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Book Details
Abstract
This indispensable book offers a panorama of social resistances to neoliberal globalization in the South. Writers and activists from forty different countries or regions offer snapshots of the latest mobilizations, from the anti-privatization groups in South Africa and the anti-WTO campaign of peasants in India, to the indigenous movement behind Evo Morales in Bolivia. The book focuses on a range of diverse popular struggles that impact on democratic and development process, yet receive little public attention or are caricatured by mainstream media. It reveals collective tensions throughout those societies whose material bases have been profoundly shaken by a series of adjustments dictated by the canons of the globalized economy. It is an essential guide to the latest developments in social movements.
Edited by Francois Polet of the Centre Tricontinental, it includes contributions from key activists and scholars such as Vinod Raina, Michel Warschawski, Maristella Svampa and Mahaman Tidjani.
François Polet has a Master in Sociology from the University of Louvain (Belgium). He has been a Researcher at the Centre Tricontinental (Belgium) since 1998, where he edits publications and researches social movements of the South. Previous publications include "The Other Davos", coedited with François Houtart, Zed books, 2001.
'A very interesting and important selection of work , one which aids a more generalised analysis of resistance globally and succinctly helps to fill a gap in knowledge about movements in the Global South.'
Socialist Review
'Fascinating'.
Chartist
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover\r | Cover | ||
| About the editor | ii | ||
| Table of contents | v | ||
| About the contributors | ix | ||
| Acronyms and abbreviations | xii | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| From the wave of democracy to the war on terror | 2 | ||
| From structural adjustment to the war against poverty | 3 | ||
| Conditions for the emergence of mobilizations | 4 | ||
| Strategies and political effectiveness | 7 | ||
| The challenge of convergences | 7 | ||
| The challenge of the relationship with politics | 9 | ||
| The impact of resistance | 11 | ||
| Notes\r | 13 | ||
| I Latin America | 17 | ||
| 1 From Cancún to Mar del Plata: A continent in effervescence | 19 | ||
| 2 Dilemmas for social actors in Brazil | 23 | ||
| Notes | 28 | ||
| 3 The emergence of indigenous nationalism in Bolivia | 29 | ||
| Popular self-representation | 30 | ||
| A government of the social movements? | 31 | ||
| Andean capitalism or national capitalism? | 32 | ||
| Notes\r | 33 | ||
| 4 Venezuela: The workers’ movement and the Bolivarian revolution | 35 | ||
| Basic changes in the relationships within the workers’ movement | 36 | ||
| Risks and new problems | 37 | ||
| Flexibility and public enterprises | 38 | ||
| Demands, the work space and the living space\r | 38 | ||
| 5 Reinvigorated indigenous and popular movements tackle Guatemala’s huge inequalities | 40 | ||
| The building of a social movement that is plural, indigenous and popular | 42 | ||
| rNote | 44 | ||
| 6 Argentina: The Kirchner method and Peronism’s force of inertia | 46 | ||
| Note | 51 | ||
| 7 Mexico is becoming Latinamericanized | 52 | ||
| 8 The social movement and the left-wing government in Uruguay | 57 | ||
| 9 Democratizing ‘democracy’ in Colombia | 60 | ||
| Notes | 63 | ||
| II The Near East and the Maghreb | 65 | ||
| 10 The reactivation of Arab civil societies and the demand for democracy | 67 | ||
| Notes | 71 | ||
| 11 Demands grow in Egypt for social justice and democracy | 72 | ||
| The rising claims for social justice and democracy | 73 | ||
| Workers and peasants, the main victims of neoliberalism | 75 | ||
| Activists within and outside the professional associations\r | 77 | ||
