The Global Police State - Paperback

by William I. Robinson (Author)

"Karl Marx aspired to a world in which our animal needs would be satisfied and our human needs could be addressed. It is a realistic possibility now, as William Robinson outlines--or the alternative that is taking shape before our eyes: a 'global police state' controlled by narrowly concentrated capital with 'surplus humanity' left to survive somehow on its own. The choice is in our hands."
--Noam Chomsky, author of Who Rules the World?

As the world becomes ever more unequal, people become ever more "disposable." Today, governments systematically exclude sections of their populations from society through heavy-handed policing. But it doesn't always go to plan.

William I. Robinson exposes the nature and dynamics of this out-of-control system, arguing for the urgency of creating a movement capable of overthrowing it. The global police state uses a variety of ingenious methods of control, including mass incarceration, police violence, US-led wars, the persecution of immigrants and refugees, and the repression of environmental activists.

He writes in his Introduction, "I offer a 'big picture" of the emerging global police state in a short book that is eminently readable. The pages to follow may startle many readers and make them angry. I trust the work will serve as a warning of the dystopic future that is upon us. More importantly, by exposing the nature and dynamic of this out-of-control system, I hope it will contribute to the struggles to bring about an alternative future based on human freedom and liberation."

Movements have emerged to combat the increasing militarization, surveillance and social cleansing; however, many of them appeal to a moral sense of social justice rather than addressing its root: global capitalism.

Using shocking data which reveals how far capitalism has become a system of repression, Robinson argues that the emerging megacities of the world are becoming the battlegrounds where the excluded and the oppressed face off against the global police state.

Author Biography

William I. Robinson is Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies, at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Among his many award-winning books are Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity (CUP, 2014) and We Will Not Be Silenced (Pluto, 2017).