political justice since seattle
the intersection of the U.S. criminal
justice system and global justice activism
amory starr & luis fernandez
po box 1198
venice ca 90294
## email not listed ##
970.218.7097
1046 w. elna rae
tempe az 85281
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480.350.9146
abstract: This paper examines the shifting landscape of the intersection of
global justice activism and the U.S. criminal justice system since the Seattle n30
WTO protests (30 November 1999). The National Lawyers Guild, drawing on
35 years of observation of First Amendment activity, concludes that post-
Seattle protest policing manifests “a noticeable shift from reactive law
enforcement to preemptive law enforcement.” Global justice activism is
operationalized here to include: opposition to the international institutions such
as the World Bank and WTO, anti-corporate campaigns associated with the
anti-globalization movement, and movements which predate this movement but
have become involved with it. The criminal justice system is operationalized
here to include relevant laws, policing, investigation, prosecution, defense of
activists, and lawsuits fighting back on all these aspects of the law (political
litigation). Obviously this is a lot of territory to cover, and this article aims to
simply describe the landscape, laying the groundwork for future analyses of
each area in the above list.
keywords: political justice, anti-globalization movement, protest, social
movements, social control, repression, law