The Myth of the Multitude: The Endogenous Demise of Alter-globalist Politics

Approaches to protests at global economic institutions and Social Forum events have focused on their counter-hegemonic potential and the commonality articulated through such metaphors as “one no, many yeses” and “we are everywhere”, in which the diversity of activism is contained within a common understanding of the system to be rejected. Recent trends, however, suggest that these assessments are far from satisfactory, and oblivious to the fragility and precariousness surrounding such global subjectivity. This paper explores the existing literature supportive of such political activity, and introduces alternative approaches that question the claims of activists to global political significance, probing the pluralistic global subject imagined in images of a global multitude in a critical fashion. It then reports back to the notion of global society, considering how continuing injustices and difficulties within alter-globalist spaces prevent the creation of ethical identifications with marginalised peoples.