Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

In terms of historical iteration, we are suggesting that two persistent themes are melded within the AGM that suggest it can become a standing form of cultural politics. These are the pursuit of socio-economic and environmental justice. Within organised capitalist societies like the United Kingdom, these are historically persistent themes (Hardy 1979, Gould 1988, Wall 1994) around which considerable social force has been exercised. The Marxist historian E.P. Thompson’s account of such force provides a useful summary of themes relevant to this task. Thompson draws a distinction between the ‘mob’ and forms of ‘direct action’ arising under ‘specific conditions’, being ‘highly organized’ and under the protection of ‘the local community’ (1978: 67). The impetus for such action in both rural and urban contexts was a ‘consumer-consciousness’ and the attempt to ‘reimpose the older moral economy . . . against the economy of the free market’ around issues of price 2 and quality of food stuffs 3 (1978: 70–73). Thompson is clear that such expressive forms pre-figured organised concerns over control of the labour process and political representation. 4 As Didek (2004) commentary on Karatani (2003) notes ‘If workers can become subjects at all, it is only as consumers’ who actively complete the process of circulation by purchasing the product of abstract labour (Didek 2004: 124). Without this final act of consumption, the production of a commodity merely results in a product with the potential to realise value. 5 Excursus: citizen states and market maker democracies The map is not the territory 159 In the opening chapter, we rejected the idea that the AGM lacked the capacity for strategic, programmatic change. In returning to this claim, it is important to reflect upon Thompson’s argument that class-consciousness emerged as much from the sphere of consumption as from within the sphere of production. What is central here is the manner in which the prevailing neo-liberal axiomatic places the consumer and consumer rights at the heart of its preferred civil sphere. Whilst the consumer in mind is a consumer of products, the consumer consciousness engendered by this discourse migrates to both the material products of immaterial labour and the consumption of services provided by political elites. The 2005 UK general election demonstrated that previous assumptions about self-interested rational actors entering a polling booth and voting in their calculated self-interest are now challenged by a growing number of morally engaged actors. Tactical voting delivered an election result in which the public resonance with anti-war protests represented a significant electoral social force. History’s first third term Labour administration came to office with the smallest share of the available overall vote of any administration for over one hundred years. In part, this was a response to the autocratic exercise of Political power in the face of significant demonstrations of public doubt over the moral legitimacy of the arguments for use of military force advanced by the prime minister’s
160 The map is not the territory office. This moral judgement in the realm of international relations where the legitimate use of state violence is an expression of the body politic became a deterritorialising force as voters asserted their integrity and autonomy in the face of appeals to party discipline and the threat of returning a Conservative government by default. In the UK case the re-election of Labour Party rebels prepared to vote against the Iraq war, identity cards and a range of other issues leaves Labour in office but arguably not in power. Whilst ‘e-government’ has progressively been enlarged and is claimed as an arena for transparency and communication, this is not e-democracy. The formal democratic participation of the citizen has not changed for centuries – requiring a cross on a ballot. The knowledge economy produces informed voters who are then asked to abrogate all decisional power to politicians and grant the rights to take at least 20% of their taxable income for the next five years. Polling data regularly shows that the moral politics of the contemporary UK elector prioritises health and education as their main concerns. E-democracy holds the potential to permit both instantly counted votes and a more sophisticated set of rights consistent with individual moral choices. The right to vire one’s taxes towards areas of public policy regarded as priorities and withhold them from areas considered morally unacceptable would begin to make the Political reflect the cultural political sphere. Death and taxes The idea that death and taxes are the only certainties in life has been a central axiom of democratic theory. Whilst campaigns to withhold the proportion of tax directed towards military budgets have been part of ‘peace movement’ tactics for some time, a proactive allocation initiative would be a far more effective way for ‘consumers’ of political ‘services’ to express their desires. Rather than attempting to attract participation