tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/occupy-movement-1734/articlesOccupy movement – The Conversation2022-05-27T13:08:18Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1821932022-05-27T13:08:18Z2022-05-27T13:08:18ZIs it wrong to steal from large corporations? A philosopher debates the ethics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465339/original/file-20220525-26-m5z4cv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=74%2C26%2C4419%2C2964&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-consumer-hands-putting-new-gadget-1543004774">Mike_shots / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you ask someone whether it’s okay to steal, chances are most people would say no. This absolutist approach – stealing is wrong, no matter what – finds philosophical backing in the work of 18th century thinker Immanuel Kant, who held that <a href="https://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/kant.html#:%7E:text=Moral%20rules%2C%20then%20for%20Kant,cannot%20be%20a%20just%20action">there can be no exceptions to moral rules</a>. </p>
<p>But things may be more nuanced than Kant suggested. We often judge the near-destitute worker who steals bread to feed their family differently to the thief who steals granny’s money to fund a lavish lifestyle. In the current cost of living crisis, for example, supermarket workers have spoken of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/23/people-are-under-pressure-the-shop-staff-paying-for-strangers-groceries-or-turning-a-blind-eye-to-theft">turning a blind eye to theft</a> by customers who are clearly struggling. New chief inspector of constabulary, Andy Cooke, has also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/18/officers-should-use-discretion-over-stealing-to-eat-says-uk-police-watchdog">reportedly suggested</a> that police should use “discretion” over whether to charge those who steal so they can eat.</p>
<p>If we allow exceptions to moral rules, the question then becomes: Is there anything which could make it right, or excusable, to steal from a large corporation?</p>
<p>I am certainly not condoning any kind of theft. But the question makes for a poignant thought experiment for philosophers. Society’s perception of businesses, particularly large corporations and industries, has evolved in recent years. Consumers hold companies to a <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/over-third-consumers-believe-social-purpose-should-come-profit">high ethical standard</a>, expecting them to accept accountability for <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en/fashion-ethical-turning-point">climate change</a> and unethical behaviour. </p>
<p>Perhaps, then, it’s okay to steal from a corporation if that corporation is already stealing from us. But outside of directly defrauding customers, the idea of a company “stealing” from us is complicated.</p>
<h2>Breaking the social contract</h2>
<p>One way a large corporation might steal from society is by not meeting the conditions of its <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/">social contract</a>. The social contract, an idea developed by philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, refers to the tacit agreement whereby individuals or organisations give up some freedoms in order to benefit from the greater rewards of social order. For example, I tacitly agree not to hit others in order to live in a society where others are not allowed to hit me. </p>
<p>The social contract is most often understood in terms of the relationship between individuals and the state. However, the benefits to business of social goods and a well-functioning state – including transport, education and legal protection – are obvious.</p>
<p>During the pandemic (and before that, the financial crisis), the state stepped in to save private sector organisations through <a href="https://research.reading.ac.uk/social-licence-for-business/wp-content/uploads/sites/171/Unorganized/B26658-Social-licence-WEB-LONG-REF_Final.pdf">support funds, loans and other schemes</a>. In return for this support, it seems the social contract for private sector organisations should demand that they create social value and make a positive contribution to society. </p>
<h2>Standards v scandals</h2>
<p>In recent years, scandals that have rocked the private sector are proof that the social contract is not always fulfilled. The <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/beer.12279">financial crisis</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/22/dirty-lies-how-the-car-industry-hid-the-truth-about-diesel-emissions">car emissions</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/">misselling around opioid pain medication</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54722362">data sharing</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/climate-crimes-oil-and-gas-environment">environmental crimes</a> are all examples. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-017-3547-x">fallout from the 2008 financial crisis</a> laid bare the growing imbalance between what society provided to corporations and what corporations provided to society. The recognition of this disparity led to widespread demand for change via the international <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement#:%7E:text=The%20Occupy%20movement%20was%20an,and%20different%20forms%20of%20democracy.">Occupy</a> anti-inequality protest movement. Ordinary citizens demanded a broader understanding of what businesses owe to society, beyond the provision of goods, services and jobs. </p>
<p>After Occupy, customers now recognise just how powerful their purchasing decisions can be in driving companies to do better. Tesla was the first car company to hit a market valuation of <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4eb7504e-94ef-4f99-937d-807aa159b282">over US$1 trillion</a> (£797 billion). Its growth has forced a huge acceleration in electric car development across other firms. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black handmade sign with red letters reading 'People over profits'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465342/original/file-20220525-11-ahzug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465342/original/file-20220525-11-ahzug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465342/original/file-20220525-11-ahzug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465342/original/file-20220525-11-ahzug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465342/original/file-20220525-11-ahzug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465342/original/file-20220525-11-ahzug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465342/original/file-20220525-11-ahzug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Occupy protest movement demanded more from the social contract with corporations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/toronto-october-15-protestors-mocking-unemployment-86698252">arindambanerjee / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The corporate world itself also appears to be answering the demand that it do things differently. The <a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/certification">B-Corps</a> movement, a certification programme which aims to “make business a force for good”, started in 2006 and now has over 5,000 companies registered, covering more than 400,000 workers. Companies like <a href="https://www.unilever.com/planet-and-society/">Unilever</a>, <a href="https://www.hermes-investment.com/about-us/responsibility-stewardship/">Hermes Investment</a>, and <a href="https://www.natwest.com/banking-with-natwest/our-purpose.html#:%7E:text=Our%20purpose%20is%20to%20champion,today%2C%20and%20in%20the%20future.">NatWest</a> have worked to show they are led by their social purpose. Regulators are also placing ethical demands on businesses. Part of the <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/stress-testing/2021/key-elements-2021-biennial-exploratory-scenario-financial-risks-climate-change">Bank of England’s stress test</a> now requires banks to show how they mitigate risks around climate change.</p>
