Better World Is Possible
Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and
Human Rights
Women’s Movements in International Perspective:
Latin America and Beyond
We Are the Poors: Community Struggles in PostApartheid South Africa
Global Decisions, Local Collisions: Urban Life in the
New World Order
Additional Readings: Intermittently there will be augmenting readings…articles
or book chapters. These will be sent out on the list-serv or handed out.
ASSIGNMENTS & DUE DATES: (Assignments must be typed, double-spaced)
Theorizing Venezuela: (Due: Wednesday, Week 3)
Write a 5-7 page thesis-driven essay that develops a comparative theoretical
analysis of the Venezuelan experiment. What political and economic attributes
characterize the Venezuelan model and how does it compare to neoliberal,
socialist, anarchist or other models, as well as other existing societies or
projects?
Is localization Beautiful? (Due: Friday, Week 4)
Write a 2-page position paper that argues for or against the localization strategy
promoted by the IFG in the Cavanagh, et al. Alternatives text.
World Social Forum Project: (Assignment due: see below)
Each student will participate in a group tracking and analysis of a particular issue
related to the World Social Forum that will take place in late January. You will be
responsible for three separate aspects of this project:
Class Presentation: each group will give a crafted and well-organized
presentation to the class on your issue at the WSF. (DUE: Tuesday, Week 5)
Campus Teach-in Materials: each group will develop and present educational
materials related to their issue at the WSF that will be used during a campuswide teach-in. (DUE: Friday, Week 5)
Writing Assignment: each student will submit a revised draft of a 5-page paper
that develops a thesis about their topic at the WSF. (Draft DUE: Wednesday,
Week 4, Revision DUE: Tuesday, Week 6)
Public Intervention Writing: (Assignment due: see below)
*Position writing: Workshop, Wednesday Week 6, First Draft DUE: Wednesday
Week 7, Revision DUE: Friday, Week 7
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*Creative writing: Workshop, Wednesday Week 7, DUE: Wednesday Week 8,
Revision DUE: Friday, Week 8
Local/Global Solidarity Essay: (Due Tuesday, Week 10)
In a 6-page essay, develop a thesis in response to this question: Is there a
basis for solidarity, for common cause, between the struggles in Chatsworth,
South Africa (We are the Poors) and the struggles in Chicago, United States
(Global Decisions, Local Collisions)? Your paper should compare each context
and struggle, what they are opposing (their view of the problem) and what they
are seeking to accomplish (their vision of an alternative), and how they are
organizing to do so (their mode of activism). Develop a nuanced thesis in
response to the question.
Summative Assignment: (Due Week 10)
There will be a variety of assignments and activities that will arise out of our work
this quarter that will include writing, mutual education and presentations.
Credit: Full Credit will be earned by doing all of the following:
 Reading assigned texts in advance of class.
 Participating in class activities (participation is active listening, speaking
and thinking.)
 Attending class (as attendance is a precondition of participation, absences
will diminish your ability to earn full credit.)
 Bringing texts to class and seminar and taking notes in class
 Completing all assignments by the date due.
 Writing a narrative self-evaluation for your transcript and an evaluation of
your faculty seminar leader.
 Attending an evaluation conference at the end of the quarter.
If you do all of the above at the passing level, you will earn 16 credits. The quality
of the work you accomplish will be described in a narrative evaluation.
Evaluation:
 Follow and discuss current events that relate to program themes by
reading daily newspaper and/or listening to radio news programs.
 Continually work to improve your reading, writing and critical thinking
skills.
 Be able to critically analyze the strengths and weaknesses of different
alternatives to capitalist globalization.
 Develop awareness of your own worldview and be able to develop you
own vision of alternatives to capitalist globalization.
 Learn more about efforts around the world to develop and propose
alternatives to capitalist globalization.
