Public Action and Social Movements
Public Action and Social Movements
provides basic knowledge supporting public action against free market
fundamentalists who, through state, cultural, religious, racial,
gender, military and economic terrorism are imposing a world system
leading to the destruction of the environment both physical and human.
This section also aims to contribute to the creation of social
movements for building a new world, just, fair and sustainable.
The process of globalisation managed by TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS with
the protection of the politicians in many governments all over the
world, and the complicity of many intellectuals, scholars and
university communities, is the most clear manifestation of a process of
planetary destruction for the sake of making monumental profits for the
few.
Public Action and Social Movements
facilitates access to knowledge for globalising the movement against
a globalisation managed by the international capitalist class.
Public Action and Social Movements
link to the web sites of organizations currently leading the process of
globalization of the movement against free market fundamentalism.
Public action to globalise the movement against capitalist free market
globalisation is one tool that the non-capitalist members of civil
society can utilize to stop the murdering of our planet, the
slaughtering of large sections of our population, and the creation of
an obscene two tiers global society, with an extremely wealthy minority
and a extremely poor majority. Public action can be used to stop
this process and can help to generate an alternative development agenda
leading to the creation of real human societies and not barbaric
groupings ruled by free market fundamentalists or religious
fundamentalists.
In September 1999 I wrote:
"The world economy began to be globalised in late XV century when
Western European pillage of the rest of the world resources became the
main occupation of the ruling classes from Portugal, Spain,
Netherlands, Britain, and France. Genocide, slaughtering, and robbery
acquired the category of heroic deeds giving to the perpetrators the
right to become national heroes in their countries of origin. The
heroes developed a set of colonial powers, the victims, a set of
colonized societies. The world was globalised."
Aldo Ferrer (1), in 1998, stated:
... "ever since the advent of an economic order encompassing the whole
planet, countries' relations with the international environment have
determined their level of development. Capital formation, technological
change, the distribution of resources, employment, the distribution of
income and macroeconomic equilibria are, indeed, strongly influenced by
relations with the international system"..."The current debate on
globalisation's nature and range is nothing new. It goes back to the
same historical problem of how can each country solve its development
dilemma in a global world so as to avoid getting caught in a network of
relations administered by the main interests and powers for their own
benefit".
In the 1990s, of course, the "main interests and powers" are connected
to transnational corporations and five major economic powers: United
States, Japan, Germany, France and United Kingdom. "Styles of
development" in former colonies in Africa, Asia and Latin America are
shaped by the "main interests and powers".
Globalisation today has a tool: structural adjustment programmes.
Globalisation today has a philosophy: deregulation of the market.
Globalisation today has a gospel: the dynamics of the unregulated
capitalist market, otherwise advertised as free market.
( See, R. Rojas, Sustainable development in a
globalized economy? The odds (September 1999))
Public Action and Social Movements
intends to provide intellectual weapons to fight this obscene process
of capitalist globalisation.
The Róbinson Rojas Archive
provides part of those intellectual weapons also. Other organizations
provide most of them.
Dr.
Róbinson Rojas (January 2000, the year when the murderer Augusto
Pinochet was left off the hook by the British government led by
Tony Blair.)
(1) A. Ferrer, "Mercosur and
Alternative World Orders", 1998
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In the Belly of the Beast
A perspective on the global justice movement in the United States: its
roots and emergence
Sara Burke and Claudio Puty
PART I.- The Post-World War II Golden
Age of Capitalism and Crisis of the 1970s
The massive expansion in production in the US during World War II
lifted the US—and global—economies out of the crisis of the Great
Depression and into a "Golden Age" of expansion that lasted until the
great economic crisis of the 1970s. This era gave way to the neoliberal
backlash of the 1980s.
PART II.- The Neoliberal Years: [The 1980s]
The collapse of the Mexican peso in 1982—near the beginning of the
era—was to the global economic order what the elections of Ronald
Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were to the global political order: the
beginning of a new, conservative political hegemony that shaped the
world's economic policy for the decade. Resistance to neoliberalism in
Latin America.
PART III.- NAFTA and the Zapatista Uprising: [The early and mid 1990s]
The North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] went into effect on
January 1, 1994. The Zapatistas' autonomous revolt against NAFTA and
neoliberalism that very day came to have a powerful effect on the
nascent movement in the US.
PART IV.- The Anti-Capitalist Side of the Movement: [The turn of the
century: 1999-2002]
Protest erupts in Seattle in 1999 as opponents of neoliberalism from
around the world join American demonstrators against the World Trade
Organization. The mainstream media focused on the surface: we look
deeper.