| 12 Algeria: From social regimentation to new popular movements | 79 | ||
| First there was the trade-union and workers’ movement | 80 | ||
| The student movement: from elitism to the democratization of schooling | 81 | ||
| The women’s movement: emancipation through ‘development’ | 82 | ||
| The new social movements | 83 | ||
| Notes\r | 86 | ||
| 13 Social awakening in the Arabian Peninsula: the oil monarchies adapt | 87 | ||
| Calls for democratization and economic liberalization | 88 | ||
| Adaptation of the dynastic regimes | 89 | ||
| Notes\r | 91 | ||
| 14 Morocco: Hopes and fears and ‘sit-in wars’ | 93 | ||
| The many mobilizations and sit-ins | 94 | ||
| Progress of democracy, but increasing social division | 96 | ||
| Notes\r | 97 | ||
| 15 Israel–Palestine: A lack of perspective | 98 | ||
| Primitive anti-Islamism | 99 | ||
| Internal crises and deteriorating living conditions\r | 100 | ||
| 16 Turkey: Alternative world struggles, identity struggles and the centralizing inheritance | 102 | ||
| Against war and globalization | 103 | ||
| Identity struggles | 104 | ||
| The centralizing inheritance | 104 | ||
| Limits and ambiguities of the democratic demands | 106 | ||
| Notes\r | 106 | ||
| III Sub-Saharan Africa\r | 107 | ||
| 17 Struggles against neoliberal policies in Africa | 109 | ||
| The great continental and international campaigns | 110 | ||
| Extent of the struggles and campaigns and their challenges | 111 | ||
| Notes\r | 112 | ||
| 18 Social movements and democratization in Kenya | 114 | ||
| Social movements and the State | 114 | ||
| 19 Niger: Civil society activists reinject politics into public life | 118 | ||
| A great protest movement has emerged | 119 | ||
| New mobilization techniques | 120 | ||
| Profiles of the new militant associations | 121 | ||
| Notes\r | 122 | ||
| 20 Botswana’s civil society: weak and under threat | 123 | ||
| 21 Political transition and civil society in the Democratic Republic of the Congo | 127 | ||
| 22 Nigeria: The ambiguities of the social movement | 131 | ||
| 23 Cameroon: Is its civil society ‘tainted’? | 135 | ||
| Fragmenting and instrumentalizing civil society | 136 | ||
| Lack of roots and legitimacy\r | 137 | ||
| 24 Social movements in South Africa: The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee | 139 | ||
| Notes | 143 | ||
| 25 Senegal: Social movements lead the struggle against neoliberalism | 144 | ||
| Participation in the large mobilizations | 144 | ||
| Struggles against neoliberal policies | 145 | ||
| Birth of the Senegalese Social Forum (FSS) | 146 | ||
| Strengths and weaknesses | 148 | ||
| The challenges to be taken up | 148 | ||
| Notes\r | 149 | ||
| IV Asia\r | 151 | ||
| 26 Internationalizing the campaigns against the Asian Development Bank | 153 | ||
| 27 India: Neoliberalism, caste politics and farmer suicides | 156 | ||
| 28 The tyranny of the majority and the coup d’état in Thailand | 160 | ||
| Social movements up against the Thaksin government | 161 | ||
| The poor peasants | 162 | ||
| Opposition to neoliberalism: privatization and free trade treaties | 163 | ||
| Human rights and democracy | 164 | ||
| Conclusion | 165 | ||
| Notes\r | 166 | ||
| 29 China: The new ways of resistance | 167 | ||
| 30 State and civil society in the South Pacific | 171 | ||
| A pluralist rather than a unitary State | 172 | ||
| A plural civil society | 173 | ||
| Notes | 175 | ||
| Malaysia: Militants confront repression | 177 | ||
| Note | 179 | ||
| 32 Towards a convergence of resistance in Sri Lanka? | 180 | ||
| Notes | 185 | ||
| 33 Indonesia: Paddling through increasingly treacherous and neoliberal waters | 186 | ||
| Middle-class activism | 189 | ||
| Dangers confronting the movements\r | 190 | ||
| 34 Philippine social movements face the challenges of democracy\r | 192 | ||
| Notes | 195 | ||
| Select Bibliography | 197 | ||
| Index | 201 |