3 - From globalization to “globalism”

Summary

Globalization, multinational firms, migration, supranationalism and the overall process of cross-national economic integration were subject to bitter opposition even before the term “globalization” was in wide circulation. This chapter looks at how and why opposition to globalization (increasingly framed by sections of the right in terms of “globalism” and “globalist ideology”) was mainstreamed within a comparatively short-run time-period.

There are, however, methodological hazards. Just as it is difficult to establish the history of globalization, identify its scope and bounds, and ascertain the significance of earlier globalizing waves, it is similarly difficult to chart the history of opposition to, or revolts against, globalization. Some rough and ready choices have to be made about what should be included and what should not be considered. The rise of nationalism and fascism in the interwar period can be understood as a reaction to the first globalizing wave ahead of 1914 and as an attempt to reassert and rebuild nation-states and, on this basis, construct empires across Europe, East Asia and Africa. The isolationist impulses in the USA, preventing it from participating in the League of Nations, can be seen as a “heartland” backlash against global entanglements. If protests against immigration or those regarded as being without national roots are considered, the history is a very long one. Anti-Semitism has been tracked back long before the fourteenth-century plagues were ascribed to Jews, and centuries later, Martin Luther called for their slaying. Up until the Second World War, London's East End was not only seen in terms of poverty and danger but as a bastion of “alien” peoples. In the postwar years there was widespread opposition to immigration in western Europe regardless of whether newcomers came from the former colonies or as “guestworkers” serving the industries that prospered during the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s. Furthermore, the USA’s emergence as a global hegemon and the ubiquity of American corporate brands and entertainment during this period led to periodic waves of protests from sections of both the right and left. They sought to assert their national traditions and campaigned against what was depicted as a US strategic, cultural, political and economic takeover.