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Destabilizing social
movements in China
Sukrit Sabhlok - April 18, 2008
An important feature of modern-day China has been the rise
of civil society and political protest. Suisheng Zhao (2004) identifies
three types of social movements: ethnic nationalism, liberal
nationalism and state nationalism. The first two can be considered
"populist", or citizen-initiated, social movements. They usually entail
rebellion against the status quo and fragment the Chinese people. The
last, state nationalism, takes as its primary goal the unification of
the citizenry...
The Rise of Social Movements Among
Migrant Workers
Uncertain strivings for autonomy
Chloé Froissart - September 2005
The reforms brought with them the Party’s retreat from
certain social and economic spheres,
and what was once claimed as identical interests between the
Party-state, the working people
and the enterprise administrators vanished. As Dorothy J. Solinger puts
it in a recent paper:
the three parties, “once supposed allies, have become mutually
antagonistic”1. The economic
reforms hence enabled the emergence of a new space where social,
economic and political
actors have a chance to push for their interests thanks to new
conditions of bargaining
as well as new alliances. According to Charles Tilly, “social movements
contribute to the
creation of a public space—social settings, separate both from
governing institutions and
from organizations devoted to production or reproduction, in which
consequential deliberation
over public affairs takes place—as well as sometimes contributing to
transfers of power over
states”2. Peasants were the first among the Chinese population to be
put on the move by the
economic reforms: transient, no longer belonging to rural society and
lacking residency status
in the urban area where they work, while more immune to social control
they are also denied
full citizenship rights. This situation changed in 2002-2003 when the
central government,
aware both of the necessity to acknowledge migrant workers’ economic
contribution and
afraid of growing social instability, started to call for the
protection of their “legal rights”.
However,...
Social unrest in China
Thomas Lum - May, 2006
In the past few years, the People’s Republic of China
(PRC) has experienced
rising social unrest, including protests, demonstrations, picketing,
and group
petitioning. According to PRC official sources, “public order
disturbances” have
grown by nearly 50% in the past two years, from 58,000 incidents in
2003 to 87,000
in 2005. Although political observers have described social unrest
among farmers
and workers since the early 1990s, recent protest activities have been
broader in
scope, larger in average size, greater in frequency, and more brash
than those of a
decade ago. Fears of greater unrest have triggered debates with the
Communist Party
leadership about the pace of economic reforms and the proper way to
respond to
protesters.
Social Capital and Ordinary Social Movement in
Urban China
Shi Fayong - August 2005
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological
Association, Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
- Aug 12, 2005
Since the 1990s, with the market-oriented economic reform
and decentralization, China’s
local government agencies have been more and more interest-oriented in
their action. Local
states, as well as some commercial organizations, often excessively
exploit local resources
(e.g, Lu,1999; Chen,2000), which is incompatible with citizens’
interests. Therefore,
contemporary China’s citizens also often launch collective resistances
to defend their interests
or rights in both rural and urban China. Different from large-scale
political movements such
as 1989 Tiananmen Movement, these grassroots resistances are mainly
directed at local
authorities or enterprises, and they focus on specific economic or
social problems instead of
abstract political claims. However, they also impose great impacts on
the grassroots
governance of the party state. To understand the social and political
order of contemporary
China, we have to explore the mechanisms of grassroots movements.
The May 4th Movement
Mao Tse-tung - May 1939
[Comrade Mao Tse-tung wrote this article for newspapers
in Yenan to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the May 4th
Movement.]
The May 4th Movement twenty years ago marked a new stage in China's
bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism. The
cultural reform movement which grew out of the May 4th Movement was
only one of the manifestations of this revolution. With the growth and
development of new social forces in that period, a powerful camp made
its appearance in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, a camp
consisting of the working class, the student masses and the new
national bourgeoisie. Around the time of the May 4th Movement, hundreds
of thousands of students courageously took their place in the van. In
these respects the May 4th Movement went a step beyond the Revolution
of 1911.
The orientation of the
youth movement
May 4, 1939 -[This speech was delivered by Comrade Mao
Tse-tung at a mass meeting of youth in Yenan to commemorate the
twentieth anniversary of the May 4th Movement. It represented a
development in his ideas on the question of the Chinese revolution.]
Today is the twentieth anniversary of the May 4th Movement,
and the youth of Yenan are all gathered here for this commemoration
meeting. I shall therefore take the occasion to speak on some questions
concerning the orientation of the youth movement in China.
