Take It Personally : How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World

by Roddick, Anita

• ISBN13: 9781573247078
• ISBN10: 1573247073
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser

Summary

In this vibrant collection of essays, photos, montages, and quotes, the founder of The Body Shop encourages consumers to challenge the destructive aspects of globalization. Contributors include the Dalai Lama, Peter Gabriel, Julia Butterfly Hill, and Ralph Nader. Full color.

Table of Contents

Take it Personally	p. 10
Activism
Myth and Reality	p. 20
Seattle	p. 22
Welcome to the Net Generation	p. 32
Net Loss	p. 40
Warning: Terrorist Material	p. 46
Why Globalization is Failing	p. 48
Get Active on the Web: Ruckus	p. 52
Take it Personally	p. 56
Resources	p. 58
People
Myth and Reality	p. 62
Sweatshops	p. 64
The Race to the Bottom	p. 70
Crime Pays	p. 76
Sex Slave For Sale	p. 78
Children's Rights	p. 82
The Arms Trade and Globalization	p. 84
Get Active on the Web: Global Exchange	p. 88
Take it Personally	p. 90
Resources	p. 92
Development
Myth and Reality	p. 96
Fair Trade: The Real Bottom Line	p. 98
Making the Connection	p. 104
Monocultures of the Mind	p. 106
Ladakh: Development as Destruction	p. 112
Rice: The Story of Basmati Rice	p. 116
Mexico	p. 118
Burma	p. 122
Get Active on the Web: WDM	p. 128
Take it Personally	p. 130
Resources	p. 132
Environment
Myth and Reality	p. 136
The Power of Eight	p. 140
Playing with Fire	p. 144
Burning off Democracy	p. 146
Three Legs are Better than Two	p. 148
Emission Control? Kyoto vs WTO	p. 150
View from the Canopy	p. 152
Dying for a Drink: Water	p. 156
Trading Away Life	p. 158
Choking on an Invisible Debt	p. 160
Getting the Hormone Treatment	p. 164
Climate Change and Globalization	p. 166
Get Active on the Web: Rainforest Action Network	p. 170
Esso Boycott	p. 172
Take it Personally	p. 174
Resources	p. 176
Money
Myth and Reality	p. 180
How a Collective Insanity Has Taken a Grip on the World	p. 184
Ralph Nader: The Professional Citizen	p. 192
Your Money or Your Life	p. 194
Sick Society	p. 202
Spot the Difference: Capitalism and Cancer	p. 206
Rich Pickings	p. 210
Bad Business: The Ten Worst Corporations of 2000	p. 212
Time as Currency	p. 216
Breaking Down the Iron Triangle	p. 222
This Isn't Your Father's Free Trade	p. 224
GATS	p. 228
The Twelve Commandments of Responsible Business	p. 230
Get Active on the Web: Institute for Local Self Reliance	p. 232
Get Active on the Web: Using your Money to Make a Difference	p. 233
Take it Personally	p. 234
Resources	p. 236
A Buddhist Perspective	p. 238
General Resources	p. 242
Glossary	p. 248
Index	p. 250
Picture Credits	p. 255
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Chapter One

Take it Personally

I have devoted most of my working life to finding new ways of doing business, and the last ten years at least looking for ways for business to take a lead in making the world a better place. If the world of commerce and finance seem impersonal sometimes, this has been my way of taking it personally. It wasn't that I wanted business-people to take over the role from governments and communities, just that -- more than any other generation and any other sector -- it seemed to me that business was in a powerful position to make a difference.

I still believe what we did at The Body Shop was worthwhile, and I'm proud of my involvement in it and the successes we had -- however small they've been compared to the scale of the problem. But over the last year or so, I have come to realize that the great leap forward in understanding around the world just hasn't happened. I realized that, far from moving in a better direction for the planet, taking up their responsibility for our social and environmental health, business has become trapped in an international regime -- almost a belief system -- which has seriously constricted all our ambitions. That system has become known as globalization.

At its heart is a secretive system of impersonal, international committees and cabals, but for the vast majority of the world it's a very personal business -- affecting their livelihoods, families, and environments. It's become personal for me too.

