| A. The World
Revolutions |
|
Immanual Wallerstein proposes that there have been two world
revolutions; the first world revolution occurred in 1848 when workers,
peasants, and others staged rebellions in eleven European countries. The second
occurred in 1968 when workers, students, peasants, and others in the United States,
France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Japan, and Mexico participated in popular uprisings.
Neither of the revolutions succeeded in gaining their immediate objectives; but each
defined the agenda for protest that followed. The revolution of 1848 led to the
workers-rights and national liberation movements, while the revolution of 1968 spawned
civil-rights, feminist, gay-rights, and environmental movements. They also created
reactionary movements to suppress the gains made by the protesters. The selections
in this section address those revolutions.
|
Reading 1. The ANC and South
Africa: The Past and Future of Liberation Movements in the World System
http://fbc.binghamton.edu/iwsoafri.htm |
 |
This article by Immanuel Wallerstein is not so much
about South Africa as it is about the two world revolutions and their impact on the world.
Wallerstein outlines the strategies behind antisystemic movements that emerged in
these revolutions, particularly those that strove for national liberation.
Wallerstein proposes that the aims of most national liberation movements were to allow
colonized countries to "catch up" economically to their colonizers. As
we've seen, this goal has been largely illusory; yet Wallerstein argues that in this
failure lies the current crisis of the culture of capitalism, one that may, in the end,
lead the solution of many of the problems we have discussed. |
Reading 2. The
Many Meanings of 1968 in Mexico
http://www.his.latrobe.edu.au/histres/digbook/movement1968.html |
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This article by Barry Carr outlines some of the affects of the 1968 revolution
in Mexico. However he also offers a critique of the idea that 1968 was the great
watershed. He recognizes that 1968 was an important year for protest, but he
suggests also that the foundation for the protests, particularly in Mexico, had been laid
prior to the 1968 student protests. |
Exercise 1: The 1960s
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/list.html |
|
This site from the University of Virginia offers a wonderful perspectives on
the 1960s in the United States in general, and also a specific section on 1968.
The selections address largely the revolutionary literature of the period, but
offers a good overview of the social ferment that characterized the period. You may
also want to check out the section on Ken Kesey
and the Merry Pranksters. |
| B. Labor Protest |
|
The costs of labor, as we examined in Global
Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, are central to the amount of profit that can
be generated from capitalist enterprise. It should come as no surprise, then, that
disputes over working conditions and pay should be a virtual constant in the culture of
capitalism. Workers led the revolution of 1848 and were important actors in the
revolution of 1968. Their protests led to major changes in the structure and
policies of nation-states. The readings in this provide some examples of labor
protest and the conditions that inspired it. They focus on the coal industry, and
may serve as a supplement to the discussion of coal miner movements of the nineteenth
century included in Global Problems and the Culture
of Capitalism. |
Reading 3. The United States Army and the Return to Normalcy in Labor Dispute
Interventions: The Case of the West Virginia Coal Mine Wars, 1920-1921
http://www.wvlc.wvnet.edu/history/journal_wvh/wvh50-1.html |
|
In this selection Clayton D. Laurie provides a
gripping narrative of a union protest that brought down the full power of the federal
government. However unlike many confrontations between protesting workers and the
agents of the nation-state, this one dod not lead to bloodshed. However the article
provides a good overview of the issues that labor protest tried to address, and the
attitudes of mine owners and the nation-state to these protests. |
Exercise 2. The Life of a Coal Miner
http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/coal/lifeofcoalminer/default.htm |
|
This site provides an excellent overview of what it meant to work
in the coal mines in the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. The
account is by Rev. John McDowell, and was originally published in 1902 in a workers
journal. McDowell began working in the mines at the age on nine, and was one of the
few to escape what he called a "live of voluntary imprisonment. There are also
excellent illustrations of the coal miners life. |
| C. Minority
Protest |
|
Among the groups marginalized by the expansion of the culture of capitalism are
minority groups. In some cases the causes for marginalization are economic, the need
to maintain a ready supply of cheap labor. In other cases, minority groups,
particularly migrants, become symbols that can be used by agents of the nation-state to
help create an imagined national identity; minorities are depicted as
"outsiders," in order to help define the "real" citizens. The
following selections focus on Black protest in the United States.
