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

166 Notes
12 Ya Basta’s! subsequent standing within Prague was also portrayed negatively by
the third element in terms of their failure to pay for accommodation where small
local enterprises suffered loss of income.
13 The experience of the BBC following its coverage of the so-called Iraq War
conducted by an axis of weevils against an axis of evil testifies to the on-going
nature of both institutional media crises and the struggle over signification and
discourse.
14 The affiliations of the founders include ORA-Solidarita, Ulice Lidem (Reclaim
the Streets) and the Czech Anarchist Federation. Users include Feminist Group
8 March, Earth First!, Car Busters, IMC Prague and FoodnotBombs.
15 The research team involved in the ESRC project under which the Prague data
was gathered was inter-disciplinary and we thank Andrew Tickle and Fiona
Donson for their contributions to this process and regret their resignations from
the academic community. We continue to discuss and debate many of the issues
addressed here within activist circles and acknowledge the invaluable role these
interactions play in our academic work.
4 From carnival against capitalism to death at
high noon: states fight back
1 Marx and Engels noted capitalism’s capacity to incorporate even the most
‘barbarian’ civilisations by force in The Communist Manifesto. The reflex
recourse to force becomes the hallmark of advanced barbarism associated with
a fresh cycle of ‘primitive’ accumulation (Habermas 1990).
2 The British Government is reportedly considering introducing another new criminal
offence of ‘economic sabotage’ whilst increasing penalties for minor offences
deemed part of a ‘vicious campaign’. The move followed Aegis Defence Systems
estimates that 16 billion of inward investment could be lost per year unless the
government acted to protect companies (The Guardian 13.01.05, p. 13). In the
interim existing legislation has been used to achieve similar ends (see fn 18).
3 In 2005, the McDonald too won their case in the European Court of Human
Rights which found in favour of their claim that legal aid should be available to
citizens in libel cases involving corporate litigants. The court ruled that the lack
of legal representation had in effect infringed the defendants’ human rights and
awarded damages to the plaintiffs (The Guardian 16.02.05, p. 1).
4 A 1980 Sociological Review article by S.K. Ratcliffe (1,4,373–375) ‘Aspects of
the Social Movement in India’ details how establishment approaches sought to
weaken popular movements by dismissing nationalist claims. Here we argue that
the global claims of the AGM are also subject to a range of discursive sanctions
focusing upon deviance frames.
5 A prominent example being the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
Their ‘Statement of Principles’ dated 3 June 1997 argued for significant
increases in US defense expenditure, challenging hostile regimes, and accepting
America’s ‘unique’ role in spreading international order ‘friendly to our security,
our prosperity and our principles’. Prominent PNAC members include Jeb Bush,
Dick Cheney, Francis Fukuyama, Dan Quale, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul
Wolfowitz. See www.newamericancentury.org/statementorprinciples.htm
accessed 21.04.2004.
6 Tony Blair, The Guardian, 2/5/00
7 See Martinez (2000) for one account of the alienated experience of black and
minority ethnic groups within convergence centre dynamics and attempts to
participate within Direct Action Network (DAN). (Martinez, E.B. 2000 ‘Where
Was the Color in Seattle? Looking for Reasons Why the Great Battle was So
White’, Monthly Review, 52, 3, 141–148.)