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Weekly Schedule:
Week One:
January 10-13
Reading
1/10 Tuesday Lecture
Ellner, Venezuelan Politics (Prologue, Ch. 1)
Handout: Venezuela Reader
WSF Book: Wolfwood, “Another World Is Possible”
Introduction to Winter Quarter Syllabus
Tracking Current Events
1/10 Tuesday Seminar
1/11 Wed Workshop Global Alternatives Agenda and Review
World Social Forum Groups
1/13 Friday Lecture
Contextualizing Venezuelan Experiment/Film:
Venezuela Bolivariana
1/13 Friday Seminar
Ellner, Ch. 1/Handout/WSF Article
Week Two:
January 17-20
Reading
1/16 Monday Event
1/17 Tuesday Lecture
1/17 Tuesday Seminar
1/18 Wed Workshop
1/18 Wed. Workshop
1/20 Friday Lecture
1/20 Friday Seminar
Week Three:
January 24-27
Reading
1/24 Tuesday Lecture
Ellner, Venezuelan Politics (Ch.’s 2,3,4,6,10,11,12)
Handout: Holloway-Callinicos Debate/Bolivia Article
WSF Book: Santiago, “A Fierce Struggle”; Wainwright,
“Forum as Jazz”;
WSF Interview with Eric Toussaint:
(http://www.cadtm.org/article.php3?id_article=1697)
Handout: Critique of Venezuela
Poverty Action Summit (www.povertyaction.org)
Venezuelan Model in a Global Context
Ellner, Ch.’s (2,3,4,6,10,11,12)
World Social Forum Planning
READ: WSF articles
States vs. Movements; Health and Envir. Profile
Handouts and WSF Articles
Cavanagh, Alternatives (Ch.’s 1-6)
WTO reading packet
WSF Book: “WSF Charter of Principles (revised)”;
Teivainen, “WSF: Arena or Actor?”; Anand, “Bound to
Movility?”; James, “WSF’s Many Alternatives”
WTO Trade Regime/Film: Trading Democracy
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1/24 Tuesday Seminar
1/25 Wed Workshop
1/25 Wed Workshop
1/25 Wednesday
1/27 Friday Lecture
1/27 Friday Seminar
Week Four:
Jan 31-Feb 3
Reading
Cavanagh, Alternatives/WTO Packet
World Social Forum Planning
READ: WSF articles
DUE: Theorizing Venezuela Paper
Addressing the Commons/WSF Reports
Cavanagh, Alternatives
Cavanagh, Alternatives (Ch’.s 7 to end)
Handout: Critique of Localization
1/31 Tuesday Lecture
1/31 Tuesday Seminar
2/1 Wed Workshop
2/3 Friday Lecture
2/3 Friday Lecture
2/3 Friday Seminar
Faculty Panel: Debating Localization/Subsidiarity
Cavanagh, Alternatives/Critiques
World Social Forum Planning/WSF Reports
DUE: Is Localization Beautiful paper
Student Localization Workshop
Cavanagh, Alternatives/Handout
Week Five:
February 7-10
Reading
WSF Texts, related materials
Be Prepared for Some Evening Sessions or other unusual times
2/7 Tuesday Lecture
2/7 Tuesday Lecture
2/7 Tuesday Seminar
2/8 Wed Workshop
2/10 Friday Lecture
2/10 Friday
2/10 Friday Seminar
DUE: Class Presentations
Utah Phillips and Cultural Activism
Class Presentations
Preparing for Teach-In
DUE: Teach-in materials
World Social Forum Teach-In
World Social Forum Teach-In
Week Six:
Feb 14-17
Reading
Petchesky, Global Prescriptions (Entire)
2/14 Tuesday Lecture
2/14
2/14 Tuesday Seminar
2/15 Wed Workshop
Women’s Health: Local to Global
DUE: WSF Paper
Petchesky, (1-187)
Public Intervention Writing Workshop
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2/17 Friday Lecture
2/17 Friday Seminar
Architecture of International Collaboration
Petchesky, 187-end
Week Seven:
February 21-24
Reading:
Molyneux, Women’s Movements (Entire)
WSF Book: Brenner, “Transnational Feminism”
2/21 Tuesday Lecture
Development, Socialism and International Women’s
Movements
Molyneux, 1-98; Brenner, “Transnational Feminism”
Public Intervention Writing Workshop
Women, Health and Environment/Radical Politics of
Love
Molyneux, 99-end
DUE: Revised Draft Workshop article
2/21 Tuesday Seminar
2/22 Wed Workshop
2/24 Friday Lecture
2/24 Friday Seminar
2/24
Week Eight:
Feb 28-March 3
Reading
Desai, We Are the Poors
Handout: South African Today
Bond, “Decommodification Strategy”
http://www.stateofnature.org/decommodification.html
2/28 Tuesday Lecture
2/28 Tuesday Seminar
3/1 Wed Workshop
3/3 Friday Lecture
3/3 Friday Seminar
3/3
Political Economy of South Africa/Film: Whose Side
Are You On?
Desai, Poors/Handout
Public Intervention Writing Workshop
People’s Health Movements/Narrating Multitudes
Desai, Poors/Bond, “Decommodification”
DUE: Revised Draft Workshop article
Week Nine:
March 7-10
Reading
Ranney, Global Decisions
3/7 Tuesday Lecture Guest Panel: Alternatives at Home
3/7 Tuesday Seminar Ranney, Ch.’s 1-5
3/8 Wed Workshop
Public Reading of Workshop Pieces
3/10 Friday Lecture
Asarco, America and the Globe
3/10 Friday Seminar Ranney, Ch.’s 6-9
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Week Ten:
March 14-17
3/14 Tuesday morning
Program Summation
3/14 Tuesday seminar
Program Summation
3/15 Wednesday
Program Summation
3/17 Friday
Program Summation
Evaluation Week:
March 20-25
Don’t make travel plans until you’ve spoken with your seminar leader about
scheduling an evaluation meeting.
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