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

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ealised the full expression of these nascent civil societies (see Baker and Welsh 2000). In the Czech case, there was a clear incorporation of prominent dissident and environmental concerns within the formal political arena. The incorporation of significant ‘dissident’ demands relating to democratic freedoms and environmental issues arguably ‘decapitated’ or ‘incorporated’ key radical constituencies (see Andrle 2003, Fagin 1999). In the new democracies, particularly in Poland and the Czech Republic, there is a widespread view that the dynamism of civil society actors that prevailed during the transitions has disappeared. Given the extent and vibrancy of the civil sphere documented by Kenney (2002) such dissolution is highly unlikely. The insight that civil society engagement with the institutional dynamics of neo-liberal capitalist societies is a process requiring significant time and effort in terms of identifying, formalising and declaring ‘the stakes’ (Melucci 1989, 1996a) underlines the importance of remaining alert to emergent social forces within the new democracies (Baker and Welsh 2000). Within this complex domain, issues of gender, ethnicity, and environment become articulated within historically new market relations where they unfold in the context of radically changed processes. Significant here are issues of mobility, transformed communication and information exchange (Urry 2000) and the introduction of private property relations. As Havel noted long before the transition phase commenced ‘capitalism... is struggling with the same problems’ of alienation resulting in ‘depersonalization and the loss of meaning in work’ combined with ‘the general manipulation of people’s lives by the system’ (Havel 1990: 14). To Havel, the maintenance of human scale and a positive orientation towards the ‘inventiveness of nature’ capable of ‘inscrutable complexity of [its] interconnections’ were vital to avoid people becoming a ‘herd’ as a consequence of commodification and ‘consumer television culture’ regardless of the underlying ‘socialist’or ‘capitalist’ form of ownership and control (Havel 1990: 15). The arrival of the new democracies marked an entry into a new phase of struggle where ‘living in truth’ (Havel 1989) assumed new forms representing expressions of in ‘plurality of social association from below’ considered by Havel to be the truly important features of high profile events such as the Prague spring of 1968 (1989: 21). The Prague IMF World Bank action Identities, protest dynamics and technology 45 As host to the IMF/WB summit the Czech state was firmly placed in the eye of a hurricane of global protest rendering the state as a node of network convergence from ‘above’ and ‘below’. As we go on to demonstrate, global political, intelligence and policing networks became increasingly focussed upon the Czech Republic just as AGM networks also ‘colonised’ activist space. Much of the framework involved in defining the stakes enacted on S26 thus precedes the actual event by at least 12 months. The Czech
46 Identities, protest dynamics and technology Republic was determined to portray itself as a mature host to the event whilst maintaining order and freedom of expression associated with a democratic polity. The dissident background of President Václav Havel accentuated a desire implicit in selecting Prague, 1 for the meeting which was preceded by a state-sponsored critical forum on globalisation and a ‘solidarity march’ on 23 September. The intent was to produce a ‘win–win’ (Interview Czech Activist [9]) result producing both a successful summit and protest event. The fledgling democracy’s relative lack of experience in policing such protests precipitated politicians and police chiefs into a series of high powered meetings with representatives of intelligence and law enforcement agencies. These included meetings between delegations from the FBI, headed by deputy director Thomas Packard, and members of Washington police (Pravo 29.8.00, p. 2). Significant know-how and equipment specifications were imparted in this process to the satisfaction of US agencies (Lidove noviny 31.08.00, p. 2). By September 2000 the operations of activist ‘radicals from the USA’ and ‘west European countries’ in ‘training their Czech colleagues’ (31.08.00, p. 2) for the event appeared under the headline ‘Police and demonstrators are preparing for a “war” ’ (Lidove noviny 21.09.00, p. 2). S26 Strategy and the streets A core concern here lies with network multipliers arising from the S26 action in terms of the quality of interaction between Czech activists and ‘internationals’, the dissemination of repertoires of action, the seeding of organisational forms either weakly represented or absent within the Czech Republic and the long-term bottom-up implications of these processes for emergent forms of ‘living in truth’ consistent with a neo-liberal global order. These analytical themes require a brief account of the main co-ordinating hubs and a detailed account of selected events on the streets as they unfolded. The Prague protests were the first occasion in Europe where antiglobalisation and anti-capitalist groups from diverse social and cultural backgrounds attempted to work together to mobilise against the same target in a particular geographic location. Previously, ‘days of action’ had consisted of simultaneous, de-centred protests in many different locations, such as those timed to coincide with 18 June 1999, the first day of the G8 meeting in Cologne, and the day when the City of London became host to the first ‘Carnival Against Capitalism’ (Chesters 1999). The arrival of these loosely organised groups with different protest repertoires and heightened expectations derived from the Seattle protests combined to make assimilation within the process and facilitation of dialogue extremely complex. Somewhat inevitably those with prior organising experience of large-scale protests, connections to more than one group and English as a primary language quickly became prominent in the organisational process.
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Complexity and Social Movements Che
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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: 44 Identities, protest dynamics and
Page 59 and 60: 48 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
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
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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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