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Ten Theses on Social
Movements
Marta Fuentes and
Andre Gunder Frank - 1988
The many social movements in the West,
South and East that are now commonly called "new" are with few
exceptions new forms of social movements, which have existed
through the ages. Ironically,the "classical" working class/union
movements date mostly only from the last century, and they increasingly
appear to be only a passing phenomenon related to the development of
industrial capitalism. On the other hand, peasant, localist community,
ethnic / nationalist, religious, and even feminist / womens movements
have existed for centuries and even millennia in many parts of the
world.Yet many of these movements are now commonly called "new",
although European history
records countless social movements throughout history. Examples are
the....
Andre Gunder Frank - 1992
On Studying the Cycles in Social
Movements
...can the cyclical pattern of social
protest movements be traced to economic, demographic, generational or
other factors that themselves display a recurent wave like or even
cyclical pattern of growth and decline, which in turn generartes
"cycles" of social protest movements? In other words, how do we explain
and account for the "cycles" in and of social protest movements that we
may observe?
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The Missing Link – bridging between social
movement theory and conflict resolution
Mikael Weissmann, University of Gothenburg
GARNET Working Paper No: 60/08 - October 2008
This paper explores what benefits the
theoretical development, operationalisation and
implementation of conflict resolution can get from bridging with social
movement theory.
Four different social movement theories are included: the political
process, resource
mobilisation, collective behaviour- and the new social movement
approach. For conflict
resolution Peter Wallensteen’s theoretical approach is used. The
analysis is limited to the
post-Cold War period and intrastate conflicts (civil wars and state
formation conflicts). This
covers 95% of all post-Cold War conflicts. Four questions are asked and
answered: 1. What
does the link between social movement theory and conflict resolution
look like?; 2. How can
social movement theory benefit the development of conflict resolution
theory?; 3. How can
social movement theory benefit the operationalisation of conflict
resolution theory?; 4. How
can social movement theory and social movements be beneficial for the
implementation of
conflict resolution theory (i.e. conflict resolution)? The theoretical
findings are tested on one
case study (East Timor). The theoretical analysis shows that there
exist a link between social
movement theory and conflict resolution on all levels. The case study
confirms the theoretical
findings.
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From
UNRISD
Poverty Reduction and Policy Regimes
Social Movements and Poverty in
Developing Countries
A. Bebbington - 2010
Poverty and inequality are both
products and producers of the prevailing relationships of
power in a society. By many definitions, social movements are
understood as questioning the
nature and exercise of power in society. As such they also play roles
in challenging relation–
ships of poverty and inequality. This paper explores some of these
roles.
The paper first discusses characteristics of social movements—their
motivations, emergence and
strategies. Languages of justice and rights are far more prominent in
social movements than are
languages of poverty reduction. Movements rarely take on the mantle of
“being poor” as an
identity-based grievance, and few movement leaders think of themselves
or their bases in this
way. Indeed, many movements argue that a policy focus on poverty is
depoliticizing and
diverts attention from structures of inequality and exclusion.
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UNRISD:
Civil Society and Social
Movements
(2000-2005)
Research
within this programme aimed to improve understanding of the potential
for civic action and local self-organization in different kinds of
societies and political regimes around the world. This, in turn, should
clarify thinking about the concept of civil society.
The need to strengthen civil society has become a truism within the
development debate - something that can be stated without further
analysis or discussion. But civil society is a complex of different
forms of organization, developing within specific contexts. Placing too
great a faith in civil society, vaguely defined, glosses over important
differences between non-governmental organizations, grassroots
organizations, social movements and other forms of civic action. It
also ignores an array of problems inherent in local politics and social
relations.
