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.