<p>Yet without continued consumer and government pressure, there is a risk that these corporate moves become nothing more than ethics-washing. For instance, despite being a fully certified B-Corp, the firm <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/10/brewdog-staff-craft-beer-firm-letter">BrewDog still faced accusations of having a “culture of fear”</a>. And in 2021, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/around-50-natwest-branches-involved-money-laundering-case-fca-2021-12-13/#:%7E:text=A%20gang%20deposited%20hundreds%20of,more%20than%2040%20million%20pounds.">NatWest was found guilty of failing to stop money laundering</a> – a failure which Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority, said “<a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/natwest-fined-264.8million-anti-money-laundering-failures">let down the whole community</a>”. </p>
<h2>Exceptions to ethical rules</h2>
<p>In my research, I’ve argued we must do more to recognise that corporations are only able to operate when society tacitly grants them a <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publishing/journal-british-academy/9/reshaping-relations-between-state-private-sector-post-covid-19/">social licence</a>. This licence is granted only on the assumption that the business will be of overall benefit to society. Firms which fail to deliver on this risk having their social licence to operate rescinded.</p>
<p>Intuitively (and contra Kant), ethical rules have exceptions – <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/practical-philosophy/on-a-supposed-right-to-lie-from-philanthropy-1797/D16F283E22DE7203B7E8ACCAA007DBE6">you can lie to the assassin</a> who asks you for the location of their target. Given the wider understanding of what businesses owe to the societies they serve, philosophers could argue that it isn’t always immoral to steal from a corporation that breaks the social contract. Especially if that corporation breaks that contract by stealing our future from us, by failing to take steps to mitigate climate change or by undermining the fabric of society.</p>
<p>However, a much better approach would be to work together to clarify what businesses must do to fulfil the obligations of their social licence. Rather than stealing from corporations, we should use our powers as consumers, workers, shareholders and citizens to push private sector organisations themselves towards behaving more ethically.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Borg has received funding through the British Academy 2020 Special Research Awards: Covid-19 scheme. She is Independent Advisor to the Professional Standards Committee of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).</span></em></p>Some philosophers say stealing is always wrong, but there could be grey areas when companies break their social contract.Emma Borg, Director of the Reading Centre for Cognition Research & Professor of Philosophy, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1073062018-12-06T00:10:11Z2018-12-06T00:10:11ZCorporate welfare bums: It’s payback time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248507/original/file-20181203-194938-dif4fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of people march in Vancouver to protest against corporate greed as part of the global Occupy movement in October 2011.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canada’s welfare state is disintegrating. Meanwhile, Canada’s corporate welfare state has never been stronger. </p>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.budget.gc.ca/fes-eea/2018/docs/statement-enonce/toc-tdm-en.html">2018 Fall Economic Report</a>, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that corporations would receive $14 billion in new tax breaks. Enough money <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/3626888/canada-child-care-cost-imf/">to fund</a> a national daycare program is being handed over to the business sector. </p>
<p>Although the rationale is the supposed need to maintain Canada’s competitiveness in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s gargantuan tax cuts, it is actually a question of priorities — or, more accurately, constituencies. The federal government has made it clear to whom it feels accountable. </p>
<p>In a time of <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/corporate-profits">record profits</a>, Canadian corporations already receive <a href="https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Business-Subsidies-in-Canada-Lester.pdf">billions</a> in subsidies every year, not to mention massive <a href="http://projects.thestar.com/canadas-corporations-pay-less-tax-than-you-think/">corporate tax cuts and loopholes</a> and the roughly $3 billion in taxes that wealthy Canadians and corporations <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/06/28/canadians-with-offshore-holdings-evade-up-to-3-billion-in-tax-per-year.html">evade through offshore havens</a> on an annual basis. Despite perennial promises by government to crack down, that money continues to accumulate, sloshing around the <a href="https://www.wealthx.com/report/world-ultra-wealth-report-2018/">global economy</a> in an era of unprecedented wealth and inequality.</p>
<h2>Victory for the one per cent</h2>
<p>This triumph of the “one per cent” follows decades of cuts to the social welfare programs that strengthen the fabric of our society. According <a href="http://www.oecd.org/social/expenditure.htm">to a report</a> by the OECD, Canada ranks 24th out of 34 countries in social expenditures as a percentage of GDP.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248506/original/file-20181203-194925-1a6ib97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">NDP Leader David Lewis in February 1973.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chuck Mitchell</span></span>
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<p>Austerity-minded governments have insisted that we cannot afford the rising costs of social programs without incurring enormous deficits or a higher tax burden on ordinary Canadians. But this argument does not, apparently, apply to tax breaks for corporations. And the double standard is not new.</p>
<p>In the 1972 federal election campaign, the New Democratic Party denounced “corporate welfare bums.” Federal leader David Lewis (grandfather of co-author Avi Lewis) railed against multinational corporations that received significant subsidies from the government while at the same time escaping their fair share of taxes. </p>
<p>He said in his book <a href="http://www.lorimer.ca/adults/Book/1717/Louder-Voices.html"><em>Louder Voices: The Corporate Welfare Bums</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I oppose in principle the tax concessions and loopholes for which large, often foreign-owned corporations benefit at the expense of the ordinary Canadian taxpayer. The latter is forced to carry a heavier tax burden because the corporations do not pay their share.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lewis added that “while social welfare legislation has been subjected to the most critical scrutiny as to its costs, benefits and consequences,” and been consistently targeted for cuts, “the attention of Canadians has been deflected from any examination of…the corporate welfare state.” He went on:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Welfare is for the needy, not big and wealthy multinational corporations.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This campaign proved enormously successful. The NDP elected 31 MPs, their biggest caucus to that point. They also held the balance of power in a minority Liberal government. Canadians proved receptive to calls to re-balance the tax burden and direct government spending to benefit people over corporations.</p>
<h2>Firms don’t gripe when they get bailouts</h2>
<p>And yet, 45 years later, corporations continue to receive billions of dollars in grants and tax breaks, and social spending suffers. Corporations extol the value of the free market and denounce increased government spending. Except, of course, when government largesse flows their way.</p>
<p>What do Canadians get for these billions of dollars in corporate welfare payments? We’re told that corporations require grants and tax breaks to remain competitive, to create jobs and to stimulate the economy.</p>