----------------------
- Trade
Unions and NGOs: A Necessary Partnership for Social Development
Paper No.: 1
- Civil
Society Organizations and Service Provision
Paper No.: 2
- Social
Movements, Activism and Social Development in the Middle East
Paper No.: 3
- Grassroots
Movements, Political Activism and Social Development in Latin America:
A Comparison of Chile and Brazil
Paper No.: 4
- The
Women's Movement in Egypt, with Selected References to Turkey
Paper No.: 5
- The
Agrarian Question, Access to Land, and Peasant Responses in Sub-Saharan
Africa
Paper No.: 6
- Understanding
the Evolving Diversities and Originalities in Rural Social Movements in
the Age of Globalization
Paper No.: 7
- Peasant
Associations in Theory and Practice
Paper No.: 8
- Civil
Society and the Uncivil State: Land Tenure Reform in Egypt and the
Crisis of Rural Livelihoods
Paper No.: 9
- Civil
Society and Social Movements: The Dynamics of Intersectoral Alliances
and Urban-Rural Linkages in Latin America
Paper No.: 10
- Post-Soviet
Institutional Design, NGOs and Rural Livelihoods in Uzbekistan
Paper No.: 11
- Agrarian
Research Institutes and Civil Society in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan: In
Search of Linkages
Paper No.: 12
- Agricultural
Restructuring and Trends in Rural Inequalities in Central Asia: A
Socio-Statistical Survey
Paper No.: 13
- Islamisme
et pauvreté dans le monde rural de l’Asie centrale post-soviétique:
Vers un espace de solidarité islamique?
Paper No.: 14
- Environmental
Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Political Ecology of Power and
Conflict
Paper No.: 15
- Civil
Society in United Nations Conferences: A literature Review
Paper No.: 17
- UN
World Summits and Civil Society: The State of the Art
Paper No.: 18
- The
Contemporary Global Social Movements: Emergent Proposals, Connectivity
and Development Implications
Paper No.: 19
- Le
commerce équitable
Paper No.: 20
- The
Social Bases of the Global Justice Movement: Some Theoretical
Reflections and Empirical Evidence from the First European Social Forum
Paper No.: 21
- NGOs and Social Movements: A North/South Divide?
Alejandro Bendaña - June 2006 - Paper No.: 22
This paper examines those
contemporary agencies broadly termed non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) and social movements. Emphasis is placed on political
differences in approach, and the paper poses the question of how such
differences coincide with geographical distinctions between the North
and South. Differences in approach are also a product of different
types of analysis and different strategic proposals, although among
many NGOs and social movements there is a broad belief in the need to
change the existing global political and economic order.
While some NGOs and social movements will contest policy, others will
contest power—as a result of their differing analysis of phenomena
related to globalization. Such divisions are evident, for example, in
the Jubilee 2000 movement, where NGOs focus largely on specific goals
for countries demanding debt forgiveness; the Jubilee South movement,
more tied to social organizations, insisted on the illegitimacy of all
debt and demanded debt cancellation and debt repudiation. In the area
of international trade, distinctions may be identified between the
“market access” reformers mostly in the North and those, primarily in
the South, demanding the end of the export-oriented development model.
A key question posed in this paper is whether social movements (mass
resistance) can absorb and reorient NGOs, or whether we are witnessing
the “NGO-izaton” of movements and politics.
- Trends
in Government Support for Non-Governmental Organizations: Is The
"Golden Age" of the NGO Behind Us?
Paper No.: 23
- The
Global Justice Movement: How Far Does the Classic Social Movement
Agenda Go in Explaining Transnational Contention?
Paper No.: 24
- The
Global Women's Rights Movement: Power Politics around the United
Nations and the World Social Forum
Paper No.: 25
- Transnational
Civil Society Movements: The State of Anticorruption Efforts
Paper No.: 26
- Global
Tax Initiatives: The Movement for the Currency Transaction Tax
Paper No.: 27
- The
Rise and Development of the Global Debt Movement: A North-South Dialogue
- Paper No.: 28
- Political
Space for Non-Governmental Organizations in United Nations World Summit
Processes
Paper No.: 29
Manuel Mejido
Costoya - October 2007
Programme Paper No. 30
Toward a Typology of Civil Society Actors: The
Case of the Movement to Change International Trade Rules and Barriers
This paper proposes a typology of
civil society actors based on organizational attributes and
worldviews. It then applies the typology to the movement to change
international trade rules
and barriers. In so doing, it aims to contribute to current debates
about the increasing autonomy
and influence of civil society, and the growing diversity of civil
society actors in the context of
globalization.
The paper begins by sketching the current sociohistorical situation.
The author argues, from a
social evolution perspective, that the age of globalization is
characterized by the emergence of a
new social form, the “network”. This new social form is giving way to
the proliferation of nonstate
actors and is transforming the nature of social conflict. The author
further maintains that
under these conditions, civil society actors are gaining leverage, and
the sphere of civil society is
gaining greater autonomy and is increasingly becoming the locus of
social conflict.
