Social Actors — Trade Unions and Social Movements

Author(s):  
Miren Etxezarreta ◽  
Marica Frangakis
2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Jones

This article makes a contribution to discussion on the neo-liberal reshaping of education in Western Europe. It argues for a greater attentiveness on the part of education researchers to collective social actors such as trade unions and social movements. Making use of concepts from Gramsci and from Poulantzas, it suggests that such actors had a formative role in the making of post-war education systems, and that reducing their influence is now an important objective of governments across the European Union. Focusing on educational conflict in England, France and Italy, it explores the extent to which traditions associated with post-war reform continue to possess political vitality.


Caderno CRH ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 021008
Author(s):  
Marco Antonio Teixeira

<p>O artigo analisa a Marcha das Margaridas, uma mobilização feminista realizada no Brasil sob a liderança das mulheres do campo, da floresta e das águas, nos anos de 2015 e 2019, considerado o tempo de ascensão das novas direitas. A Marcha é organizada pelas mulheres do Movimento Sindical de Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais, em aliança com outros movimentos sociais, centrais sindicais e organizações internacionais. Adota-se uma abordagem teórica que considera a atuação dos movimentos sociais por meio dos conceitos de ações de reprodução social e formas de ação coletivas. Isso significa analisar a Marcha para além de suas expressões mais visíveis – uma grande marcha na cidade de Brasília e as negociações com agentes estatais (formas de ação coletiva). A mobilização envolve também um longo processo de organização, formação e<br />política de alianças com outros atores sociais (ações de reprodução social). Argumenta-se que analisá-las de maneira interdependente e vis-à-vis à estrutura de oportunidades políticas no tempo de ascensão das novas direitas aumenta a capacidade de compreensão de como movimentos sociais populares atuaram considerando o novo contexto.</p><p><strong>SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN TIMES OF THE RISE OF THE NEW RIGHT: the Marcha das Margaridas</strong><br /><br /></p><p>This article analyses the Marcha das Margaridas, a feminist mobilisation spearheaded by women from the Brazilian Union of Rural Workers in alliance with other social movements, trade unions, and international organisations in the years 2015 and 2019 – considered to be the time of the rise of the new right. From a theoretical approach that regard the performance of social movements based on the concepts of actions of social reproduction and forms of collective action, we analyse the Marcha beyond its most visible expression – that is, a large street protest in the city of Brasilia, and the negotiations with state agents (forms of collective action). Rather, we understand this movement as also involving a long process of organisation, mobilisation, political formation activities, and politics of alliances with other social actors (actions of social reproduction). By analysing them interdependently and vis-à-vis the political opportunity structures at the time of the rise of the new right, we will better understand how social movements acted considering the new context.</p><p>Keywords: Social Movements. New Rights. Collective Actions. Social Reproduction Actions. Marcha das Margaridas.</p><p><strong>LES MOUVEMENTS SOCIAUX POPULAIRES FACE A LA MONTEE DE LA NOUVELLE DROITE: la Marcha das Margaridas</strong><br /><br />L’article analyse la Marcha dasMargaridas, une mobilisation féministe qui a eu lieu au Brésil entre 2015 et 2019, période considéré comme celle de la montée de la nouvelle droite brésilienne. Dirigée par des femmes qui se réclament défenseuses de la campagne, des forêts et des eaux, la Marcha était organisée par des femmes du Mouvement Syndical des Travailleuses et Travailleurs Ruraux, en alliance avec d’autres mouvements sociaux, des centrales syndicales et des organisations internationales. L’approche théorique propose une analyse à partir du concept de “actions de reproduction sociale” et de “répertoires d’action collective”. Cela signifie qu’il faut analyser la Marcha au-delà de son expression la plus visible, à savoir, une grande marche à Brasília accompagnée des négociations avec les agents de l’État (répertoire d’action collective). La Marcha implique également un long processus d’organisation, de rassemblement, de formation et des politiques d’alliances avec d’autres acteurs sociaux (actions de reproduction sociale). Analyser ces éléments de manière interdépendante en fonction de la structure des opportunités politiques, et dans la période de montée de la nouvelle droite brésilienne, nous aide à mieux comprendre comment les mouvements sociaux populaires ont agi dans ce nouveau contexte. </p><p>Mots-clés: Mouvements Sociaux. Nouvelle Droite. Repertoires D’action  Collectives. Actions De Reproduction Sociale. Marcha Dasmargaridas.</p>


Author(s):  
Todd Nicholas Fuist ◽  
Ruth Braunstein ◽  
Rhys H. Williams

This chapter introduces readers to the often-overlooked field of progressive religious activism in the United States, and maps its contours. First, it traces the history and continued relevance of progressive religious activism in American political life. Second, it argues that progressive religion should not be conceptualized as a category of social actors, but rather as a field of action defined by participants’ commitment to progressive action, progressive values, progressive identities, and/or progressive theology, as well as through participants’ efforts to distinguish themselves from the activities of religious conservatives and/or secular progressives. Finally, it assesses the varied ways that attention to progressive religion challenges common political binaries (like Right/Left and progress/tradition), and prompts a reconsideration of long accepted theories of religion and social movements as well as the role of faith in democratic politics and civic life.