<p>And yet a singular feature of corporate welfare is that it’s almost always free of any conditions to ensure those benefits actually occur. </p>
<p>The most striking example in Canadian history happened just recently. General Motors, <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/GM/general-motors/gross-profit">a company that makes about $20 billion each year</a>, is closing its Oshawa plant, bringing to an end a century of automotive production in that city. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248508/original/file-20181203-194928-12wwrhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248508/original/file-20181203-194928-12wwrhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248508/original/file-20181203-194928-12wwrhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248508/original/file-20181203-194928-12wwrhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248508/original/file-20181203-194928-12wwrhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248508/original/file-20181203-194928-12wwrhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248508/original/file-20181203-194928-12wwrhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Union head Jerry Dias addresses GM workers in Oshawa in late November 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Eduardo Lima</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Just a decade ago, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/national-today-newsletter-gm-oshawa-medical-implants-1.4920729">Canada engineered a $10.8 billion bailout of the company, with an eventual cost to the public purse of $4-5 billion</a>. For all those tax dollars, federal and provincial politicians purchased zero leverage. The plant will now close, and 2,200 people will lose their jobs while our governments claim utter impotence to intervene. </p>
<p>Even more disturbing is the estimated <a href="http://theindependent.ca/2018/01/26/wasteful-corporate-subsidies-deplete-funds-for-social-programs/">$3.3 billion</a> a year that our federal and provincial governments bestow on the large oil and gas producers to continue polluting the planet. </p>
<h2>It’s time to pay us back</h2>
<p>And in a few years, we could look back at current oil and gas handouts as a bargain. Recent revelations suggest that the industry is sitting on <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2018/11/01/what-would-it-cost-to-clean-up-albertas-oilpatch-260-billion-a-top-official-warns.html">$260 billion of environmental liabilities</a>, which could very well fall to the public purse.</p>
<p>If David Lewis were alive today, he would doubtless discover new levels of eloquent outrage. He might say: If Canada’s largest 100 corporations paid the full amount of even our insufficient corporate tax rate and did not take handouts, we would have tens of billions more each year to devote to the priorities of the many, not just the few.</p>
<p>We could fund that national day care program, make post-secondary education a free public service, build clean electric mass transit across the country and many other programs that would benefit the people of Canada. </p>
<p>In an era of climate crisis, precarious work and instability, it’s time the corporate welfare bums paid us back.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107306/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roberta Lexier receives funding from SSHRC. She is affiliated with the Broadbent Institute and is a member of the New Democratic Party. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Avi Lewis is affiliated with The Leap, a non-profit devoted to making system change irresistible, and building a world based on caring for the earth and one another.</span></em></p>Canada’s welfare state is disintegrating while corporate welfare soars. In an era of climate crisis, precarious work and instability, it’s time the corporate welfare bums paid us back.Roberta Lexier, Associate Professor, Department of General Education, Mount Royal UniversityAvi Lewis, Lecturer, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/843392017-11-15T02:00:14Z2017-11-15T02:00:14ZHow Hong Kong Umbrella movement was crushed and pro-democracy activists gradually silenced<p>Young Hong Kong democracy activists Joshua Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/world/asia/hong-kong-joshua-wong.html">were released on bail</a> from jail on October 23. They will now appeal against the prison sentence for their role in the 2014 <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/umbrella-revolution-12609">Umbrella Movement</a>.</p>
<p>Hong Kong’s version of “Occupy Wall street”, the Umbrella movement against Beijing politics was the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2014/09/27/hong-kong-protests.html#">most important protest in recent years</a>, lasting three months.</p>
<p>But three years later, Hong Kong’s democracy is still kept at bay. </p>
<p>As hundreds paid homage to the 2014 protests <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2113263/hundreds-assemble-rally-commemorate-occupy-centrals-third">on September 29 in Hong Kong</a>, the challenges facing the new generation of activists are not how to mobilise mass protests, but how to wrestle with the state’s innovative strategy to manage society.</p>
<p>On 17 August 2017, three leading activists, aged 19 to 24, who had served their community service sentences for civil disobedience, were imprisoned following the Hong Kong government’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/world/asia/hong-kong-joshua-wong-jailed-umbrella-movement.html">unprecedented appeal of the ruling</a>. Less than a month ago, four pro-democracy legislators, who were elected to office with more than 100,000 votes, were unseated by the Court of Appeal for their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/14/hong-kong-pro-democracy-legislators-disqualified-parliament">“insincere” oath taking</a>.</p>
<h2>Seeding discord</h2>
<p>Citizens continue to take to the streets to voice their discontent, and strike without support from their union leaders. But the scale of their rallies has diminished, and their targets have blurred.</p>
<p>Hong Kong’s liberal autocracy seems to have distanced itself from contention between state and society, while benefiting from conflicts between various groups of people. Some supporting the pro-democratic movements, some forming counter-movements.</p>
<p>Counter-movements have also become increasingly common. Led by pro-regime groups but appearing to be <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Citizenship-Identity-and-Social-Movements-in-the-New-Hong-Kong-Localism/Lam-Cooper/p/book/9781138632950">citizen-based initiatives</a>, the participants can adopt more confrontational tactics than the government and politicians. They protest side by side in peaceful rallies, enter university campuses, and bully activists on social media. These tactics have discouraged citizens from participating in mass protests by intimidation. </p>
<p>Young people are either alienated from politics or favour radical actions, as seen in the so-called <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35529785">Fishball Revolution</a> in 2016. This is when people took part in violent protests to defend local night food stalls and businesses.</p>
<p>According to the sociologist Charles Tilly, states are known to respond to protests by choosing from <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/from-mobilization-to-revolution-by-tillycharles-reading-mass-addison-wesley-1978-pp-xiii-349-no-price-given/34BE8F5F94D5065814D56D086A6E7939">the classic repertoire of repression, concession, or toleration</a>. </p>
<p>But the response in Hong Kong suggests regimes are not adhering to the classic responses; they’re also using case-to-case and adaptive tactics to wear out challenges.</p>
<h2>Nuanced strategy</h2>
<p>Semi-democracies like Hong Kong cannot deploy their repressive apparatuses as readily as autocracies, for they must pay lip service to their “liberal” images. They also lack the representative mechanisms found in democracies, like full-fledged elections, for absorbing protests. Conceding to dissent is seldom an option when the demands are about political change.</p>