This book is the result of that past year of rising awareness by me, and by others all over the world. It's a bold attempt to popularize the issues, to put them in context and find out how we got into this situation -- and what we can do about it.

Like every modern phenomenon you can think of, globalization is a massive jumble of contradictory trends, of the hopeful and the hopeless, the humane and the barbarous. It is like the opening of A Tale of Two Cities , the best of times and the worst of times.

It is the most important change in the history of mankind, and often just the latest name for the conspiracy of the rich against the poor. It is the phenomenon most subject to the efforts of econometricians and statisticians, and the least understood and measured change in our time.

Number of people living on less than $2 a day: 5 billion

This last paradox is particularly important, because -- although we know vast amounts about the flow of capital and spending power around the world, and the figures fill the media every day -- we also see very little reflection of the personal

Seattle

More than 700 organizations and between 40,000 and 60,000 people took part in the protests against the WTO's Third Ministerial on November 30 1999. That morning, walked towards the Convention Center with Randy Hayes, the founder of Rainforest Action Network. As soon as we turned the corner on First Street and Pike Avenue, we could hear drums, chants, sirens, roars. At Fifth, police stopped us. We could go no farther without credentials. Ahead of us were thousands of protesters. Beyond them was a large cordon of gas-masked and riot-shielded police, an armored personnel carrier, and fire trucks. On one corner was Niketown. On the other, the Sheraton Hotel, through which there was a passage to the Convention Center. The cordon of police in front of us tried to prevent more protestors from joining those who blocked the entrances to the Convention Center.

Randy was a credentialed WTO delegate, which means he could join the proceedings as an observer. He showed his pass to the officer who thought it looked like me. The officer joked with us, kidded Randy about having my credential and then winked and let us both through. Ahead of us crowds were milling and moving.

Opening ceremonies for the WTO's Third Ministerial were to have been held that Tuesday morning at the Paramount Theater near the Convention Center. Mayor Paul Schell stood despondently near the stage. Since no scheduled speakers were present, Kevin Danaher, Medea Benjamin, and Juliet H from Global Exchange went to the lectern and offered to begin a dialogue in the meantime. The WTO had not been able to come to a pre-meeting consensus on the draft agenda.

The NGO community, however, had drafted a consensus agreement about globalization -- and the three thought this would be a good time to present it, even if the hall had only a desultory number of delegates. Although the three were credentialed WTO delegates, the sound system was quickly turned off and the police arm-locked and handcuffed them. Medea's wrist was sprained. All were dragged off stage and arrested.

But while the Global Exchange was temporarily silenced, the main organizer of the downtown protests, the Direct Action Network, was executing a plan that was working brilliantly outside the Convention Center. The plan was simple: insert groups of trained non-violent activists into key points downtown, making it impossible for delegates to move. DAN had hoped that 1,500 people would show up. Close to 10,000 did. The 2,000 people who began the march to the Convention Center at 7am from Victor Steinbrueck Park and Seattle Central Community College were composed of affinity groups and clusters whose responsibility was to block key intersections and entrances.

There were no charismatic leaders barking orders. There was no command chain. There was no one in charge. Police said that they were not prepared for the level of violence, but as one protestor later commented, what they were unprepared for was a network of non-violent protestors totally committed to one task -- shutting down the WTO. For WTO delegates accustomed to an ordered corporate or governmental world, it was a calamity.

Up Pike toward Seventh and to Randy's and my right, on Sixth, protestors faced armored cars, horses, and police in full riot gear. In between, demonstrators ringed the Sheraton to prevent an alternative entry to the Convention Center. At one point, police guarding the steps to the lobby pummelled and broke through a crowd of protestors to let eight delegates in. On Sixth Street, Sergeant Richard Goldstein asked demonstrators seated on the street in front of the police line "to co-operate" and move back 40 feet. No-one understood why, but that hardly mattered. No-one was going to move. He announced that "chemical irritants" would be used if they did not leave.