Against this sociohistorical context, the paper next proposes a
typology of civil society actors. This
typology consists of four categories:
(i) the formally structured, hierarchical and rationalized
nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs);
(ii) the amorphous and spontaneous, horizontal, charismatic,
cathectic and increasingly reticular social movements;
(iii) the segmented, flexible, polycentric,
synergistic, information-generating networks of civil society actors;
and
(iv) the geographically
fixed and temporally discrete, iterative, rhizomatic plateaus of civil
society actors.
Jem Bendell
and Annekathrin Ellersiek - 4 June 2009
Programme Paper No. 31
Noble Networks? Advocacy for
Global Justice and the "Network Effect"
Civil society organizations in Western societies are widely reported to
have significant political
power. Policy makers increasingly emphasize the important role of such
organizations as
“equal players” in the political process, while outside institutional
politics, civic advocacy
recently regained attention through the rise of global and
transnational social movements.
This paper draws attention away from individual engagement in social
movements and from
single non-governmental organizations (NGOs), toward
inter-organizational networks of civil
organizations and their role in public policy processes. Taking an
inter-organizational
perspective on civic advocacy, the paper starts with a theoretical
reflection on two bodies of
literature: social movement theory, and the literature on
inter-organizational networks. The
combination of insights from these two areas builds the theoretical
background for analysing
the “network effect” for joint advocacy by civil organizations in
networks. The network effect,
as discussed here, builds on a set of propositions about how organizing
in networks affects the
network members themselves, as well as how networks change the role of
civic action in the
policy process. These propositions are presented and discussed from two
different angles:
inside and outside networks.
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James Herrick - Nov. 1995
Empowerment Practice and Social Change: The
Place For New Social Movement Theory
A working draft prepared for The
New Social Movement and Community Organizing Conference, University
of Washington, Seattle
November 1-3, 1995
In this paper we critically examine current
empowerment theory and its relationship to social change, and set forth
ideas
for social transformation drawing on new social movement theories. The
historical and current conception of empowerment practice focuses
primarily on
individual enlightenment and emancipation in a way that is not directly
relevant to collective action and social transformation (Fay, 1987;
Heller,
1990; Breton, 1994)....
Exploring the Interrelationships between
Social Welfare and Social Movements:
Why this matters for Social Policy
Gerry Mooney (The Open University),
Jason Annetts, Alex Law and Wallace McNeish (University of Abertay
Dundee)
Social Policy Association Annual Conference:
‘Learning from the Past?’
Edinburgh: June 29 -July 1 2009
Contemporary social policy has never been more vigorously contested.
Issues range from
single-issue campaigns over housing, social care, hospital closures
through to organised
movements around disability, environment, health and education. And at
a global level
social movements are active in contesting and shaping social policy
developments.
However, the historical and contemporary role played by social
movements in shaping social
welfare has too often been neglected in the discipline of social
policy, while social movement
studies needs to more thoroughly account for the process of social
reform.
This paper therefore argues that there is much that social policy can
learn from the insights
offered by social movement theorising – and that in turn social policy
can contribute to the
understanding of social movement protest through its focus upon the
contestations and
indeed contradictions of contemporary social policy makings.
Synthesising ideas and
approaches from both ‘traditions’ can offer us a more developed
understanding of the ways
in which social policy is influenced, shaped and struggled over.
Using historical and contemporary case studies this paper critically
examines the interrelationship
between state welfare and social movements. Historically, social
movements
contributed directly to the creation of the welfare state relating
through campaigns over
Beveridge’s ‘five giants’ of idleness, ignorance, squalor, illness and
want. But the ‘classical
welfare state’ has faced contemporary challenges posed by ‘new social
movements’ in
relation to the family, discrimination, environment and global social
justice. We conclude by
reflecting on the possibilities of social welfare movement responses to
the crisis of
neoliberalism as a regime of class domination, drawing on recent
examples of social
movement protest and struggle.
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People's Global Action
From the 23rd to the 26th of
February of 1998, grassroots movements of all continents met in Geneva
to launch a worldwide coordination network of resistance to the global
market, a new alliance of struggle and solidarity called Peoples'
Global Action against 'free' trade and the WTO (PGA). That was the
birth of this global tool for communication and coordination for all
those who fight the destruction of humanity and the planet by
capitalism and build local alternatives to globalisation.
The defining documents of the PGA are its five
hallmarks, its organisational
principles and its manifesto.
At the conference in Bangalore, India in August 1999 the hallmarks
and the organisational
principles were amended to reflect discussions about clarifying differences to right-wing
anti-globalizers. A new second hallmark was added.
