[Immanuel Wallerstein] The first round of the movements took multiple forms across the world - the so-called Arab Spring, the Occupy movements beginning in the United States and then spreading to a large number of countries, Oxi in Greece and the indignados in Spain, the student protests in Chile, and many others.

They were a fantastic success. The degree of success may be measured by an extraordinary article written by Lawrence Summers in the Financial Times on November 21, with the title, "Inequality can no longer be held at bay by the usual ideas." This is not a theme for which Summers has previously been known.

In it he makes two remarkable points, considering that he has been personally one of the architects of the world economic policy in the last twenty years that has put us all in the dire crisis in which the world finds itself.

The first point is that there have been fundamental changes in world economic structures. Summers says that "the most important of these is the strong shift in the market reward for a small minority of citizens relative to the rewards available to most citizens."

The second concerns the two kinds of public reactions to this reality: that of the protesters and that of the strong anti-protesters. Summers says he is against "polarization," which is what, according to him, the protesters are engaged in doing. But then he says: "At the same time, those who are quick to label any expression of concern about rising inequality as misplaced or a product of class warfare are even further off base."

What Summers' article indicates is not that he has become an exponent of radical social change - far from it - but rather that he is worried about the political impact of the worldwide social justice movement, especially in what he calls the industrialized world. I call this success for the global social justice movement.