Computer Communications in Cross-Border Coalition-Building North American NGO Networking Against NAFTA

Abstract

This article begins by outlining John Locke's concept of global civil society and how it is embodied in the global non-governmental movements for peace, human rights, social justice, and environmental preservation and sustainability. The article then summarizes the role that new globe-girdling communications technologies are now playing within the NGO movements and describes the emergence of one global computer network known as the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) which links more than 15.000 NGO computers in 95 countries. As one case in this dramatic trend, the paper then examines North American Free Trade Agreement, a market- and government-imposed plan to unite the economies of Mexico, the United States, and Canada.