<p>During the Umbrella Movement, the state attempted to repress the nascent protest through tear gas, but it backfired when hundreds of thousands of citizens occupied several city centres. The massive mobilisation, which went beyond anyone’s imagination, forced the state to retreat.</p>
<p>So they had to come up with more a nuanced strategy to quell dissent.</p>
<p>The state turned to a smarter strategy, what we call “<a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0032321716674024">attrition</a>,” for wearing out the resilient occupation. </p>
<p>Attrition entails an array of defensive and offensive tactics that go beyond simply tolerating or ignoring protests. </p>
<p>These include a progressive effort to maintain cohesion among political elites, such as <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1597637/hong-kong-tycoons-urge-constructive-approach-political-reform-debate">organising summits</a> for elites to openly declare loyalty, or <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1627050/james-tien-faces-cppcc-expulsion-after-calling-cy-leung-resihn">punishing elites</a> who express sympathy for the dissent. Through this effort, the state sent a powerful message to incumbents considering defection.</p>
<h2>Pro-regime movements</h2>
<p>The state also relies on pro-China counter-movements to curb pro-democracy activism. </p>
<p>For instance, during the Umbrella Movement, counter-movement groups such as the <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1217737/membership-pro-government-voice-loving-hk-runs-thousands">Voice of Loving Hong Kong</a> and the <a href="https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/11/30/beijing-determined-to-crack-down-on-hk-independence-after-meeting-silent-majority-activists-analysts-say/">Silent Majority for Hong Kong</a> would attack and provoke protesters in the occupied sites. These groups exerted a clear impact on the Umbrella protesters: not only did these “disturbances” constrain the actions of protest leaders, they also created a violent image in the protest sites.</p>
<p>Such counter-protests were likely mobilised or incentivised through money or position. But no clear evidence has yet pointed to the role of the state in orchestrating them.</p>
<p>Three years after the 2014 Umbrella Movement, such counter-movements continue to thrive. Some have become proactive in attacking public figures whom they identify as “<a href="https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/09/18/hundreds-attend-protest-hong-kong-independence-urge-sacking-pro-democracy-hku-scholar-benny-tai/">enemies of the state</a>,” such as by labelling them as stooges of foreign powers on social media or through mass rallies. </p>
<p>Even pop singers who had voiced support for the Umbrella protests, like <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/entertainment/denise-ho-anthony-wong-yiu-ming-and-chapman-to-banned-in-china-for-joining">Denise Ho and Anthony Wong</a>, were not spared from this kind of cultural-revolution-like assault. </p>
<h2>Legal intervention</h2>
<p>The most effective part of this new strategy was legal intervention.</p>
<p>As a highly revered institution in Hong Kong, the legal system gave the government the legitimacy it lacked to scale back the protests. It became a third-party actor and shifted the burden of evicting the protest from the police to the judiciary.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1638381/top-court-judge-questions-odd-injunction">Court injunctions</a> filed by private actors, such as transport companies, helped re-frame the protests from political contention to court disputes and added a touch of unlawfulness to the protests. </p>
<p>Like counter-movements, the judiciary has continued to be featured in <a href="https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/08/15/13-activists-stormed-hong-kong-legislature-jailed-following-successful-appeal-justice-dept/">political disputes</a>. The disqualification of popularly elected legislators and the jailing of young activists, such as Umbrella Movement leaders Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow, were pertinent examples.</p>
<p>What we are now observing in Hong Kong is an evolving semi-authoritarianism. The attrition strategy that it used for quelling the Umbrella Movement since 2014 has been extended into some sort of “soft repression” of the pro-democracy movement.</p>
<p>Relying on third party actors such as pro-China movements to crush the actions and hopes of pro-democracy activists, the government avoids direct confrontation and preserves its façade of an impartial arbiter amid growing social polarisation. </p>
<p>Despite featuring the rule of law and civil liberties, Hong Kong’s trajectory steadily echoes the democratic recession worldwide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Hong Kong, challenges for the new generation of activists are not how to mobilise mass protests, but how to wrestle with the state’s innovative strategy to manage society.Edmund W. Cheng, Assistant Professor in comparative politics, Hong Kong Baptist UniversitySamson Yuen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Lingnan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/787892017-06-07T12:44:51Z2017-06-07T12:44:51ZPolitical intents: how protest camps are reviving social movements around the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172483/original/file-20170606-3668-lwa7sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tent city. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sonotoki/15651472772/sizes/l">かがみ~/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The business of government is typically carried out by representatives in parliament, at local town halls or in the cabinet office, but make no mistake: politics is done everywhere, by everyone. Around the world, social and protest movements empower people to push for change from outside of established institutions. In recent years, another form of protest has been added to the familiar repertoire of community activism, marches of protest and social media campaigns: the protest camp. </p>
<p>From Tahrir Square in Cairo, Puerto del Sol in Madrid and Syntagma Square in Athens to New York’s Wall Street, central squares in major cities across the US and Saint Paul’s cathedral in London, urban protest camps featured prominently in the wave of uprisings that have swept the world since 2011. While protesters’ grievances and demands differed from place to place, <a href="https://policypress.co.uk/protest-camps-in-international-context">research from around the world has found</a> that the protest camps themselves showed striking similarities. </p>
<p>Amid the assembly of tents, each of these camps featured common spaces such as kitchens, libraries, learning centres, crèches and places of worship. Places of democratic deliberation and assemblies for collective discussion and decision-making were central to all camps. They often had media centres, where journalists could report about the camp, while participants produced their own media, including newspapers, radio shows and leaflets, as well as spreading their message using social media. </p>
<h2>Putting up a fight</h2>
<p>The camps were important symbols of protest in their own right, but out of the camps many more protest actions occurred; people started marches from the camps and retreated there after them. Within the camps, demonstrators were trained in techniques that would allow them to overcome hostile and aggressive policing. There, they could also find medical and psychological care, if they had been injured or traumatised during demonstrations.</p>
<p>While protest camps occur in diverse forms right across the world, each one empowers people to stay together for longer periods of time; to eat, sleep and share daily routines with fellow protesters. By providing living spaces and catering for people’s needs as they arise, protest camps differ from most other forms of protest action. They can often feel like <a href="https://protestcamps.com/2017/04/26/upcoming-workshop-june-7th-at-university-of-leicester/">a second home</a> for demonstrators.</p>
