In sum, whereas text 1 depoliticizes by construing a consensus on the global economy as an inevitable fact of life and building national competitiveness as a necessary response, text 2 politicizes by construing the globalized economy as a stake in struggles between governments and transnationals, and capital and labour, and by opposing that construal to the government’s consensualist construal. But the mere existence of texts which politicize in this way does not amount to ‘ways past the obstacles’. This text offers an imaginary for a different, politicizing strategy in response to a differently conceived global (ized) economy; it shows that different imaginaries are possible and indeed exist, but we would also need to consider how feasible it would be to operationalize this or some other imaginary which could actually succeed and be implemented in the face of the sort of obstacles I have begun to indicate. It’s not impossible, but it’s difficult to see how at present: there are abundant alternative imaginaries, but there is currently no clear counter-hegemonic strategy. A fuller treatment than I have space for would include an analysis of attempts to develop oppositional strategies and their semiotic dimensions.