A Theoretical Essay on Anti-capitalist Movements, Globalisation and Social Media

It is a fact that globalisation is not just an economic system but a result of a historical process. In other words, globalisation is the result of the capitalist development, such as searching for new markets and its relation with labour-commodity as well as developments in communication technologies. Thanks to the advancements of communication technologies, sharing information and the way people communicate have changed. With digitalisation and the rise of the Internet usage, people can share information in an easier and faster way and not dependent on several news sources as in the past. Protests in Seattle in 1999 against the World Trade Centre could be seen as the beginning for anti-capitalist movements. In addition, the ‘anti-global movement’ that sparked in Seattle turned into a different kind of protests which can be named afterwards as ‘anti-capitalist movements.’ This paper is a theoretical study that analyses how effective the Internet/social media in social movements. While studying, the paper scrutinises whether social media took any part in anti-capitalist and global movements (i.e., in the planning and action phases) or not and if so, to what extent by looking at theoretical studies on social media, politics and social movements