<p>Protest camps also provide spaces to experiment with the way our daily lives are organised. In these places, political change in the form of direct democracy or gender equality are not only issued as demands by protesters – they can also be put into practice within the space of the camp.</p>
<h2>Mounting a challenge</h2>
<p>Since 2011, urban protest camps have regularly sprung up in cities across the world. Over that time, it has become clear that camps can enable broader political challenges, even if they initially focus on a single aim: the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/apr/08/architects-revolt-kiev-maidan-square-ukraine-insurrection">Kiev Maidan camp</a> in the winter of 2013-14 and the Hong Kong <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2016/09/2-years-later-a-look-back-at-hong-kongs-umbrella-movement/">Umbrella Movement</a> both shook the political foundations of the countries where they occurred. </p>
<p>Similarly, the occupation of Gezi Park in Istanbul was sparked by concerns about plans to remove the green space in the heart of the city. But over time, the protests <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/29/gezi-park-year-after-protests-seeds-new-turkey">came to challenge</a> the rule of the AKP party and its leader Erdoğan throughout the whole country. The camp helped to forge a coalition of diverse opposition groups, who historically had very little in common.</p>
<p>There are also numerous camps that occur on a smaller scale and address specific issues and demands, rather than initiating a wholesale questioning of the political system. Take, for example, the <a href="http://www.savingiceland.org/">small camps</a> which have occurred in response to Iceland’s Hydropower Expansion Plans since the mid-2000s. </p>
<h2>Old dog, new tricks</h2>
<p>Protest camps are not a new invention. Long before the Occupy movement camped out at Saint Paul’s, people gathered in camps to protest against nuclear weapons, road and infrastructure projects and war. In the 1980s, <a href="https://faslanepeacecamp.wordpress.com/">peace camps</a> such as Greenham Common and Faslane in Scotland brought people to the gates of military facilities where nuclear weapons were kept, and formed the basis for regular blockades and protests at their gates. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172493/original/file-20170606-3716-9du64u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172493/original/file-20170606-3716-9du64u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172493/original/file-20170606-3716-9du64u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172493/original/file-20170606-3716-9du64u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172493/original/file-20170606-3716-9du64u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172493/original/file-20170606-3716-9du64u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172493/original/file-20170606-3716-9du64u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Living history: a caravan from Faslane in the 1980s, at Glasgow’s Riverside Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/119886413@N05/16088835172/sizes/l">Michel Curi/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They continued for an extraordinarily long time: Greenham Common lasted for 20 years and the camp at Faslane – near the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons base – celebrates its 35th birthday this year.</p>
<p>Yet over the past decade, activists have professionalised the camp as a form of protest, both internationally and in the UK. A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/mar/02/climate-camp-disbanded">broad movement against climate change</a>, which formed in 2005, chose the protest camp as its main organisational form. Annual climate camps took place from 2006 to 2010, organised with an increasing level of sophistication and routine. More recently, protest camps against pipelines in North America – including the one against the North Dakota Access Pipeline (NoDAPL) – have <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/standing-rock-nodapl-protest-camp-cleared-in-north-dakota/a-37688396">brought together</a> concerns about climate change with indigenous rights issues. </p>
<p>Climate camps made huge efforts to be radically democratic and ecological spaces. From plenary discussions, shared rotas for the kitchen, renewable energy supplies and compost toilets, the camps attempted to prefigure how life could be in a more just and sustainable society. By turning protest camps into temporary homes, demonstrators often form close-knit communities which sometimes helps them to network and organise in the future. </p>
<p>In a world where political figures like US president Trump seem keen to bypass democratic deliberation through populism, there is a desire to recreate spaces of political deliberation and community, while realising the importance of face-to-face interaction in building viable alternatives to the status quo. Protest camps are likely to form a crucial part in this endeavour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabian Frenzel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From Gezi Park in Istanbul to Wall Street in New York City, urban protest camps are shaking up the political establishment on an international scale.Fabian Frenzel, Lecturer in the Political Economy of Organisation, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/776392017-05-18T14:09:21Z2017-05-18T14:09:21ZSouth African protesters echo a global cry: democracy isn’t making people’s lives better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169516/original/file-20170516-11966-ti6qia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/69574d004112cc428595f510d2cccae0/ServiceundefineddeliveryundefinedprotestsundefinedspreadundefinedacrossundefinedJoburg-20170905">Recent violent protests in South Africa</a> have refocused attention on the growing number of demonstrations over government failure to provide basic services, such as water and electricity. The country is known as the <a href="http://www.sabc.co.za/news/f1/b9ad4d8042b5df199f1a9f3d86b55090/South-Africa:-">“protest capital of the world”</a>. </p>
<p>Research by the Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg seems to bear this out. Based on estimates from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304076282_Counting_Police-Recorded_Protests_Based_on_South_African_Police_Service_Data?_iepl%5BviewId%5D=5KxFFchge3DcotG82x6t7YVe&_iepl%5BprofilePublicationItemVariant%5D=default&_iepl%5Bcontexts%5D%5B0%5D=prfpi&_iepl%5BtargetEntityId%5D=PB%3A304076282&_iepl%5BinteractionType%5D=publicationTitle">South African Police Service data</a>, we found that between 1997 and 2013 there were an average of 900 community protests a year. In recent years the number has climbed to as high as 2,000 protests a year.</p>
<p>The situation in South Africa is not unique. <a href="http://www.cadtm.org/IMG/pdf/World_Protests_2006-2013-Final-2.pdf">Protests have been increasing</a> globally, particularly since the <a href="https://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/the-world-economic-crisis.html">2008 global economic crisis</a>. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Southern-Resistance-in-Critical-Perspective-The-Politics-of-Protest-in/Paret-Runciman-Sinwell/p/book/9781472473462">new book</a>, my colleagues from the Centre for Social Change and I attempt to understand South Africa as part of the global protest wave.</p>
<p>On the face of it, protests in South Africa look quite different. They tend to be fragmented and happen mostly in black townships and informal settlements. The occupation of central public spaces in towns and cities, as we are seeing in <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/venezuelan-opposition-renews-protests-maduro-170420173517381.html">Venezuela</a>, happens seldom. </p>
<p>While there are important differences there are also commonalities. Whether protests focus around the “1%” as they did during the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1043318">Occupy movement</a> or around the lack of service provision in townships, protesters around the world are critiquing the failure of a representative democracy to provide socio-economic equality.</p>
<h2>Broken promises</h2>
