About Project

Brief History of the PGA

A Brief History of the PGA

Peoples’ Global Action was the initial linking network that inspired the decentralized Global Action Days, and the blockades of summit meetings between 1998 and 2005. The first Global Action Day, was called for the 2nd WTO Ministerial conference in Geneva in May 1998, during which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in over 60 countries. People asked “is this the first flutter of a new global social movement?” After years of saying “It’s no use resisting here, we would have to organize globally”, people thought “Hey, maybe we can!” And did. A “virtuous circle” developed between these decentralized mobilisations and blockades of summits. Subsequent Global Days of Action - each mobilizing thousands around the world - included those during the G8 summit in Cologne in June 18/1999 (with notably the massive blockades and invasion of buildings of the City of London) ; during the 3rd WTO summit in Seattle November 30/1999) , where the PGA inspired Direct Action Network successfully blocked the opening day. More worldwide Global Action Days coincided with the massive mobilisations that ran the IMF/World Bank meeting in Prague out of town September 26/2000 , forced the cancelling of a World Bank meeting in Barcelona (2001), besieged the G8 in Genoa (2001) and blocked all accesses to G8 summits in Evian (2003) and Gleneagles (2005). Summits cast as demonstrations of our rulers legitimacy had on the contrary to be held in remote locations, or protected by thousands of police. Massive protests laid siege annually to the World Economic Forum meetings in Davos from 2001 to 2005 despite ever more violent repression. The PGA hallmarks, inspired by the Gandhian tradition of the Indian farmers, popularised (mostly) non-violent disobedience as a radical form of struggle.

About this Project

About this project

The Peoples’ Global Action Oral History project began as conversations between activists after the death of fellow organizer, Anne ‘Friday’ Stafford; Like them, Friday had been part of the Peoples’ Global Action (PGA) in Europe. They believed that the stories and lessons from the PGA might be useful and valuable for newer generations of activists. Michael Reinsborough, Olivier de Marcellus, and Lesley Wood (based in the UK, Switzerland, and Canada) volunteered to move the project forward. Over the past decade, the project has built very slowly.

About this Project

August 26, 2024

About this project

The Peoples’ Global Action Oral History project began as conversations between activists after the death of fellow organizer, Anne ‘Friday’ Stafford; Like them, Friday had been part of the Peoples’ Global Action (PGA) in Europe. They believed that the stories and lessons from the PGA might be useful and valuable for newer generations of activists. Michael Reinsborough, Olivier de Marcellus, and Lesley Wood (based in the UK, Switzerland, and Canada) volunteered to move the project forward. Over the past decade, the project has built very slowly.

This project is a beginning. It does not represent the full array of movements and activists involved in PGA. Like so many activist and research projects, this one is shaped by our own social networks, and the resource imbalances and priorities within our global system. We have 42 interviews in the archive as we launch; 27 of them are from Europe or North America. The interviews have been gathered in an unsystematic way. Laurence Cox, Uri Gordon, Lesley Wood received an Antipode scholar activist grant that allowed them to fund Terry Dunne and Mags Lilly to travel to Catalonia, Italy and Ireland, and for Itxaso Arias Arana to collect stories in Bolivia. Brazilian activist scholars Bruno Fiuza and Marcio Bustamente joined in and shared their interviews about the PGA in Brazil with the project, and gradually, it gained heft. Turning interviews into an archive isn’t straightforward. We have done our best, given few resources and few skills. We are lucky to work with Brian Sharpe of tao.ca who designed the website; and with Leen Amarin to clean the data, develop materials and vision.

Although some of us involved with the project have academic jobs, this is not an academic project. It is intended to provide a resource for those involved in building better, stronger movements, in internationalist projects and in challenging the current systems. It is, as they say, against neoliberalism, and for humanity.

We invite you to tell your stories and to collect ones you think need to be told. Despite the gaps in this, we are launching this now, with the intention of inspiring others. If you read through the interviews, you will see that there are many versions of what happened in and through the PGA. There is no ‘correct’ version of the PGA story. We know that we contain multitudes.

A few things:

  • There has already been a great deal of scholarly work on the PGA, and you can find this in the PGA Bibliography linked on this site.
  • If you are looking for information about the activities of the PGA, check out https://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/index.html
  • We followed a basic interview guide that asks activists about their connection to PGA, and their evaluation of what worked in the PGA, what didn’t work, what impact it had and what lessons it offers for today’s movements.
  • This does not at all represent the full array of activities and actions of the Peoples’ Global Action initiative that launched the first Global Days of Action, nor the many other activities and local networks and people that joined together and played a crucial role in building the vibrant social movements of this time.
  • This digital archive has been constructed to grow. It is designed to be functional, easily maintained and in the image of the PGA – networked and flexible. It is also intended to inspire you to add your own stories. Of course, don’t share anyone else’s story without explicit permission and do not include information that could put anyone at risk.

At a time of rising nationalisms, xenophobia and militarism, the stories included here will inspire you. Our resistance was as transnational as capital. And it continues.

For more information and to get involved please contact pgaoralhistory.

PGA Research bibliography

pga en | www.agp.org