Cycles of Struggle: Capitalism and Social Movements from 1994 to Today

• In Event: Protest in Global Perspective

Abstract

On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) declared war on the Mexican Government in the name of the country’s poor and oppressed. In the thirty years since, their strategy of resistance has become the north star for emergent struggles across the world. Echoes of the Zapatista strategy can be heard in Tahrir Square, Puerta del Sol and both Gezi and Zuccotti Park. Elements of Zapatista governance can be seen in #BlackLivesMatter, the umbrella movement, and even the “red-state rebellion” of teachers across the South and Southwest of the US. As we enter into a period of increased militancy from the Left and the Right, it is critical to understand the origin point of this long cycle of social movement-based resistance against neoliberal capitalism and the attributes that connect this period of struggle.

We contend that what looks like a series of distinct struggles and moments of resistance, are part of one epoch of contention, comprised of multiple shorter waves of resistance. This cycle originated with the Zapatistas, and importantly, it is keyed to the transformations of capitalism over the last fifty years and the correspondent emergence of new communication technologies that have transformed everyday life.

Specifically, we investigate two dimensions of movement studies: the relationship between capitalism & class, and movement politics by drawing on the literature on social movement temporalities as an analytic bridge between those two. Drawing on the Autonomist Marxist work on class composition, class de-composition, and class re-composition we provide a historical perspective on social movements and class. Examining the current epoch of contention in relation to neoliberal capitalism and comparing it to movement politics of the so-called Old and New Movements accentuates the vital analytic dimension of the political economy in its changing form.

Author

• Peter Nikolaus Funke, University of South Florida