Staying on Message

At any protest against the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund these days, members of Attac will almost certainly be on the front lines. The group, formed in France in 1998, has become one of the leading critics of the neo-liberal economics of globalization striking a chord with thousands across Europe.

"People are concerned these days about social justice, environmental problems and democracy in the process of globalization," said Sven Giegold, a member of Attac’s steering committee.

He insists that Attac is not "antiglobalization" as such, but rather critical of the economic side of the process.

"While markets are integrating globally, democracy is still based on nation-states," Giegold said in a DW-WORLD interview. "That means the possibility of democracies to regulate for social security and environmental protection is limited."

Unexpected Level of Success

Attac quickly spread beyond France’s borders and now has branches in forty countries. In Germany, where the group formed two years ago, its membership has grown exponentially, jumping from 400 members last year to 6,500 today. Membership skyrocketed particularly after the G8 protests in Genoa last July. (photo)

After such a dizzying climb, the German branch of the organization met in Frankfurt/Main over the weekend to take stock and to consider where to go from here.

The participants in the lecture hall at the University of Frankfurt ranged from the vociferous students who are those most visible during anti-globalization demonstrations, to older women well into middle age, their husbands wearing their grey, thinning hair pulled back into ponytails.

"There are quite a lot of people from the ‘68 movement who have left their armchairs and are getting back to work," said Giegold, referring to the widespread student protest wave thirty-four years ago.

The challenge, according to Giegold, is to keep the movement focused on its core issue, the economics of globalization, and resist the pressure to dilute that message. That is proving difficult, he says, since as membership grows, people bring a whole variety of ideas with them about how Attac should try to change the status quo.

"We are not a group with just one '–ism' behind it, so there is definitely a danger there," Giegold said. "We have to be careful that we don’t demand everything in trying to make the world a better place,"

Above the political fray

Part of staying true to that core idea is staying out of politics.

Although Attac is making a name for itself as a vocal critic of globalization and even attracting the attention of mainstream politicians fo late, it still has no political aspirations, according to Giegold.

He denied any comparisons to Germany’s Green Party, a vocal, grassroots protest movement in the late 1970s that eventually went on to hold real political power.

In fact, Attac has become one of the Green’s most vociferous critics, accusing the party of betraying its core principles in exchange for political success.

Attac sees itself as being closer to organizations along the lines of Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth, non-governmental movements whose members might well also be members of established political parties.

For Attac to remain uncorrupted and effective, it has to stay on message, Giegold said.

"Even if Attac is very sexy at the moment, we shouldn’t go into the center of the peace or environmental movement," Giegold said. "Other groups can do [that work] better than we can."