You Are G8, We Are 6 Billion: The Truth Behind the Genoa Protests [Paperback]

Jonathan Neale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

The G8 meeting in Genoa in July 2001 resulted in one of the biggest anti-globalization demonstrations so far, and the murder of an activist. More than 300,000 were present, including tens of thousands of Americans.

You Are G8, We Are 6 Billion is the riveting truth about the protests, written by New Yorker Jonathan Neale, one of the protest organizers and public spokesperson. A devastating critique of global corporations, it explains exactly why protesters traveled from around the world to make their point to the most powerful nations?Third World debt, climate change, nuclear weapons, privatization of utilities, and drug company profiteering.

Jonathan Neale was on the streets of Genoa every day. His passionate account is full of the feel and smell of the protests.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonathan Neale is a leading anticapitalist campaigner, professional writer, and novelist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vision (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904132138
• ISBN-13: 978-1904132134
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,495,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor Representation of an Important Movement, November 29, 2003

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: You Are G8, We Are 6 Billion: The Truth Behind the Genoa Protests (Paperback)

Here Jonathan Neale has attempted two books in one - a personal chronicle of the Genoa protests, and a scholarly examination of the issues they were protesting. The former works a little, and the latter doesn't work at all. As a participant among the whopping 300,000 protestors at the Genoa G8 summit, Neale's story from the trenches is an occasionally valuable account of the beliefs of a movement that has been denigrated and belittled by the mainstream press. Especially terrifying are his eyewitness accounts of police brutality against individual protestors, who are given a human face through Neale's support. However, he tends to criticize the various social movements and interests that have come together into the anti-globalization effort for not cooperating and integrating their beliefs, but offers absolutely no organizational or social knowledge that could offer potential solutions to that problem. Meanwhile Neale tends to add a sappy human focus to the protest movement, adding unnecessary descriptions of his personal issues, and for some reason following the love life of a fellow protestor named Nicola.

About half the book is dedicated to globalization itself, and this is where things really falter. Chapters are dedicated to attempted analyses of issues of concern like world poverty, oil politics, and global warming, but merely present warmed-over history and lists of complaints with absolutely no citations or references. This highlights Neale's lack of true political and economic understanding, as well as his weakness for squishy conspiracy theories of the corporations-trying-to-control-the-world variety. His attempt at an economic analysis of globalization overall betrays absolutely zero understanding of international economics (see the works of Joseph E. Stiglitz and Thomas L. Friedman for competent examinations from both sides). The closing chapter about a better post-globalization future is just a stream of socialist pie-in-the-sky utopianism like universal daycare and an end of sexism. Neale's book is a potentially valuable study of the important and growing anti-globalization movement, but the passionate protestors and thinkers involved deserve a far better showcase than this. [~doomsdayer520~]