Author(s):  
Francis Ghilès ◽  
Eckart Woertz

Using underexplored grey literature and personal interviews with officials, experts and businessmen, this chapter discusses the constitutive role of phosphate mining and trade unions in the politics of the periphery in Tunisia - politics that have been crucially affected by post-independence development agendas, the transformation of national elites in the crony capitalism of the Ben Ali era and its interplay with international donor and development institutions. First, the paper gives an historic overview of Tunisian phosphate mining and its role in regional development. Second, it analyses the politics of Tunisia’s periphery, the role of the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail within it and the emergence of new social actors. Third, it takes a detailed look at how such conflicts played out during the strikes in the phosphate mines in 2008 and after 2011. It concludes with an outlook on future developments.


SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824402097501
Author(s):  
Buhari Shehu Miapyen ◽  
Umut Bozkurt

This research discusses the environmental pollution by the capital in the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria and identifies two historical agents that have the potential to harmonize their social power through a common language that may create a new social and political agency. We argue that the working class and the community-based social movements are necessary but not sufficient agents of transformation in the Nigerian oil-dependent capitalist economy. The cooperation between the global and local sites of resistance is an imperative: a synergy and deliberate action by the conglomerate of trade unions, community-based social movements, nongovernmental organizations, local and global activists, nurtures the potential to transform the capitalist domination, exploitation, and expropriation in Nigeria. Using secondary literature sources, we re-visit the conversation on the role of capital and the pollution of environment in Nigeria through the concept of “Movement of Movements”.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Cecilia Anigstein ◽  
Gabriela Wyczykier

The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas is analytically interesting because international trade unions have promoted the framework of a “just transition” to protect workers’ rights during the shift to sustainable energy and the response to climate change and because the confederation has undertaken something of a “Latin-Americanization” of the just-transition notion that is nurtured by the environmental/territorial turn of social struggles on the continent. The current convergence between unions and social movements (peasant, feminist, environmentalist) has contributed to an important renewal of the union movement in Latin American environmental matters. La Confederación Sindical de las Américas reviste interés analítico porque las organizaciones sindicales internacionales promovieron una “transición justa” para resituar y visibilizar a los trabajadores en las negociaciones multilaterales del clima y procesos de transición energética y porque la confederación ha emprendido una “latinoamericanización” de la noción de la “transición justa” nutrida de un giro eco-territorial de las luchas sociales en el continente. El actual proceso de convergencia entre sindicatos y movimientos sociales (campesinos, feministas, ambientalistas) ha contribuido a una importante renovación de la narrativa del movimiento sindical en materia medioambiental en América Latina.


2019 ◽  
pp. 095968011986358
Author(s):  
Guglielmo Meardi ◽  
Melanie Simms ◽  
Duncan Adam

Trade unions have been charged with neglecting labour market ‘outsiders’, while alternative actors have emerged to represent these. In response, unions have stepped up their claim to be representative of all workers, without distinction. We review the theoretical and policy debates on this issue, and argue that representation as such has been under-theorized. We draw on Saward’s concept of ‘representative claims’ to analyse the different grounds for competing assertions of representativeness. We identify four main forms of claims, and illustrate these with empirical examples. We conclude that these different claims are mutually reinforcing in stimulating attention to the outsiders, and in their interaction with institutional settings, they have a performative effect in defining new social actors.


2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Marta Harnecker

The major element missing from Latin American politics in recent decades has been, with rare exceptions, the traditional workers' movement, beaten down by flexibilization, subcontracting, and other neoliberal measures.&hellip; The fall of the Berlin Wall and the defeat of Soviet socialism left the parties and social organizations of the left inspired by that model seriously weakened. At the same time, trade unions were hit hard by the weakening of the working class, part of the larger social fragmentation produced by neoliberalism. In that context, it was new social movements, and not the traditional parties and social organizations of the left, that rose to the forefront of the struggle against neoliberalism, in forms that varied widely from one country to another.&hellip; The situation in the 1980s and '90s in Latin America was comparable in some respects to the experience of pre-revolutionary Russia in the early twentieth century.&hellip; [M]any of the region's peoples said "enough" and started mobilizing, first in defensive resistance, then passing to the offensive. As a result, presidential candidates of the left or center-left began to triumph, only to face the following alternative: either embrace the neoliberal model, or advance an alternative project motivated by a logic of solidarity and human development.&hellip; [Consequently,] a major debate has emerged over the role that new social movements should adopt in relation to the progressive governments that have inspired hope in many Latin American nations.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-8" title="Vol. 67, No. 8: January 2016" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>


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