While this is true, the same could also be said of many other issues. There simply aren't enough activists to tackle every important issue. Economic justice is of particular interest to activists today and for important reasons.

During the Vietnam era, activists concentrated primarily on government and the military, because that was who held (and abused) the most power at the time. Now that we are in the post-Cold War era, military aggression is no longer the biggest threat to social justice (although it certainly remains a close runner-up). In fact, governments can no longer boast a monopoly on the global power structure (if indeed they ever could).

In today's economy, the wealthiest 5% of the U.S. population now control over 70 % of America's wealth. Overall, fifty-one of the largest one-hundred economies in the world are corporations, not governments. The revenues of the top 500 corporations in the U.S. equal about 60 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Transnational corporations hold ninety percent of all technology and product patents worldwide. In the past 10 years corporate power has grown immeasurably thanks to top-down trade agreements like NAFTA and the MAI, along with corporately controlled organizations like the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

Pair this kind of power with the only unbreakable rule of capitalism, the profit motive, and the results are devastating. Giant multinational corporations roam freely across borders searching for the countries with the cheapest labor and the lowest environmental standards. This produces horrendous sweatshop conditions, starvation wages, and irreversible environmental destruction in countries where the only trade "advantage" is poverty, while predatory lending and forced structural adjustments ensure that the poorest people only get poorer, and "development" is limited to corporations owned or influenced by elites from wealthier industrialized nations. The wealth gap between rich and poor countries has never been greater in the history of the world. Meanwhile, "free trade" creates massive layoffs among the labor force in wealthy countries like the U.S. as jobs move to poorer countries. Those who manage to hold on to their jobs are often forced to accept lower wages and fewer benefits, as their bargaining power deteriorates. Government becomes less and less democratic as politicians sell their decision-making power to corporate interests, and even public institutions lose self-determination as corporations take over prisons, schools, and utilities, often leading to practical problems as well as obvious conflicts of interest. Meanwhile, race and class antagonisms worsen as inner city neighborhoods are left to decay.

In the face of this overwhelming menace, we may be tempted to believe that there is nothing we can do. However, as citizens of the most privileged country in the world, we have an incredible amount of power. There are countless ways in which we can help put power back into the hands of the people, and every little victory is still a victory. Martin Luther King Jr. once said "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". This is very true and an excellent way of understanding the systematic nature of oppression. However, the reverse is also true. When we fight for economic justice we know we are fighting for the rights of everyone and everything that are affected by the global economy (and it's very difficult to find anything that isn't.)

When corporate globalization is stuffed down our throats, we must respond by globalizing justice. We must fight hypocrisy with democracy, and take back our world while its still worth taking. Action may not bring about results as quickly as we wish it would, but consider the alternative and hopefully you will realize that inaction isn't even an option.