From Feminism to Anticapitalism ­ The Politics of NSM

1

Account for the rise of European New Social Movements

in the post-war period

The Civil Rights Movement in the USA, women′s movements all over the world, peace

and anti-war movements, environmentalists, gay and lesbian rights groups... The rise

and fall of various new social movements (NSM) can be observed throughout the last

decades. But what is new about NSM compared to former social movements? Why did

they rise in the post-war period? Why do people support a political cause? Why do they

choose non-institutional means of influence?

This essay will define NSM in contrast to former social movements examining closely

the post-war circumstances and the period′s impact on the rise of NSM all over Europe.

The German green party

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen

(

Die Grünen

) will be pointed out as a

special example of a NSM that became a party and therefore a political institution. The

conclusion will focus on the rise and fall of NSM and give a future outlook.

Social movements are large informal groupings of individuals or organisations with a

common interest, who focus on specific political or social issues to carry out a social

change (see website 1). They are distinguished from other collective actors by having

(the threat of) mass mobilisation as their prime source of social sanction, and hence of

power (see Scott 1990, p.6).

The term NSM refers to those movements which have come up in many western

European societies since the mid-1960s. NSM differ from traditional social movements

which previously centred on economic concerns, e.g. the labour movement. In contrast,

From Feminism to Anticapitalism ­ The Politics of NSM

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NSM have a tendency to emerge mainly more from a middle class than from a working

class background and are located within the civil society instead within the polity.

NSM′s interpretations treat NSM as symptoms of the contradictions of the modern

super-bureaucratic society for they express the tension between human autonomy and

the growing regulation of post-industrial society (see website 2). In brief, NSM are

produced by the new contradiction between the individual and the state. According to

Habermas this contradiction is reflected in new conflicts which "no longer arise in the

areas of material reproduction; they are no longer channelled through parties and

organisations... Rather, the new conflicts arise in areas of cultural reproduction, social

integration and socialisation" (Habermas 1981, p.34).

New about NSM is a greater emphasis on collective identity and changes in lifestyle

and culture rather than on developed ideologies and pushing for specific changes in

public policy or economy. They focus on universal human interests instead of class

interests. NSM are characterised as being transfunctional, fluid, open natured, inclusive,

non-doctrinal and non-ideological orientations with a socio-cultural focus, non-

institutional forms and an innovative nature, having a self-limiting character, an

emphasis on non-violent means, and discontinuity (see Pakulski 1991, p.25f.). NSM can

be subdivided into five categories of constraints: "values, past experiences, a

constituency′s reference group, expectations, and relations with target groups"

(Freeman 1991, p.228). Modern societies do not have a clear centre which produces

fixed identities, but rather a plurality of centres that produce a variety of flexible

identities. According to Ernesto Laclau the centre of social class has been displaced.

Dislocation offers many different places from which new identities can emerge and

where new subjects can be articulated (see Laclau, 1990, p. 40). The structure of NSM

From Feminism to Anticapitalism ­ The Politics of NSM

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can be compared to networks and is less formal and hierarchical than the structure of the

former social movements. Communication networks are the basis of NSM. The

networks must be composed of like-minded people whose backgrounds, experiences

(e.g. the shared historical and (post-) war experiences) or locations in the social

structure make them receptive to the ideas of a specific NSM (see Freeman 1999, p.8).

Therefore NSM act more directly profiting from cultural and communicative

innovations, e.g. the Internet.

The key actors of NSM are mainly members of the new middle class or service-sector

professionals, e.g. academics (see website 3). Besides NSM are supported by rather

young people for the more educated tend to be more active in politics than the less

educated and younger birth cohorts are more educated than older ones. This leads to a

gradual rise in conventional political participation rates (see Inglehart 1997, p.307).

Herbert Marcuse also observes that the most effective challenge to the established order

comes from students and minority groups and not from workers who were the main

driving force of former social movements. The younger "postmaterialist cohorts have

less incentives to identify with any specific political party among the available choices"

(Inglehart 1997, p.311) and they therefore participate rather in NSM which focus on

specific issues than in party activities. The post-war cohort grew up differently than

their parents. They did not experience e.g. the downfall of democracy in Germany in

1933. Therefore they did not accept that only a strong state is able to control and stop

the rise of radical and fascist groups. Grown up in economic wealth they were used to

the possibility of fulfilling their dreams on their own and mistrusted public institutions

per se. Their main common characteristics are their anti-state turn of mind and action.