Just Doing it

Massive protests have disrupted global summit meetings from Seattle to Quebec City and from Gothenburg to Genoa. These demonstrations let the world know that resistance to globalization remains strong and vibrant. Not as clearly heard, though, are accounts of local communities organizing popular collective actions to resist those same institutions and policies of globalization.

Focusing on four countries-Mexico, Guatemala, United States, and Canada-the narratives in this volume tell of peoples' collective struggles for environmental, economic and social justice. They deal with: indigenous peoples struggles against violence and coercion in Guatemala; Guatemalan refugees mobilizing in exile; environmental education for sustainable agriculture in Mexico; organizing waste pickers of Mexico; the resistence efforts to better working conditions of telemarketing operators; improving seniors housing; and the ways people of color have taken community actions to change oppressive environments in New York City.

In all cases the focus is on the meaning and usefulness of individual acts of resistance and their relationship to collective action: the ways people cope with difficult working conditions and how these acts help to change, not only the working conditions, but the workers themselves.

"These poignant and inspiring stories of communities resisting the corporate agenda...eloquently told...reveal the strength and creativity of people living on the margins."-Leonie Sandercock, author of Making the Invisible Visible

Gene Desfor teaches at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University and is actively involved with union and community organizations. Deborah Barndt, educator, photographer and professor at York University, has worked for more than twenty-five years in social justice movements in the Americas. Barbara Rahder, the Graduate Program Director and Planning Programs Coordinator at York University, has, for more than twenty years, focused on issues of equity and access to housing and community services with marginalized communities.