|
Reading 4. Documents
from the Black Panther Party
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1998.06/msg00037.html |
|
The civil rights movements of the 1950s and 60s in the United States created
numerous protest movements, some viewed as more radical than others. One group that
was defined as among the most radical was the Black Panther Party. This document
from 1970 outlines some the goals of the Party along with descriptions of government
actions to suppress their activities. |
Exercise 3: African-American Almanac
http://www.toptags.com/aama/ |
|
A comprehensive source on the history of African-Americans in the United
States. You'll also find, however, an excellent history of protest up to the civil
rights movements of the 1950s and 60s. For a perspective on the conditions and
events that led to protest, there is an excellent piece on the Tulsa, Oklahoma riot
of 1921. |
Reading 5. Dumping
in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality
http://infoserver.ciesin.org/docs/010-278/010-278chpt1.html
(No longer available)See instead Environmental Racism: A
Primer
http://www.preamble.org/environmental_justice/primer_ej.htm |
|
One example of the marginalization of minorities in the United States is the
extent to which they are exposed to environmental hazzards to a far greater extent than
others. This selection by Beverly Wright and
Robert D. Bullard that documents the greater exposure of minorities and the poor to
environmental pollution. |
Reading 6. Pollution-Weary
Minorities Try Civil Rights Tack
http://www.enviroweb.org/pen/crcql/env_racism.html |
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NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) became the battle cry of
environmental protestors during the 1980’s. The hazardous waste they protested found
its way to the back yards of those with the least power to stop it. The following articles
discuss how these minorities are fighting to stop the flow of environmental hazards to
their neighborhoods. |
| C. Feminest Protest |
|
While the modern feminist movement has helped raise the
status of women, at least in the West, women remain among the most economically,
politically, and socially marginalized members of global society. Consequently,
worldwide there are movements to improve the economic and social condition of women.
In spite of some gains, however, the economic position of women in global society remains,
as a whole, marginal to that of men. For example, women represent about 60 percent of the
billion or so people earning $1.00 or less per day. The following selections provide
illustrates the forms that feminist protest is taking in various areas of the world.
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Reading 7. Sexuality and Social
Protest in Islam
http://786.co.za/al-qalam/apr97/sexualit.HTM |
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This brief article by Khadija Magardie outlines the
role of women in Islamic society, and stresses the recognition in the Qu'an of the rights
of women. |
Exercise 4: Living the Legacy: The Women's Rights
Movement 1848-1998
www.Legacy98.org/ |
|
A wonderful site commemorating 150 years of struggle
for women's rights, beginning with the Women's
Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. The site includes a brief history of the movement,
a detailed timeline,
and lots of other curricular resources. There are additional resources at the site
on Women
and Social Movements in the United States, 1830-1930 |
| D.
Environmental Protest |
|
There is little question, as we have seen,
that the culture of capitalism is environmentally destructive and that the need for
perpetual economic growth requires perpetual environmental exploitation. But, as in
changes in other areas of life, such as agriculture, technology, and family structure, not
everyone suffers equally. It is true that everyone may be affected by global warming and
the increase in acid rain, but not everyone is affected by the flooding of farmland or
hunting territories, disposal of waste products, or pollution of water supplies. These
problems are disproportionally borne by people who inhabit the margins and periphery of
the culture of capitalism.
|
Reading 8. Women of
Uttarkhand: On the Frontiers of Environmental Struggle
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/7039/chipko.html |
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As in the case of minority protest over environmental
destruction, antisystemic movements often bring together different forms of protest.
In this selection we see a combination of indigenous, feminist, and environmental
protest. This article provides an excellent supplement to the discussion of the
Chipko movement in Global Problems and the Culture of
Capitalism. |
Reading 9: Violence
Escalates in the Name of Environmentalism
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/10/26/p1s3.htm |
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Corporations strive to maximize
return on investments in order to encourage further investment in their activities, often
at the expense of the environment. When they succeed, stockholders re-invest and more
growth occurs at further expense to the environment. Frustration at their inability to
stop the damages cause by powerful corporations has led to recent violent acts. Will
violence become the new weapon of the environmental movement? |
Reading 10: Revolutionary
Ecology
http://www.monitor.net/~bari/RevolutionaryEcology.html |
|
An essay by the late Judy Bari that outlines the
philosophy behind Earth First! In the article Bari explains the rationale behind
"deep ecology," and "biocentrism," and offers them as alternatives to
both capitalism and communism. The article articulates well the view that capitalism
(as well as communism) fails to consider the damage it does to the environment, and that,
unless radical changes are made, the Earth will be systematically destroyed. |
Additional Internet
Resources on Anti-Systemic Protest |
