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A third, often highly dramatic, dimension of the global political city is its activist community. In the information age, global cities are a natural political stage, and organized nongovernmental groups are very frequently key actors. Global political cities can often be an episodic venue for mass political action of broader global significance staged by activists with cosmopolitan objectives in mind. Periodic demonstrations in Hong Kong (2003–2020), calling into question the viability of China’s “one-country, two systems” recipe for national reunification, or the nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the United States are cases in point.¹⁸ So too were the antiglobalization “battle in Seattle” riots (1999), or the periodic rallies at IMF–World Bank meetings in Washington, DC, over the past two decades.

In the deeply interdependent world of the twenty-first century, international protests and demonstrations are increasingly common.¹⁹ Since financial markets, in particular, move with such volatility, the macroeconomic and macropolitical consequences of sustained activism are potentially severe. Grassroots political actors can thus be an important element in the political equations of global cities, with implications far beyond the boundaries of the cities themselves.