by making access to the established system easier such a scheme would offer voters the incentive of ‘up stream’ influence. Permitting all voters to allocate a proportion of their taxes between budgetary headings, perhaps 20% in the first instance, and aggregating these individual choices would effectively yield a ‘peoples budget’ reflecting electoral preferences. If this allocation reflected UK issue priorities then health and education would be beneficiaries. The resultant ‘people’s budget’ would be a barometer against which overall state expenditure could be assessed. By limiting the percentage of individual’s tax take which could be vired, established core budgets relating to long-term commitments would remain protected during a period when voters learned the implications of participation. Such a move would begin to invert political trust relations within an increasingly participatory democracy with Politicians trusting publics to shape overall expenditure programmes. The resultant dialogical exchanges would shape the development of such extended democratic rights with governments having to justify the need for core areas of expenditure not prominently supported by expressions of
Page 2 and 3:
Complexity and Social Movements Che
Page 4 and 5:
Complexity and Social Movements Mul
Page 6 and 7:
Contents List of figures vi Acknowl
Page 8 and 9:
Acknowledgements With thanks to all
Page 10:
Preface ix activists and engaged ci
Page 13 and 14:
2 Introducing global movements poli
Page 15 and 16:
4 Introducing global movements arou
Page 17 and 18:
6 Introducing global movements esta
Page 19 and 20:
8 Introducing global movements Thes
Page 21 and 22:
10 Introducing global movements exp
Page 23 and 24:
12 Introducing global movements che
Page 25 and 26:
14 Introducing global movements Fra
Page 27 and 28:
16 Introducing global movements ‘
Page 29 and 30:
18 Introducing global movements for
Page 31 and 32:
20 Introducing global movements and
Page 33 and 34:
2 Prefiguration and emergence Intro
Page 35 and 36:
24 Prefiguration and emergence on T
Page 37 and 38:
26 Prefiguration and emergence 9 If
Page 39 and 40:
28 Prefiguration and emergence Prop
Page 41 and 42:
30 Prefiguration and emergence agai
Page 43 and 44:
32 Prefiguration and emergence C. E
Page 45 and 46:
34 Prefiguration and emergence The
Page 47 and 48:
36 Prefiguration and emergence Glob
Page 49 and 50:
38 Prefiguration and emergence In t
Page 51 and 52:
40 Prefiguration and emergence Neo-
Page 53 and 54:
42 Prefiguration and emergence from
Page 55 and 56:
44 Identities, protest dynamics and
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
68 States fight back when trust in
Page 81 and 82:
70 States fight back academically,
Page 83 and 84:
72 States fight back streets from d
Page 85 and 86:
74 States fight back ‘green Parli
Page 87 and 88:
76 States fight back to trivialise
Page 89 and 90:
78 States fight back beneath Big Be
Page 91 and 92:
80 States fight back ran out. The p
Page 93 and 94:
82 States fight back The attempt to
Page 95 and 96:
84 States fight back Accounts of th
Page 97 and 98:
86 States fight back hair, infringe
Page 99 and 100:
88 States fight back crisis is in e
Page 101 and 102:
5 Ecologies of action within global
Page 103 and 104:
92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
Page 105 and 106:
94 Ecologies of action embedded in
Page 107 and 108:
96 Ecologies of action The assimila
Page 109 and 110:
98 Ecologies of action compatibilit
Page 111 and 112:
100 Ecologies of action linking up
Page 113 and 114:
102 Ecologies of action occurred wi
Page 115 and 116:
104 Ecologies of action leading to
Page 117 and 118:
106 Ecologies of action siege of in
Page 119 and 120: 108 Beyond resistance to global nex
Page 139 and 140: 7 The death of collective identity?
Page 141 and 142: 130 Global movement as a parallelog
Page 159 and 160: 148 The map is not the territory th
Page 161 and 162: 150 The map is not the territory of
Page 163 and 164: 152 The map is not the territory Ne
Page 165 and 166: 154 The map is not the territory mi
Page 167 and 168: 156 The map is not the territory or
Page 169: 158 The map is not the territory mo
Page 173 and 174: 162 The map is not the territory ne
Page 175 and 176: Notes 1 Introducing global movement
Page 177 and 178: 166 Notes 12 Ya Basta’s! subseque
Page 179 and 180: 168 Notes 19 This practice has been
Page 181 and 182: 170 Notes Afro Bloc parading drum b
Page 183 and 184: 172 Bibliography Barker, C., Johnso
Page 185 and 186: 174 Bibliography De Sousa Santos, B
Page 187 and 188: 176 Bibliography Grubacic, A. (2003
Page 189 and 190: 178 Bibliography Lash, S. (2002) Cr
Page 191 and 192: 180 Bibliography O’Neill, J. (200
Page 193 and 194: 182 Bibliography Thompson, E.P. (19
Page 195 and 196: Index Note: Page numbers in italics
Page 197 and 198: 186 Index class: affinities 93; and
Page 199 and 200: 188 Index G7 23 G8 23, 100; meeting
Page 201 and 202: 190 Index London 52, 63, 69, 116; E
Page 203 and 204: 192 Index Poland 44, 45; ‘Orange
Page 205 and 206: 194 Index Taylor, P. 168 n.2; call
show all

Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?