South Africa's new social movementsAt the International Labour Organization's annual congress in Geneva last June, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki cited John Maynard Keynes approvingly and stressed that the market could not solve deep problems of underdevelopment. He sang the praises of the European Structural Fund that supported development among EU members and called for a transfer of resources from the industrialized North to the South and spoke of the "curse of the money merchant".
The global movement's media strategy« Communication, culture and counter-hegemony » was one of the five major fields structuring the meetings in the Second World Social Forum of Porto Alegre. It showed the central importance of social communication for the movement, at least as far as media visibility and institutional impact are concerned. This review of the initiatives now being undertaken may help to give a picture of the strategic challenges that face the movement. In assessing its communication arrangements, their potential and limitations, a fundamental issue is raised about the redistribution of symbolic power and communication in this globalization era. How should we construct a pluralistic communication network that reflects and strengthens our struggles and resistance ?
Social Movements in the Arab WorldIntroduction
It is widely accepted that neo-liberalism often represents an overt encroachment on the interests of broad segments of the population, especially the most impoverished and marginalized in the global order. This raises the question of whether this encroachment positively or adversely affects the ability of these populations to resist and defend their interests. Today, the majority of the population in the Arab world is subjected to increasing pressures on the economic, social, political, and cultural fronts, and the social context does not allow these groups a space from which to effectively defend themselves. Thus, a careful examination of social movements in Arab societies is imperative. Such an inquiry would initially seek to define the characteristics acquired by social movements as the social structure in the Arab world evolved. This necessitates focusing on the emergence of these movements, their modes of expression, the dynamics of their interactions with their environment, the prospects they offer for change, the potential of these movements, and the extent to which they are influenced by external, global conditions. These questions are the focus of the present endeavor.*
It is widely accepted that neo-liberalism often represents an overt encroachment on the interests of broad segments of the population, especially the most impoverished and marginalized in the global order. This raises the question of whether this encroachment positively or adversely affects the ability of these populations to resist and defend their interests. Today, the majority of the population in the Arab world is subjected to increasing pressures on the economic, social, political, and cultural fronts, and the social context does not allow these groups a space from which to effectively defend themselves. Thus, a careful examination of social movements in Arab societies is imperative. Such an inquiry would initially seek to define the characteristics acquired by social movements as the social structure in the Arab world evolved. This necessitates focusing on the emergence of these movements, their modes of expression, the dynamics of their interactions with their environment, the prospects they offer for change, the potential of these movements, and the extent to which they are influenced by external, global conditions. These questions are the focus of the present endeavor.*
