Globalisering og motstand: Kontekstuelle case

1. Globalisering og motstand: Kontekstuelle case Kristian Stokke kristian.stokke@sgeo.uio.no

2. Framvekst av sosiale bevegelser Kollektiv mobilisering Kollektiv identitet Mobiliserings- strukturer Politisk rom Strukturelle årsaker for kollektiv mobilisering • Bakenforliggende strukturelle årsaker (for eksempel ’globalisering’), men forskjellige mellomliggende årsakssammenhenger • Mobilisering basert på sosial infrastruktur (møtesteder/ nettverk) og kollektive identiteter • Bevegelser opererer innenfor og mobiliserer i forhold til et politisk handlingsrom

3. Strukturelle årsaker til mobilisering • Nye sosiale formasjoner  “Nye” sosiale bevegelser • Industrikapitalisme  Arbeiderbevegelser • Postindustrielt samfunn  Nye sosiale bevegelser

4. Kollektiv identitet / Mobiliseringsstruktur Kollektiv mobilisering fremmes av kollektiv identitet og mobiliseringsstrukturer

5. Symbolsk kamp • Konstruering av kollektiv identitet • Prosess som gjør at kollektive aktører kan definere/gjenkjenne seg selv og bli definert/gjenkjent av andre (konstruksjoner av grenser mellom ”vi” og ”de andre”) • Identitet skaper kontinuitet over tid (synlige og latente faser i en sosial bevegelse) • Politisering av interesser og saker • Refortolkning av ”naturlig” fenomen som sosiale og politiske problemer • Identifisering av de som rammes av problemene og de som er ansvarlige. Identifisering av alternativer • Symbolsk kontestering • Kamp om retten til å representere en gruppe og dens interesser • Forhandlinger og justeringer mellom de som representerer og de som blir representert

6. Multi-scale and Diffuse Governance

7. Democratic Deficits and Spaces • Political space: Real world democracies contain a complex mix of democratic deficits and democratic political spaces, offering both obstacles and opportunities for popular movements • Assessing democracy • Democratic deficits and spaces located: • In formal constitutional and political arrangements • At different levels of government accountability

8. Zapatistbevegelsen i Mexico Mobiliserings- strukturer Politiske muligheter Kollektiv identitet The legacy of revolution (PRI). Combination of state coercion and cooptation. International solidarity Indigenous identity: Reclaiming of rights and autonomy for those that are socially and culturally Marginalized: revindicatión étnica Campesinos organisations Ejido structures Strukturelle årsaker for kollektiv mobilisering Anti-NAFTA: uprising on January 1, 1994 Local conflicts over control of land; acute social crisis; climate of violence/racism Link to globalization: transformation of PRI-policies, e.g. revision of Article 27

9. Politisk Islamisme Mobiliserings- strukturer Politiske muligheter Kollektiv identitet War of manoeuvre around secular and socially ’failing’ states Islamic resurgence is not about religion per se, but Islam is the social cement that binds communities that are abandoned by the neoliberal state Muslim institutions: brotherhoods, mosques, welfare centres, schools Strukturelle årsaker for kollektiv mobilisering Cultural homogenization  cultural reaction to globalization / clash of cultures ??? Failure of secular-nationalism  marginalization in the context of state retrenchment

10. South Africa: Promising preconditions But also major hurdles for social justice • Shift to neo-liberal economic policies with dramatic economic restructuring • Local developmental states but limited political capacity, cost recovery for municipal services • Persistent and probably increasing relative and absolute poverty • Cooptation and depoliticisation of popular forces Political Space • Extensive formal rights • Institutional reforms towards democracy and participatory governance • Political channels: tripartite alliance of ANC, SACP, COSATU • Political discourses on post-apartheid justice Political mobilisation • Previous mobilisation: conscientisation and mobilisation through anti-apartheid struggle • Well-organised civil society: community based organisations, unions, NGOs

11. Changing state / civil society relations

12. Strategies of activism • The institutional route (lobbying) • COSATU • The NGO route (provisioning) • Homeless People’s Federation • The legal route (legal action) • Treatment Action Campaign • The movement route (public protest) • Anti-Eviction Campaign • CHALLENGES • Resource constraints • Fragmentation problems • Political access

13. Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) • Political context • Tripartite alliance: ANC, SACP, COSATU • Strategies: Negotiations and mobilisation • Political negotiations within alliance • Mobilisation of workers (political strikes) • Resources • Mass mobilisation • Political access • Organisational capacity • Class ideology and consciousness

14. South African Homeless People’s Federation • Political context • Constitutional right to shelter, government programmes for housing • Strategies: Community mobilisation and NGO role • Savings groups and housing construction • State resource mobilisation (housing subsidies, uTshani) • Resources and achievments • Non-partisan, but flexible political alliances • Community basis and mobilisation • Alliance with People’s Dialogue (professional NGO) • Houses built + reformed state housing strategy (”people-driven housing process”)

15. Treatment Action Campaign • Political context • Constitutional right to health services • HIV/AIDS crisis and denialism • Strategies • Mass mobilisation, political negotiations and legal action • HIV/AIDS-treatment (nevirapine) for pregnant women • Problematic field, also because it asks for budget and distribution questions to be decided in the courts • Resources and achievements • Substantive organisational, economic and political resources • Favourable court rulings regarding treatment plan • Problematic implementation, continued need for mass mobilisation

16. Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign • Political context • Municipal cost recovery policies • Rights to shelter and basic public services • Strategies • Mass mobilisation, political negotiations and legal action • Resources • Limited organisational and political access • Problems of fragmentation: Local militant mobilisation • The local nature of the mobilizing issues combined with the decentralized delivery of development and public services, make the new activism highly localized. • While the anti-apartheid struggle combined local struggles with a coordinated and ideological program of overthrowing the apartheid regime, the new movements have often been issue-based and fragmented with limited capacity to build a movement that can effectively challenge national policy-making processes

17. Local Social Movement Unionism? • Labour unions • Against privatisation of state enterprises • Social movements • Against privatisation of public services (water, electricity, housing) • Organisational and political constraints

18. Post-Apartheid Movement Politics • South African experiences demonstrate the importance of civil society activism within the political spaces of the democratic state, but also the problems of fragmentation and political exclusion of popular forces in local issue-based struggles. • As fragmented, under-resourced and issue-based as they are, the presence of post-apartheid social movements disrupts hegemony as they question the government’s continued commitment to the working poor

19. Main points • Need to examine movement politics contextually • Analyse combination of political space and movement strategies in regard to these spaces