The police were anonymous. No facial expressions, no face. You could not see their eyes. They were masked Hollywood caricatures burdened with 60 to 70 pounds of weaponry. These were not the men and women of the 6th precinct. They were the Gang Squads and the SWAT teams of the Tactical Operations Divisions, closer in training to soldiers from the School of the Americas than local cops on the beat. Behind them and around were special forces from the FBI, the Secret Service, even the CIA.

The police were almost motionless. They were equipped with US military standard M40A1 double canister gas masks; uncalibrated, semi-automatic, high velocity Autocockers loaded with solid plastic shot; Monadnock disposable plastic cuffs, Nomex slash-resistant gloves, Commando boots, Centurion tactical leg guards, combat harnesses, DK5-H pivot-and-lock riot face shields, black Monadnock P24 polycarbonate riot batons with TrumBull stop side handles, No.2 continuous discharge CS (orto-chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile) chemical grenades, M651 CN (chloroacetophenone) pyrotechnic grenades, T16 Flameless OC Expulsion Grenades, DTCA rubber bullet grenades (Stingers), M-203 (40mm) grenade launchers, First Defense MK-46 Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) aerosol tanks with hose and wands, .60 caliber rubber ball impact munitions, lightweight tactical Kevlar composite ballistic helmets, combat butt packs, 30 cal. thirty-round mag pouches, and Kevlar body armor. None of the police had visible badges or forms of identification.

The demonstrators seated in front of the black-clad ranks were equipped with hooded jackets for protection against rain and chemicals. They carried toothpaste and baking powder for protection of their skin, and wet cotton cloths impregnated with vinegar to cover their mouths and noses after a tear-gas release. In their backpacks were bottled water and food for the day ahead.

Ten Koreans came around the corner carrying a 10-foot banner protesting against genetically modified foods. They were impeccable in white robes, sashes, and headbands. One was a priest. They played flutes and drums and marched straight toward the police and behind the seated demonstrators. Everyone cheered at the sight and chanted: "The whole world is watching." The sun broke through the gauzy clouds. It was a beautiful day. Over cellphones, we could hear the cheers coming from the labor rally at the football stadium. The air was still and quiet.

At 10am, the police fired the first seven canisters of tear gas into the crowd. The whitish clouds wafted slowly down the street. The seated protestors were overwhelmed, yet most did not budge. Police poured over them. Then came the truncheons, and the rubber bullets. I was with a couple of hundred people who had ringed the hotel, arms locked. We watched as long as we could until the tear gas slowly enveloped us. We were several hundred feet from Sgt Goldstein's 40-foot "co-operation zone." Police pushed and truncheoned their way through and behind us.

We had covered our faces with rags and cloth, snatching glimpses of the people being clubbed in the street before shutting our eyes. The gas was a fog through which people moved in slow, strange dances of shock and pain and resistance. Tear gas is a misnomer. Think about feeling asphyxiated and blinded. Breathing becomes labored. Vision is blurred. The mind is disoriented. The nose and throat burn. It's not a gas; it's a drug. Gas-masked police hit, pushed, and speared us with the butt ends of their batons. We all sat down, hunched over, and locked arms more tightly. By then, the tear gas was so strong our eyes couldn't open. One by one, our heads were jerked back from the rear, and pepper was sprayed directly into each eye. It was very professional. Like hair spray from a stylist. Sssst. Sssst.

As I tried to find my way down Sixth Street after the tear gas and pepper spray, I couldn't see. The person who found and guided me was Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop, and probably the only CEO in the world who wanted to be on the streets of Seattle helping people that day. When your eyes fail, your ears take over. I could hear acutely. What I heard was anger, dismay, shock. For many people, including the police, this was their first direct action. Demonstrators who had taken non-violent training were astonished at the police brutality. The demonstrators were students, their professors, clergy, lawyers, and medical personnel. They held signs against Burma and violence. They dressed as butterflies.

The Seattle Police had made a decision not to arrest people on the first day of the protests -- a decision that was reversed for the rest of the week. Throughout the day, the affinity groups created through Direct Action stayed together. Tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray were used so frequently that by late afternoon, supplies ran low. What seemed like an afternoon lull or stand-off, was because police had used up all their stores. Officers combed surrounding counties for tear gas, sprays, concussion grenades, and munitions. As police restocked, the word came down from the White House to secure downtown Seattle or the WTO meeting would be called off. By late afternoon, the Mayor and Chief announced a 7pm curfew, "no protest" zones, and declared the city under civil emergency. The police were fatigued and frustrated. Over the next seven hours and into the night, they turned downtown Seattle into Beirut.

