-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
1/20
The shape of social movements
and activism todayMark Bergfeld
Presentation at Essex Radical Conference on November 14, 2013
mdbergfeld[at]gmail.comwww.mdbergfeld.com
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
2/20
Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/10/occupy_wall_street_global_prot.html
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
3/20
Source: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/10/occupy_wall_street_global_prot.html
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
4/20
Five claims on contemporary
movements
Horizontal
De-centralised
Leaderless Demandless
Networked
Authors: Penny (2010), Mason (2011), Graeber (2011a), Castells
(2012), Sitrin & Azzellini (2012), Dean (2012), and many more.
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
5/20
Horizontalism
"Horizontalidadis a form of social relations established and sustained through
non-hierarchical forms of communication. Horizontalidad implies the use of
direct democracy and the striving for consensus - inclusive processes in which
attempts are made to ensure that everyone is heard and new relationships
are created." (Sitrin & Azzellini, 2012)
born out of the 2001 piqueteros movement in Argentina and zapatismo
linked to the practice of consensus decision-making (Graeber, 2013)
both tool and goal (prefigurative politics)
anti-systemic(MacPherson et al, 2013) in form
un-ideological
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
6/20
Limits of horizontalism
"Being horizontal and deeply democratic is wonderful. But these principles
are compatible with the hard work of building structures and
institutions that are sturdy enough to weather the storms ahead. I have
great faith that this will happen." (Naomi Klein, 2012; p.2)
"It would be an illusion to think that that a happy island of horizontalism can
be created in the middle of the sea of capitalism" (Sitrin & Azzellini, 2011)
According to Tadzio Mueller: At the time of the anti-capitalist/alter-
globalisation movement it made sense, however with the rise of European
radical left parties, the Latin American Pink Tide and NGOs turning toward
grassroots organising no longer adequate for the movements (Notes from
Below, 2010)
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
7/20
De-centralised
On 15 February 2003 there were more than 600 protests with
an estimated 15.9 million people worldwide (called for by the
European Social Forum in Florence 2002)
On 15 October 2011: People occupied more than 900 squares
across the world (called for by Spanish indignad@s)
UK student movement, Wisconsin, Arab Spring, Greek and
Spanish indignad@s, Occupy Wall Street, Chilean Winter,
Quebec student strike
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
8/20
Map of protests on October 15, 2011
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2011/oct/18/occupy-
protests-map-world
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
9/20
Double movement of centralisation
and (de-)centralisation
uneven & combined development of protest movements
due to national particularities of the current crisis and
austerity measures imposed on local populations
The forms of actions are centrifugal insofar that theystart in urban centres and then spread outwards in the
course of their development (OWS -> Occupy the Hood,
#OccupyGezi/indignad@s -> neighbourhood assemblies)
No formal command structurescentralises power innew ways: The power of the admin (Gerbaudo, 2012)
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
10/20
Leaderless
The Economist on 19/10/2011: Leaderless, consensus-based
participatory democracy and its discontents
Washington Post article on 10/10/2011: What is Occupy Wall
Street? The history of leaderless movements
There are no leaders here. []. This is a leaderless protest
with no agenda butjustice (Penny, 2010) on #nov24 protests
in Guardian
"The first decision ensured that there would be no formal [my
emphasis] leadership structure that could be co-opted or
coerced" (Graeber, 2011a)
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
11/20
Theoretical foundation of
leaderlessness
Manuel Castells and Network theories
Because they are a network of networks, they can afford not to
have an identifiable centre, and yet ensure coordinationfunctions, as well as deliberation, by interaction between
multiple nodes (Castells 2012, 221)
movements are roots of the new life spreading everywhere,with no central plan, but moving and networking, keeping the
energy flowing, waiting for spring (Castells 2012, 144)
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
12/20
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
13/20
Networked
the networked social movements of the
digital age represent a new species of social
movement (Castells, 2012: 5)
cultural logic of networking (Juris, 2008)
digital repertoire of contention (Chadwick,
2007)
Website as collective organiser (El-
Hamalawy, 2012)
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
14/20
Limits to social media
Twitter: Where there arefollowersthere are
leaders (social networks facilitate new forms of
hierarchy according to Suarez-Villa, 2012)
Even OWS brought out the Occupied Wall Street
Journaland OLSX brought out The Occupied Times
The shine of has worn off over the last few
months The repercussions of the recent NSA scandal are
still to be seen
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
15/20
Four phases of demands
The action-enacted era of demands (8-hour day, end to child labour)at the beginning of the 20thCentury; fought for by workers massactionclassic Peace, Land and Bread
The corporatistdemand after WWII until 1968; parliamentary route;strengthened prevailing capitalist social relations; system could
incorpoarate The utopiandemand 1968-1973 summed up by the slogan: Berealistic Demand the Impossible!(made impossible by the onset ofcrisis in 1973)
Theera of demandlessness coincides with the state of permanentausterity and defeat of workers movements. Parliaments no longerdeliver reforms and mass demonstrations are either ignored(i.e. Stopthe War); culminates in movements anti-systemic nature anddemandlessness altogether
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
16/20
The Era of Demandlessness
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
17/20
Occupy Everything, Demand Nothing
comes from the Berkeley and New School studentoccupations (Communiques from Occupied California)
Rejection of demands all together
The occupation as its own demand
it is impossible for the ruling class to meet any demandunder the current balance of forces
Signifies a similar transcendence of demands in theway that the utopiandemand of 1968 did
"Occupation is a tactic. Demandlessness is a strategy.[...] this tactic andthis strategy are mutually consitutive rather than merely yokedtogether" (Khatib et al., 100)
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
18/20
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
19/20
How do we move fromAto B?
"Occupy has still not found its power strategy. The 'occupation'
of Wall Street was much more about communicating a message
than exercising power." (Fox Piven 2012, 379)
"Instead of setting up demands and expecting institutional
power to react, people are constructing power together, popular
power." (Sitrin & Azzellini)
The power of mayhem (Mason)
- How do we move from occupation to general strike?
(Oakland)
-
8/14/2019 The Shape of Social Movements and Activism Today (Slides for Essex Radical Conference on Nov 14, 2013)
20/20