The Hallmarks were changed at the conference in Cochabamba
2001.------------------------- |
Felix Stalder (1999)
The network paradigm: Social Formations in the
Age of Information
Manuel Castells’ The
Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture (1996, 1997 and 1998) is
unrivaled in ambition: to make sense of the global social dynamics as
they arise out of a myriad of changes around the world. It is a
cross-cultural analysis of the major social, economic and political
transformations at the end of this century. It is presented through
interrelated empirical case studies...
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Centre for Civil Society
(London School of Economics)
Civil Society Working Papers
The Civil
Society Working Paper (CSWP) series provides a vehicle for
disseminating the recent and ongoing research efforts of researchers
based at, or linked to, the Centre for Civil Society (CCS). It aims to
reflect the range and diversity of theoretical and empirical work
undertaken on non-governmental, voluntary, nonprofit or third sector
organisations, foundation, and social enterprises - as part of wider
civil society.
Editor: Professor Jude Howell
Former Editor: Jeremy Kendall (CSWPs 1 - 21)
All CSWPs can be viewed and downloaded from this website. Printed
copies of CSWPs 1 - 21 are available at £5.95.
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Civil Society and Social Movements Programme
Paper Number 16 October 2005
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development
Environmental Movements, Politics and Agenda
21 in Latin America
María Pilar García-Guadilla
The scarce interest in, and the lack of support given to, Agenda 21—the
official, mainstream agenda adopted at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, 1992)—by
Latin American governments, non-governmental organization (NGOs) and
social movements may be explained in part by the region’s economic,
political and social crises that have defined priorities other than
those stipulated in Agenda 21. The main concerns of the region over the
last decade have been poverty and political stability, not sustainable
development. Another obstacle for the advancement of Agenda 21 is the
fact that sustainable development and participatory democracy are such
broad concepts that there is no agreement on their meaning among Latin
American governments, NGOs and social movements—and not even within
NGOs and social movements.
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From London School of Economics
Non-Governmental Public
Action Programme
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Programme
Director: Professor Jude Howell
Public action by and for disadvantaged people, undertaken by
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other non-government actors,
is increasingly significant at local and international levels. This
research programme will develop existing theory, generate new empirical
data and develop beneficial links between researchers and users.
Projects will include international comparative work and
transdisciplinary research.
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Marta Fuentes and Andre Gunder Frank
Ten Theses on Social Movements
March 1988 revision
This essay will develop the following theses:
1. The "new" social movements are not new, even if they have some new
features; and the "classical" ones are relatively new and perhaps
temporary.
2. Social movements display much variety and changeability, but have in
common individual mobilization through a sense of morality and
(in)justice and social power through social mobilization against
deprivation and for survival and identity.
3. The strength and importance of social movements is cyclical and
related to long political economic and (perhaps associated) ideological
cycles. When the conditions that give rise to the movements change
(through the action of the movements themselves and/or more usually due
to changing circumstances), the movements tend to disappear.
4. It is important to distinguish the class composition of social
movements, which are mostly middle class in the West, popular/working
class in the South, and some of each in the East...
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Andre Gunder Frank
On studying the Cycles in Social Movements
Paper prepared for the Conference on "Movimientos Cíclicos y
Recurrencias en Política y Economía" sponsored by Fundación Pablo
Iglesias, Madrid May 18-21, 1992. This paper incorporates but
substantially expands on the section on cycles in our "Civil Democracy:
Social Movements in Recent World History" in Transforming the
Revolution:Social Movements and the World-System by S. Amin, G.
Arrighi, A.G. Frank & I. Wallerstein [New York: Monthly Review
Press 1991.]
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Journal of World Systems Research - Volume 10
On Global Social Movements
Before and After 9/11
Throughout the history of the modern world-system, projects of
globalization
promoted by world elites have been met with resistance from people
on the g round whose livelihoods have often been threatened. As the
geographic
scale of global capitalism has expanded, and its penetration into daily
life has
deepened, the scale and intensity of resistance to this system has
grown as well.
Local eff orts to protect traditional ways of life, for instance, have
evolved into
national campaigns for union protections and then into international
movements
for stronger labor, human rights, and environmental protections. Today,
as global elites push for the fi nal incorporation of all regions into
a single capitalist
system based on neoliberal principles, they are being met by an
unexpectedly
resilient, far-reaching, and multi-faceted coalition of resistance.
