Transforming our common future: the local dimensions of global reform

Abstract

Globalization, a phenomenon brought about by technological revolutions, is an increasingly important dimension of international economic relations in terms of its implications for trade, productive investment and finance. In both mainstream media and the corporate board rooms, globalization is presented as the only alternative that would bring unprecedented world prosperity and freedom in the post-Cold War era (Bamet and Cavanagh, 1994). Others, on the other hand, characterize globalization as the greatest threat to potential human development. As the remote forces of globalization hobble governments and weaken the bonds of social solidarity, anger is growing from those whose existence is being threatened (Mittelman, 1996; Barber, 1992). Despite these divergent points of view, the long-term implications of globalization remain unclear. Furthermore, the possibilities of building a strong transnational civil society movement to curtail the growth in the structural power of capital remain to be seen. Although it is tempting to indulge in an academic exercise of constructing scenarios or proposing the creation of special UN agencies for specific global reform, the best contribution I can make as an African is to highlight the constraints to be overcome and opportunities that remain to be exploited in African societies for constructing a just and sustainable social order at the local and national levels, and showing how these local efforts could be used as a stepping stone towards global reform. For progressive movements in the north, an understanding of the African reality on the 'ground' is the first step towards developing joint programmes on issues of common concern that affect the future of humanity. Effective social formations of resistance, redistribution or transformation cannot be theoretically prescribed or academically engineered. Instead of focusing on a unifying conception of society and transformation, we must look for a workable sense of cohesion to emerge out of the seemingly irreconcilable modes of resistance waged from below.