<p>South Africa’s governing ANC came into power in 1994 on the promise of a <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/content/better-life-all">“better life for all”</a>. There have been important gains, such as increasing access to electricity from 51% of the population in 1994 to <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-04-25-africa-check-does-the-anc-have-a-good-story-to-tell/#.WRwOQJKGOpp">85% in 2012</a>, but inequality remains endemic. Recent data from the World Bank confirms that South Africa remains one of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/datablog/2017/apr/26/inequality-index-where-are-the-worlds-most-unequal-countries">the most unequal countries in the world</a>. </p>
<p>As part of research by the Centre for Social Change we spoke to protesters all over the country. A new book from the centre highlights the extent to which protesters are raising not just concerns about the quality of service delivery but also about the quality of post-apartheid democracy. As Shirley Zwane, from <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/place/khayelitsha-township">Khayelitsha</a>, near Cape Town, explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We don’t have democracy!… We [are] still struggling… you see if we are in democracy there’s no more shacks here… No more bucket system… we supposed to have roads, everything! A better education… There is a democracy?…. No, this is not a democracy! They have, these people in Constantia, Tableview, Parklands, they have a democracy, not for us!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Shirley the quality of post-apartheid democracy is linked to the provision of basic services. She is not alone in this view. </p>
<p><a href="http://afrobarometer.org/publications/wp8-views-democracy-south-africa-and-region-trends-and-comparisons">Research by Afrobarometer</a> has found that compared to other countries in the region South Africans are much more likely to emphasise the realisation of socio-economic outcomes as crucial to democracy. That South Africans should view housing and services as central to post-apartheid democracy is unsurprising given that apartheid systemically denied the majority of people these rights. </p>
<h2>Crisis of affordability</h2>
<p>Community protests are fundamentally about the exclusion from democracy experienced by many black working class citizens since the <a href="http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/unit.php?id=65-24E-6">end of apartheid in 1994</a>.</p>
<p>Although the provision of services to the previously marginalised black majority has increased substantially, black working class households face an increasing crisis of affordability.</p>
<p>In sectors covered by a minimum wage, the real median wage <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31349234/Is_South_Africa_at_a_Turning_Point">increased by 7.5%</a> between 2011 and 2015. But last year inflation on an <a href="http://www.pacsa.org.za/images/food_barometer/2016/2016_PACSA_Food_Price_Barometer_REDUCED.pdf">average working class food basket was 15%</a> and certain staple foods, such as maize meal, increased by as much as 32%. This has put a real squeeze on working class households especially when, due to high levels unemployment, each black South African wage earner <a href="http://www.pacsa.org.za/images/food_barometer/2016/2016_PACSA_Food_Price_Barometer_REDUCED.pdf">supports four people</a>. </p>
<h2>Structural challenges</h2>
<p>The crisis of affordability facing black working class households also compounds the structural crisis within local government.</p>
<p>In South Africa local governments are responsible for delivering services. Over the past 15 years local municipalities have increasingly had to find ways to fund these services through their own tax base. Many have resorted to cost recovery measures, for example by introducing prepaid meters. Their introduction <a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/pimville-residents-protest-against-eskoms-prepaid-meters-20170327">has been behind many protests.</a></p>
<p>The financial difficulties for local and provincial governments looks set to get worse. In the country’s <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2016/speech/speech.pdf">latest budget</a> the National Treasury cut their funding as part of R25 billion budget cuts. In the case of Gauteng, the scene of the most recent protests, this amounted to a R2.9 billion rand cut <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/tight-budget-for-gauteng-1995372">over three years</a>. </p>
<p>To fill the gap, municipalities and provinces are going to have to look increasingly to their own tax base to fund service provision. A difficult prospect when slightly more than half the population survives on <a href="http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/Report-03-10-11/Report-03-10-11.pdf">R779 or less a person a month</a>.</p>
<h2>A global crisis</h2>
<p>As Professor Michael Burawoy argues in our new book, the nature of the crisis varies from country to country. In South Africa the crisis represents the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=gCmEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT48&lpg=PT48&dq=Michael+Burawoy+forcible+exclusion&source=bl&ots=YPlKuMoX0L&sig=Aagamv6XQL7XWlwXy52qBjgaBmM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD0u_61PbTAhUkDsAKHXPhA7AQ6AEIKDAB#v=onepage&q=Michael%20Burawoy%20forcible%20exclusion&f=false">forcible exclusion</a> of many black working class households from democratic institutions, largely because of their inability to afford socio-economic goods. For instance, while access to electricity has increased, access is increasingly mediated by prepaid meters, therefore the ability to access service is inextricably linked to the ability to afford them. </p>
<p>It’s this exclusion that leads many to say that <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=gCmEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT48&lpg=PT48&dq=Michael+Burawoy+forcible+exclusion&source=bl&ots=YPlKuMoX0L&sig=Aagamv6XQL7XWlwXy52qBjgaBmM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD0u_61PbTAhUkDsAKHXPhA7AQ6AEIKDAB#v=onepage&q=democracy%20only%20for%20the%20rich&f=false">democracy is only for the rich</a>. Globally, people are beginning to search for new solutions to these problems with many being drawn to left-wing movements and political parties, such as <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/cristina-flesher-fominaya/%E2%80%9Cspain-is-different%E2%80%9D-podemos-and-15m">Podemos</a> in Spain. Whether such a comparable movement can emerge in South Africa remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carin Runciman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Protests in South Africa are about more than just service delivery of basic services such as water and electricity. They reflect a wider crisis about the failure to build a more equitable society.Carin Runciman, Senior Reseacher, Centre for Social Change, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/637252016-08-22T20:15:03Z2016-08-22T20:15:03ZMalaysia’s Bersih movement shows social media can mobilise the masses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134011/original/image-20160813-25467-1n2gdv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rally for electoral reform in Malaysia 2015</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bersih 2.0</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/arab-spring-594">Arab Spring</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/occupy-movement-1734">Occupy Wall Street</a> are not the only media-driven civic movements that have advocated for social or political reform. </p>
<p>In Malaysia a civic movement called the <a href="http://www.bersih.org/">Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections</a> – better known by its Malay name “Bersih”, which means clean – has enabled people to express their political dissatisfaction and long accumulated frustration via social media. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/malaysia-3415">Malaysian</a> politics is widely regarded as contentious. Since Malaysia’s independence in 1957, the current ruling coalition has been in power. </p>
