Abstract
Something new has been taking place around the world. Societies are in movement as never before—not with such tremendous numbers, consistent horizontal forms, uses of direct action over demands, in vastly disparate geographies and with such overarching global consistency. This chapter will delve into the specifics of the newer anti-capitalist movements, as well as ground them in many historical movements, both recent and with a longer view, that have similar forms and visions, such as the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, the Global Justice Movement and the Argentine assembly movements post-2001. In particular, the question of the similarities with an anarchist approach and vision will be discussed in relation to the newer movement forms and will ask the question of the newness of these forms.
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- 1.
Cacerolas are the phenomenon of banging on pots and pans, usually as a form of protest.
- 2.
Pablo, quoted in Marina Sitrin, Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2006), 22.
- 3.
The Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico, are credited with the phase, one no and many yesses, which was to become popular during the late 1990s Global Justice Movement.
- 4.
Noam Chomsky on ‘Anarchism, Marxism and Hope for the Future’. First published in Red & Black Revolution (No 2) 1996 (http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/9505-anarchism.html) (Accessed 29 September 2017).
- 5.
Emilio quoted in Sitrin, Horizontalism, 39.
- 6.
Seán Seehan, Anarchism (London: Reaktion Books, 2003), 158.
- 7.
Ayelen quoted in Marina Sitrin & Dario Azzellini, They Can’t Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy (New York: Verso Books, 2014), 135–136.
- 8.
Ernest quoted in Sitrin & Azzellini, They Can’t Represent Us!, 144–145.
- 9.
Ana quoted in Sitrin & Azzellini, They Can’t Represent Us!, 131.
- 10.
http://afectadosporlahipoteca.com/ (Accessed 29.11.2017).
- 11.
Ernest quoted in Sitrin & Azzellini, They Can’t Represent Us!, 144–145.
- 12.
Cristina quoted in Marina Sitrin, “Being Poor is not a crime”: transforming the struggle for housing rights worldwide’, Transformation: Where Love Meets Social Justice (24 January 2014) (https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/marina-sitrin/%E2%80%9Cbeing-poor-is-not-crime%E2%80%9D-transforming-struggle-for-housing-rights-world) (Accessed 29.11.2017).
- 13.
Colectivo Situaciones, Apuntes para el Nuevo Protagonismo Social (Buenos Aires, Argentina: De Mano en Mano, 2002).
- 14.
Paula quoted in Sitrin, Horizontalism, 161–162.
- 15.
Neka quoted in Ibid., 163.
- 16.
Sergio quoted in Ibid.
- 17.
Martin K quoted in Ibid., 217–218.
- 18.
Anestis, quoted Sitrin & Azzellini, They Can’t Represent Us!, 93.
- 19.
Resolution Syntagma in Ibid.
- 20.
Matt quoted in Ibid., 177, 178.
- 21.
Gopal quoted in Ibid., 180.
- 22.
To my knowledge the first to develop the use of this the term was Wini Breines in her writing on the politics of the 1960s and what she saw as a different way of thinking and organising in part as a rejection of the centrism and vanguardism of the Communist Party. She writes: ‘The term prefigurative politics is used to designate an essentially anti-organizational politics characteristic of the movement, as well as parts of the new left leadership, and may be recognized in counter institutions, demonstrations and the attempt to embody personal and anti-hierarchical values in politics. Participatory democracy was central to prefigurative politics […] The crux of prefigurative politics imposed substantial tasks, the central one being to create and sustain within the live practice of the movement, relationships and political forms that ‘prefigured’ and embodied the desired society.’ Wini Breines, Community and Organization in the New Left, 1962–1968: The Great Refusal (Rutgers: Rutgers University, 1989), 6.
- 23.
Raul Zibechi, Genealogia de la Revuelta: Argentina: la sociedad en movimiento (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Letra Libre, 2003), 18.
- 24.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century. Translated by John Beverly Robinson (New York: Haskell House Publishers, Ltd., [1851] 1969), 243.
- 25.
Emma Goldman, ‘Anarchism: What it Really Stands For’ http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_archives/goldman/aando/anarchism.html (Accessed 29.11.2017).
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Sitrin, M. (2019). Anarchism and the Newest Social Movements. In: Levy, C., Adams, M.S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_37
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