Abstract
The proliferation and ubiquity of social movements in the post-globalisation era in different parts of the world necessitates a serious academic treatment of the social phenomena. Savyasaachi and Ravi Kumar’s intervention is a timely one in that it brings together 15 seminal articles written over a period of nearly 20 years, for an Indian audience. Most of the chapters except three were published in different journals; a few of these chapters are revised versions of earlier pieces, while three of them have been specifically written for this collection. However, the collection is valuable in itself because of several reasons. The editors have made a careful selection, making the endeavour probably one of its kind on social movements trying to grapple with the processes of globalisation, and its linkages with the eruption of social movements in different parts of the world against a range of issues, such as price rise, corruption, ecocide, genocide, large dams, displacement, forced migration, racism and so on. Simultaneously, there is also an attempt to offer an understanding of mobilisation and resistance by groups, organisations, networks and alliances, forcing us to reconsider the utility of traditional frameworks of ‘old’ and ‘new’ social movements in the context of rapid changes in society.
There are several interesting ideas in the book. The book draws from multiple contexts to highlight ways in which people resist, negotiate and even use globalisation to further their ends. The advantages of drawing from a plurality of contexts lies in the fact that it provides readers a comparative lens and insights about the global challenges to capitalism occurring worldwide. For example, the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico since the mid-1990s in the writings of Ana Dinerstein (chapter 9), Harry Cleaver (chapter 10) and Arturo Escobar (chapter 12) is significant for several reasons. The contributors show how the movement gave birth to new forms of mobilisation and self-organisation, created new cultures and dynamics of struggle, led to the forging of new networks and alliances and signalled hope that ‘other’ worlds are possible. Similarly, J. Habashi (chapter 14) shows that diverse acts like graffiti-writing, theatre and music urging resistance to Israeli occupation and oppression, the usage of humour, economic and social boycott of Israeli products, exercising a conscious restraint to weapon use, fostering the power of the pen were attempts to rework the system which led to the political socialisation of Palestinian children and youth. Micro-movements and groups in India as D.L. Sheth (chapter 5) shows have tirelessly worked since the mid-1980s towards consciousness raising and politicisation of the poor. Movement groups feel that educating and empowering them through rallies, marches, yatras strengthened the idea of a participatory democracy, making the process of development a relatively more equitable one, countering the negative effects of globalisation.
The book mentions several innovative forms of protest that these anti-capitalist movements have been able to devise. Techniques of protest like ‘swarming’ understood as deliberate, structured and coordinated ways to strike from all directions or the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for ‘weaving an electronic fabric of struggle’ (p. 197), or the use of legal opportunity as strategy in the face of limited political opportunities are some of the practices of mobilisation that would draw the readers’ attention.
Quite a few chapters in the book focus on the role of emotions in social movements, thus making a contribution to the subjective turn in movement studies. John Holloway (chapter 1) explores rage as an emotion, which enables us to be critical of the system; it is seen as ‘the voice of non-identity, of those who do not fit’ (p. 26). According to him, anger and everyday practices of resistance and non-conformity that emerge as a result disrupt the social cohesion of capitalism and constitute a form of politics by itself. Similarly, Marieke de Goede (chapter 4) shows how the use of laughter, comedy and ‘making strange’, and festive appropriations of dominant practices by the poor could be seen as forms of dissent against the hegemony of the global financial order.
Jane Mansbridge’s chapter brings the state back in as an important factor in addressing and mediating women’s concerns in the context of the emergence of the politics of difference. In spite of a degree of ambivalence in relation to the state in different national cultures, Mansbridge feels that it is necessary to engage with the state so as to ‘both use state power and place bounds on it’ (p. 187). State power can enable women to fight the violence of patriarchal power; hence Mansbridge feels feminists must learn to work with the state. An effective state can be of use to the women’s groups for it is only the state which can change the rules in favour of women and other disadvantaged groups and make a difference to their lives. But probably it is important to consider whether the role of the state remains the same when its character changes from a welfarist to a neoliberal one.
The very conception of social movements is undergoing a transformation. The imagination of social movements as self-organised, complex, decentralised, non-hierarchical decision-making groups and the idea of revolution as embodied in small acts, in the struggle of ‘concrete doing against abstract labour’ (p. 29), in questioning and disturbing the assumed unity and rationality of capital are quite instructive and meaningful. The book will be particularly useful for students and scholars who work on socio-political movements and for those interested in social transformation at large.