<p>One of the key factors to such uninterrupted ruling by one party is the widely regarded “unbalanced” electoral processes. For years, the democracy has suffered from <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21577390-after-tainted-election-victory-najib-razak-needs-show-his-reformist-mettle-dangerous">entrenched advantages enjoyed by the ruling party and the gerrymandered constituencies</a>. </p>
<p>In 2007 Malaysians took to the street to <a href="http://www.bersih.org/about/8demands/">call for a reform</a> of Malaysia’s electoral processes. Subsequently, three massive rallies took place in 2010, 2012 and 2015. </p>
<p>Thanks to the diffusion effect of social media, the size of rallies has grown from <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/75250">30,000</a> in 2007 to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-29/thousands-rally-to-pile-pressure-on-malaysian-prime-minister/6735200">200,000</a> in 2015. More than 70 Facebook groups have been created, plus blogs, and YouTube, Whatsapp were used frequently. </p>
<p>Two nongovernmental, nonpartisan grassroots groups – <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BERSIH2.0OFFICIAL/?fref=ts">Bersih 2.0</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GlobalBersih/?fref=ts">Global Bersih</a> – emerged with more than 248,000 and 19,000 followers on Facebook, respectively. This year, Bersih 2.0 won the <a href="http://eng.518.org/ease/board.es?mid=a50501000000&bid=0028&list_no=845&act=view">2016 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights</a> for its activism.</p>
<h2>Social media in sustaining the movement</h2>
<p>There has been an ongoing debate about the effectiveness of digital activism in making real changes.</p>
<p>Some may agree with the author Malcolm Gladwell that the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell">weak ties on social media</a> can hardly translate the collective action into passionate engagement and effective movement. </p>
<p>In the Bersih movement, we found that the network of weak ties on social media plays a critical role in sustaining the connections among activists and participants. </p>
<p>It costs almost nothing for the people to maintain their network on Facebook. When the next campaign happens, the people can be activated almost instantly. </p>
<p>In Global Bersih, many of the grassroots leaders who coordinate the global movement have never met each other before. They used Facebook and Whatsapp to exchange notes, brainstorm and make decisions. </p>
<p>The Bersih campaign in Malaysia is also strongly supported by an international network of Malaysian diaspora. In a 2015 rally, overseas Malaysians organised concurrent demonstrations in more than 90 cities worldwide. </p>
<p>A Malaysian living in Paris commented on the social network:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are Malaysians and we want to show our support to the people in the country […] Being overseas, we have more freedom to express our views and we should do that.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134012/original/image-20160813-25502-1qio21y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134012/original/image-20160813-25502-1qio21y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134012/original/image-20160813-25502-1qio21y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134012/original/image-20160813-25502-1qio21y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134012/original/image-20160813-25502-1qio21y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134012/original/image-20160813-25502-1qio21y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134012/original/image-20160813-25502-1qio21y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The list of cities where rallies were held concurrently in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Global Bersih</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Some lessons learned</h2>
<p>First, we see how social media can be used to gather resources. In the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JomBalikUndiMalaysia/">Jom Balik Undi</a> (“go home and vote”) social media campaign, Malaysians were called on to spread the word on Facebook by submitting photos of themselves holding a message of change. </p>
<p>The photos were shared by thousands of people on Facebook. It is also easy for people to participate and yet the spread is wide and far due to the interconnected social network. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134895/original/image-20160822-30393-1h3mfal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134895/original/image-20160822-30393-1h3mfal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134895/original/image-20160822-30393-1h3mfal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134895/original/image-20160822-30393-1h3mfal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134895/original/image-20160822-30393-1h3mfal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134895/original/image-20160822-30393-1h3mfal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134895/original/image-20160822-30393-1h3mfal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People working on Redang Island supporting the Jom Balik Undi movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jom Balik Undi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, although social media has been pivotal in propagating dissenting opinions, the influence is mainly emotion-driven. An activist and blogger noticed how the virality of his blogs increases with the intensity of emotions in the writing. </p>
<p>“If you want something to go viral, you rant and rant…,” the blogger said.</p>
<p>People may not understand know what they are protesting for. Therefore, while social media is effective in mobilising and engaging the people, it can be less effective as an educational tool. </p>
<p>Third, we need to be aware also that social media exposes the participants and activists to risks of monitoring, investigations and arrests. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/10/26/creating-culture-fear/criminalization-peaceful-expression-malaysia">article</a> by Human Rights Watch has pointed out that the 2015 amendments to the Sedition Act in Malaysia have widened the impact to not only activists but also ordinary citizens using social media. </p>
<p>The digital traces that we left on social media mean that Facebook participation is no longer just a negligible risk and therefore negligible effect, as Gladwell claimed. </p>
<p>Although the changes in the electoral reform are slow and gradual (with only two out of the eight demands of Bersih 2.0 partially met by the Election Commission), the movement is a huge success by the number of participants that has increased over the years. </p>
<p>When asked about whether it is worried that social media will lead to slacktivism or weaken the activism, an individual I interviewed answered with a question: “Would you rather have nothing?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carmen Leong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media can be an effective tool in mobilising people for social change, as demonstrated by the Bersih movement in Malaysia.Carmen Leong, Lecturer in School of Information Information Systems, Technology and Management, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/558692016-04-29T22:44:48Z2016-04-29T22:44:48ZIn defence of left-wing populism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114819/original/image-20160311-11277-ap5ubd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is no better alternative than the rise of the populist left for Europe and beyond.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/graphics_photography">The People's Assembly Against Austerity</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> between The Conversation and the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>We are witnessing a crisis of representative democracy in most European countries. As I argued in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Political-Thinking-Action-Chantal-Mouffe/dp/0415305217">“On the Political”</a>, this is the outcome of the “consensus at the centre” established under the neoliberal hegemony between centre-right and centre-left parties. </p>