That morning, it was the police commanders that were out of control, ordering the gassing and pepper spraying and shooting of people protesting non-violently. By evening, it was the individual police who were out of control. Anger erupted, protestors were kneed and kicked in the groin, and police used their thumbs to grind the eyes of pepper-spray victims.

A few demonstrators danced on burning dumpsters that were ignited by pyrotechnic tear-gas grenades -- the same ones used in Waco.

The police mandate to clear downtown was achieved by 9pm Tuesday night. But police, some who were fresh recruits from outlying towns, didn't want to stop there. They chased demonstrators into neighborhoods where the distinctions between protestors and citizens vanished. The police began attacking bystanders, witnesses, residents, and commuters. They had completely lost control. When President Clinton sped from Boeing airfield to the Westin at 1.30 am Wednesday, his limousines entered a police-ringed city of broken glass, helicopters, and boarded windows. He was too late. The mandate for the WTO had vanished sometime that afternoon.

The next morning, and over the next days, a surprised press corps went to work and spun webs. They vented thinly veiled anger in columns, and pointed guilt-mongering fingers at brash, misguided white kids. They created myths, told fables. What a majority of media projected onto the marchers and activists, in an often-contradictory manner, was that the protesters are afraid of a world without walls; that they want the WTO to have even more rules; that anarchists led by John Zerzan from Eugene ran rampant; that they blame the WTO for the world's problems; that they are opposed to global integration; that they are against trade; that they are ignorant and insensitive to the world's poor; that they want to tell other people how to live. The list is long and tendentious.

Patricia King, one of two Newsweek reporters in Seattle, called me from her hotel room at the Four Seasons and wanted to know if this was the '60s redux. No, I told her. The '60s were primarily an American event; the protests against the WTO are international. Who are the leaders, she wanted to know? There are no leaders in the traditional sense. But there are thought leaders, I said. Who are they, she asked? I began to name some, including their writings, area of focus, and organizational affiliations: Martin Khor and Vandana Shiva of the Third World Network in Asia, Walden Bello of Focus on the Global South, Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute, Jerry Mander of the IFG, Susan George of the Transnational Institute, David Korten of the People-Centered Development Forum, John Cavanagh of the Institute for Policy Studies, Lori Wallach of Public Citizen, Mark Ritchie of the Institute For Agriculture and Trade Policy, Anuradha Mittal of Institute for Food & Development Policy, Helena Norberg-Hodge of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, Chakravarthi Raghavan of the Third World Network in Geneva, Debra Harry of the Indigenous Peoples Coalition Against Biopiracy, José Bové of the Confederation Paysanne Europèenne, Tetteh Hormoku of the Third World Network in Africa, Randy Hayes of Rainforest Action Network.

Stop, stop, she said. I can't use these names in my article. Why not? Because Americans have never heard of them. Instead, Newsweek editors put the picture of the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynksi, in the article because he had, at one time, purchased some of John Zerzan's writings.

Welcome to the Net Generation

"This conference is not like other conferences." That's what all the speakers at "Re-Imagining Politics and Society" were told before we arrived at New York's Riverside Church. When we addressed the delegates, we were to try to solve a very specific problem: the lack of "unity of vision and strategy" guiding the movement against global corporatism. This was a very serious problem, we were advised. The young activists who went to Seattle to shut down the WTO and to Washington, DC, to protest against the World Bank and the IMF had been getting hammered in the press as tree-wearing, lamb-costumed, drumbeating bubble brains. Our mission, according to the conference organizers at the Foundation for Ethics and Meaning, was to whip that chaos on the streets into some kind of structured, media-friendly shape. This wasn't just another talk shop. We were going to give birth to "a unified movement for holistic social, economic, and political change."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Take it Personally by Anita Roddick. Copyright © 2001 by HarperCollinsPublishers. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.