Whatever it may
be called—the ‘anti-globalization movement,’ the ‘global solidarity
movement,’ or
the ‘globalization protest movement’—it is clear that this
anti-systemic movement
has emerged as an important challenger to the dominance of global
capital
over the contemporary world.
This special issue of the Journal of World-Systems Research is
dedicated to
examining the modern characteristics and prospects of this coalition of
resistance
to elite-driven forms of globalization. We have gathered together ten
articles
that explore various facets of the contemporary globalization protest
movement.
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From Aurora
Aurora is a journal of interviews with leading thinkers and writers. We
have tried to interview those authors whose books we teach, or whose
research and writing is considered important to established or emerging
fields of inquiry.
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Andre Gunder Frank
offers practical
strategies for social and economic development. Interview by Anthony
Simmons. Updated February 2002.
Paulo Freire, Brazilian
popular educator whose work has influenced development workers
worldwide. Interview by Carlos Torres. Updated December 1999.
Frances
Fukuyama discusses his
controversial idea that we have reached the end of history. Interview
by Maxim Jean-Louis, 1990. Updated February 2002.
John
Kenneth Galbraith, perhaps
Canada's best- known intellectual export, known for his critique of
orthodox economic wisdom. Interview by John Newark, 1990.
Susan
George, explains why for many
countries there is No Fate Wor$e Than Debt. Interview by Mike
Gismondi, 1990. Updated February 2002.
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Amarta Sen (1990)
Public Action to Remedy
Hunger
I feel very deeply
honoured by the invitation to give this lecture and also extremely
privileged to have the opportunity of presenting some ideas on the role
of public action in eradicating hunger in the modern world. I shall
argue that systematic public action can eradicate the terrible and
resilient problems of starvation and hunger in the world in which we
live. But I shall also argue that for this to be secured on a lasting
basis it is important to integrate the protective role of the
government with the efficient functioning of other economic and social
institutions - varying from trade and commerce to the news media and
political parties. It is also important to see public action in a broad
perspective - involving active parts played by the public itself, going
well beyond state planning and governmental actions.
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Social Movements and
Culture
(Washington State University)
This site provides a
space for the study of social movements in the U.S., including those
movements as linked to transnational and global movements. Our emphasis
is on recent and contemporary movements, but we also aim to provide
materials on earlier movements. We seek to bring together the best
insights of sociology, political science, anthropology, history,
cultural studies, American studies, ethnic studies, women's studies,
and other fields of social movement analysis, as well as the insights
of movement activists inside and outside of academia.
----
Articles
Bibliographies
Courses
Glossary
Conferences
MOVEMENT SITES:
Abolition/Slavery
AIDS
Activism
American
Indian
Anarchism
Anti-Nuclear
Art
Activism
Asian/Pacific
Am
Black
Nationalism
Chicano/Latina
Civil
Rights
Disability
Rights
Environmental
Gay/Les/Bi/Queer
Globalization
Labor
Media
Activism
Socialism
Women's
Multi-issue
Sites
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Greenpeace
Greenpeace is
asking you to take part in an energy revolution. To go from a world
powered by nuclear and fossil fuels to one running on renewable energy.
Human caused climate change is a reality. Fortunately, there are proven
energy solutions we can put to use today to provide sustainable
development and energy for all. Will this energy transformation occur
rapidly enough to avert the worst effects of a warming world? You will
help decide the answer to that question.
-------------------- |
New Internationalist
A
communications co-operative
With over 30 years of publishing under its belt, and more than 75,000
subscribers worldwide, the New Internationalist is renowned for
its radical, campaigning stance on a range of world issues, from the
cynical marketing of babymilk in the Majority World to human rights in
Burma.
Read
more about A communications co-operative
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Third World Network:
Action Alerts and Statements
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OneWorld Online
-
GUIDES
(Oneworld.net)
oneworld.net's guides aim to challenge and inform,
questioning assumptions and suggesting alternatives on the subjects
that really matter.
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Foreign
Policy IN FOCUS
Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) is a think tank for research, analysis,
and action that brings together scholars, advocates, and activists who
strive to make the United States a more responsible global partner. The
International Relations Center (IRC) in Silver City, New Mexico and the
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington, DC have jointly
managed FPIF since 1996.
FPIF provides timely analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international
affairs and recommends policy alternatives. We believe U.S. security
and world stability are best advanced through a commitment to peace,
justice and environmental protection as well as economic, political,
and social rights. We advocate that diplomatic solutions, global
cooperation, and grassroots participation guide foreign policy.
