Against the background of this present globalized dispensation; the G8, IMF and WTO, we have seen the rise of the anti globalization protest movements, and in the face of worsening, more extreme weather conditions we find a deepening awareness of the problem. We also suffer from a proliferation of NGOs.

Enter the 'Real World Coalition', an umbrella grouping of NGOs, environment groups, social justice and anti poverty campaigns, peace and democracy groups and charities; who in 1996 published The Politics of the real World (Michael Jacobs).

So far so worthy.

This one is their second stab at this theme, but it suffers from the problem that it bears all the hallmarks of being addressed into the vortex of false hopes found in the early days of the first Blair administration. As such, this book will not wear at all well in the post September 11th era. The First World is not so much bothered about putting right the North / South economic inequalities, as in bombing them off the agenda completely. Calls for the US to honor Kyoto fall on deaf ears.

It is a great pity that the essential optimism of this book, that these problems can be addressed, has been so brutally brushed aside. There is a lot in here that is immensely worthwhile, particularly in the many graphs and diagrams exposing facts about poverty in the UK, for example, or global poverty, or rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels. North Americans discharge 19.93 tonnes of CO2 per year, each. (1995). The UK gave only 0.23% of its GDP in aid (1999) and so on.

Underlying all is the concept of 'Sustainability' which veers from being a shallow buzz word be becoming a panacea for all the world's ills. Somewhere in the middle of this, we find a rather naive and touching faith that international bodies can somehow reform themselves internally and rid themselves of corruption, a little like Robin Cook's joke about an 'ethical foreign policy' perhaps. In my opinion, this book is well meaning, but it has a false and dangerous view of the essentially benign nature of government and capitalism, which leads the authors to call on the global leaders to make reforms and change policies in a direction they are not prepared to go in.

– Steve Booth

Green Anarchist: Front Page Current Articles First 10 Issues See: uk.indymedia.org for more on the university expansion.

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