Globalization and Resistance in the United States and Mexico: The Global Potemkin Village

This paper explores resistance to globalization through an analysis of three movements in which university students played pivotal roles: the student strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), global trade protests, and the graduate student union movement in the U.S. Of special interest are the effects of globalization on higher education and the relevance of the neoliberal critique offered by critical theorists and globalization protesters. The author reveals how anti-globalization rhetoric deriving from the three movements seeks to counter the hegemony of corporate globalism. Previous literature on globalization and social movements is called upon to inform the study.