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

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The national: Brazil The case of Chico Mendes is theoretically interesting in the way it highlights the simultaneous pursuit of collective labour and environmental rights. This case breaks decisively with linear models of development which effectively project the assumed experience of developed nations on to the developing world. In this model, ‘work place’ struggle, class formation and union representation precede the development of environmental activism, which in traditional accounts is a reflection of a privileged middle class attempting to enter a greener world whilst pulling up the ladder behind them to conserve it (Tony Crosland 1974). This has been an influential stance in work addressing the relationship between social movements and development (Foweraker 1995). Mendes and the Latin American case more generally does not fit well with such stances, which are also challenged by cases within other continents where work and environment have been linked around water disputes and a range of development projects. The global network domain Prefiguration and emergence 27 Mendes had represented the peons in the Brazilian state of Acre close to the Bolivian border. He became head of the rubber-tappers union, championing rain forest preservation and gaining international recognition including UN awards for his environmental activities. Under Mendes’ leadership the indigenous workforce became increasingly orgainsed meeting armed gangs of clearance workers in force and occupying the office of the Brazilian Forest Development Institute. Armed attacks upon workers and occupiers continued with the Brazilian state failing to apprehend Darly Alvel who was wanted for murder in Parana. In Chico Mendes in His Own Words he emphasized the importance of support from ‘first world’ environmentalists in establishing and maintaining his position within Brazil. His struggle was for social and economic justice for both landless Brazilian rubber tappers and the Brazilian environment, home to an estimated two million species vital to bio-diversity and site of bio-prospecting by big pharmaceutical companies. (After Hecht 1989, see also Mendes 1989, Revkin 1990) Critically the Mendes case demonstrates how CMC interventions began to be used before the World Wide Web reached its current state of development. Members of Friends of the Earth (FoE) groups were amongst those distributing e-mail, phone and fax numbers of not only Embassies and Departments of State in Brazil but also specific police stations holding activists associated with Mendes and the rubber-tappers movement. The arrival of multiple faxes declaring support for detainees and asserting their legal rights in remote
28 Prefiguration and emergence Proposals for a campaign against neo-liberalism summary: This is the first discussion document in a process aiming at starting a worldwide campaign against neo-liberalism and globalization, which we propose to focus on the World Trade Organisation. It is addressed to networks and organisations sharing (1) a strong criticism of the globalisation process, and (2) interest in engaging in international campaigning and on trying more and better collaboration between South and North in these issues. This proposal has been done by people within ...but does not represent the opinion of these organisations. These are also involved in this discussion process, which will go on until November, where a large group of activists and representatives of different organisations will meet in Rome, in an activists’ gathering parallel to the World Food Summit. For more information about the gathering in Rome, about this proposal or about the organisation involved in the discussion. Amazonian police stations communicated not only an external social force but the prospect of external accountability. Such interventions did not save Chico Mendes but were part of an accumulating repertoire of CMC interventions. Their use by FoE groups also illustrates the overlap in the affective affiliations of members alerted to such initiatives through their overlapping involvement in other organisations. In the United Kingdom, such crossovers were significantly enhanced as direct action against road and airport developments grew through the activities of Earth First! and London RTS. These same networks were constitutive of European wide networks (Welsh and McLeish 1996) active in the creation of the AGM. These networks included a range of NGOs, SMOs, Social Movements and Network Actors. The fusion of local, national, geo-regional and global activist communities through CMC was consolidating and subject to rapid expansion as ‘word spread’. Proliferating weak ties were particularly important during this phase of network extension with casual word of mouth in face-work contexts being prominent within urban centres in the United Kingdom. Within this mixed resource base, network connectivity was already global. Exchanges within these networks formalised the initial anatomy and objectives of the nascent AGM. By 1996 e-mail lists associated with this network were actively discussing this overall strategy, including the most appropriate venue to launch the movement. Text boxes ‘n’ contain the substantive content of one ten page e-mail circulated early in this process. Dated June 1996 the e-mail has been anonymised to protect the originating source. Taken together these extracts reveal something of the intent, analytical range, process orientation, South–North network ambitions, and inclusionary
Page 2 and 3: Complexity and Social Movements Che
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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
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Page 23 and 24: 12 Introducing global movements che
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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: 26 Prefiguration and emergence 9 If
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 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
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78 States fight back beneath Big Be
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80 States fight back ran out. The p
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82 States fight back The attempt to
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84 States fight back Accounts of th
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86 States fight back hair, infringe
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88 States fight back crisis is in e
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5 Ecologies of action within global
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92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
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94 Ecologies of action embedded in
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96 Ecologies of action The assimila
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98 Ecologies of action compatibilit
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100 Ecologies of action linking up
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102 Ecologies of action occurred wi
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104 Ecologies of action leading to
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106 Ecologies of action siege of in
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108 Beyond resistance to global nex
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7 The death of collective identity?
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130 Global movement as a parallelog
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148 The map is not the territory th
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150 The map is not the territory of
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152 The map is not the territory Ne
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154 The map is not the territory mi
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156 The map is not the territory or
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158 The map is not the territory mo
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160 The map is not the territory of
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162 The map is not the territory ne
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Notes 1 Introducing global movement
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166 Notes 12 Ya Basta’s! subseque
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168 Notes 19 This practice has been
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170 Notes Afro Bloc parading drum b
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172 Bibliography Barker, C., Johnso
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174 Bibliography De Sousa Santos, B
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176 Bibliography Grubacic, A. (2003
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178 Bibliography Lash, S. (2002) Cr
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180 Bibliography O’Neill, J. (200
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182 Bibliography Thompson, E.P. (19
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Index Note: Page numbers in italics
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186 Index class: affinities 93; and
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188 Index G7 23 G8 23, 100; meeting
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190 Index London 52, 63, 69, 116; E
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192 Index Poland 44, 45; ‘Orange
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194 Index Taylor, P. 168 n.2; call
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