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Christian Aid
Christian
Aid is an agency of the churches in the UK and Ireland. We work
wherever the need is greatest – irrespective of religion or race.
Because we believe in strengthening people to find their own solutions
to the problems they face, we support local organisations, which are
best placed to understand local needs.
We also give help on the ground through 16 overseas offices.
We strive for a new world transformed by an end to poverty and we
campaign to change the rules that keep people poor.
Campaigns
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MandE News
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Converge Programme
To enhance the
capacity and effectiveness of not-for-profit, community and
non-governmental organisations by facilitating the provision of premier
on-line communication and publishing services, tools and resources,
wherever possible free of charge
--------------------- |
Fundación CIPAV
(Centro
para la Investigación en Sistemas Sostenibles de Producción
Agropecuaria)
Fundación CIPAV is a Colombian NGO founded in 1986. The projects and
programs on which it focuses are alternative agricultural production
systems. In these systems we promote the efficient and sustainable
utilization of the available human and natural resources, which are in
harmony with the environment.
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ActionAid
We are
an international development agency whose aim is to fight poverty
worldwide. Formed in 1972, for over 30 years we have been growing and
expanding to where we are today - helping over 13 million of the
world's poorest and most disadvantaged people in 42 countries
worldwide.
In all of our country programmes we work with local partners to make
the most of their knowledge and experience.
---------------------- |
From
the Institute for Global Communications
EcoNet
Beginning in 1987, the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) played
a formative role in bringing advanced communications technologies to
grassroots organizations worldwide working for peace, human rights,
environmental sustainability, women's rights, conflict resolution and
worker rights. Our flagship global computer networks -- PeaceNet,
EcoNet, WomensNet, ConflictNet, LaborNet and AntiRacismNet -- became
trademark names in the struggle for democratic use of the media and the
world's communications infrastructure. At its peak in 1998, IGC had
over 35 full-time staff members.
Many things have changed since then. ConflictNet doesn't exist anymore.
LaborNet left the IGC Networks to pursue its own mission. AntiRacismNet
is the newest, thriving IGC Network pursuing a global anti-racism
agenda.
IGC no longer offers Internet dial-up or mailing list services. It has
formed partnerships with EarthLink and Topica.com to fill the gap. IGC
continues to offer web hosting services to nonprofit groups,
individuals, and small companies.
--------------------- |
Amnesty International
Amnesty
International (AI) is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for
internationally recognized human rights.
AI’s vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human
rights enshrined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights
standards.
In pursuit of this vision, AI’s mission is to undertake research and
action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to
physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression,
and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to
promote all human rights.
AI is independent of any government, political ideology, economic
interest or religion. It does not support or oppose any government or
political system, nor does it support or oppose the views of the
victims whose rights it seeks to protect. It is concerned solely with
the impartial protection of human rights.
-------------------------- |
The Carter Center
Under the leadership of
former President Jimmy Carter and the Emory Carter Center Fellows, the
Carter Center has earned an international reputation for bringing
people and resources together to promote peace and human rights,
resolve conflict, foster democracy and development, and fight hunger,
poverty, and disease throughout the world. One of the ways that the
Global 2000 Agriculture program developed by the Carter Center is
fighting world hunger is by teaching agricultural skills in places like
Zambia.
---------------------- |
Friends of the Earth
Making life better for people by
inspiring solutions to environmental problems
----------------- |
Rainforest Action Network
Rainforest
Action Network (RAN) is made up of 36 staff members in San Francisco,
CA and in Tokyo, Japan, plus thousands of volunteer scientists,
teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens around the
world. We believe that a sustainable world can be created in our
lifetime, and that aggressive action must be taken immediately to leave
a safe and secure world for our children.
Dubbed “the most savvy environmental agitators in the business” by the
Wall Street Journal, RAN uses hard-hitting markets campaigns to align
the policies of multinational corporations with widespread public
support for environmental protection. We believe that logging ancient
forests for copy paper or destroying an endangered ecosystem for a
week’s worth of oil is not just destructive, but outdated and
unnecessary.
--------------------- |
Project Underground
Project
Underground exists as a vehicle for the environmental, human rights and
indigenous rights movements to carry out focused campaigns against
abusive extractive resource activity. We seek to systematically deal
with the problems created by the mining and oil industries by exposing
environmental and human rights abuses by the corporations involved in
these sectors and by building capacity amongst communities facing
mineral and energy development to achieve economic and environmental
justice.
------------------------- |
Oxfam International
United for a
more equitable world
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