<p>This post-political situation has led to the disappearance from political discourse of the idea that there is an alternative to neoliberal globalisation. This forecloses the possibility of agonistic debate and drastically reduces the choice offered to citizens through elections.</p>
<p>There are people who celebrate this consensus. They offer it as a sign that adversarial politics has finally become obsolete so that democracy can mature. I disagree.</p>
<h2>A vote but not a voice</h2>
<p>The “post-political” situation has created a favourable terrain for populist parties that claim to represent all who feel unheard and ignored in the existing representative system. Their appeal is to “the people” against the uncaring “political establishment” that, having abandoned the popular sectors, concerns itself exclusively with the interests of the elites.</p>
<p>The problem, however, is that in general the populism of those parties has a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/world/europe/voter-insecurities-feed-rise-of-right-leaning-populist-politicians.html?_r=0">right-wing character</a>. Often, the way they bring together a series of heterogeneous social demands is by using a xenophobic rhetoric. This constructs the unity of “the people” through the exclusion of immigrants.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114814/original/image-20160311-11285-7tdfo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114814/original/image-20160311-11285-7tdfo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114814/original/image-20160311-11285-7tdfo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114814/original/image-20160311-11285-7tdfo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114814/original/image-20160311-11285-7tdfo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114814/original/image-20160311-11285-7tdfo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114814/original/image-20160311-11285-7tdfo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the People’s Assembly Against Austerity in the UK protest against the right’s marginalisation of immigrants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Holt/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, the crisis of representative democracy is not a crisis of representative democracy per se but a crisis of its current post-democratic incarnation. As Spain’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/spain-dispatches-from-the-frontline-of-the-indignados-movement-7091">Indignados</a> protest:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have a vote but we do not have a voice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On face value, it seems the best way to restore the partisan nature of politics and thereby remedy the lack of agonistic debate is by reviving the adversarial dimension of the left-right opposition that “third way” politics has evacuated. However, this is simply not going to be possible in most countries. Another strategy is needed.</p>
<p>When we examine the state of the “centre-left” parties in Europe we realise they have become too complicit in the workings of neoliberal hegemony to offer an alternative. This became evident during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_debt_crisis">crisis of 2008</a>. Even in their window of opportunity, these parties were unable to regain initiative and use the power of the state to put forward a more progressive politics. </p>
<p>Since then, the centre-left’s compromise with the system has deepened. These parties have not only accepted but also contributed to the politics of austerity. The resulting disastrous measures have brought misery and unemployment in Europe.</p>
<p>If the “centre-left” advocates what Stuart Hall calls “<a href="http://www.mas.org.uk/uploads/100flowers/The%20neo-liberal%20revolution%20by%20Stuart%20Hall.pdf">a social liberal version of neoliberalism</a>”, it is no surprise that resistance to those measures, when it finally came from the progressive side, could only be expressed through protest movements like the Indignados and <a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-the-occupy-movement-7121">Occupy</a>, which called for the rejection of representative institutions. </p>
<p>While these movements brought to the fore the widespread potential of dissatisfaction with the neoliberal order, their refusal to engage with political institutions limited their impact. Without any articulation with parliamentary politics, they soon began to lose their dynamism.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114816/original/image-20160311-11302-1khl2z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114816/original/image-20160311-11302-1khl2z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114816/original/image-20160311-11302-1khl2z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114816/original/image-20160311-11302-1khl2z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114816/original/image-20160311-11302-1khl2z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114816/original/image-20160311-11302-1khl2z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114816/original/image-20160311-11302-1khl2z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The left’s recent refusal to engage with political institutions has left it struggling for long-term representation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hernán Piñera/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Progressive politics finds a new way</h2>
<p>Fortunately, two exceptions stand out. They indicate how a new progressive politics <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-you-ready-for-a-new-kind-of-left-wing-politics-33511">can be envisaged</a>. </p>
<p>In Greece, <a href="https://theconversation.com/syrizas-not-so-radical-politics-and-europes-economic-choice-36229">Syriza</a>, born of a coalition of different left movements around <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synaspismos">Synaspismos</a>, the former eurocommunist party of the interior, succeeded in creating a new type of radical party. Its objective was to challenge neoliberal hegemony through parliamentary politics. The aim was clearly not the demise of liberal democratic institutions but rather their transformation into vehicles for the expression of popular demands.</p>
<p>In Spain, the meteoric rise of <a href="https://theconversation.com/postcard-from-spain-where-now-for-the-quiet-revolution-43779">Podemos in 2014</a> was due to the capacity of a group of young intellectuals to take advantage of the terrain created by the Indignados to organise a party-movement. The group intended to break the stalemate of the consensual politics established through the transition to democracy but whose exhaustion was now evident. Their strategy was to create a popular collective will by constructing a frontier between the establishment elites (la Casta) and “the people”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118298/original/image-20160412-15861-spkp45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=884&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pablo Iglesias, Podemos secretary-general since 2014, was a lecturer in political science.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/culturaargentina/16104083334/in/photolist-qx4CVd-pcF8Mt-qrN4rU-rcGTCz-okacrN-qrNH4u-pRSMxA-tjRT13-nYGgcE-pcrH9Y-pcrGoQ-p7aX3o-pRZEBM-pRZFaa-oBDN7K-pRRWwC-oBDJuf-oBnPwB-pcrGGf-pS1T9X-q9r6Fz-oBDCyX-oncJQx-oDtaCu-oFqxJ6-oncDNi-onb3Es-onc2eN-oDFBye-oBDY7q-onbYAo-oDoWAT-oDs6Bf-oDoZWR-onbFLD-oDsV6U-onb3hU-oDp1Q4-onbNMc-onbdFt-pRZF3X-pcrHku-pS1TP4-q9fND4-q9r7s4-pRZEKx-q79CMu-onbLmk-onbkoW-oFqzo8">flickr/Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación Argentina</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In many European countries we now encounter what can be called “a populist situation”. A vibrant democratic politics can no longer be conceived in terms of the traditional left-right axis. </p>
<p>This is due not only to the post-political blurring of this type of frontier, but also to the fact that the transformations of capitalism brought about by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Fordism">post-Fordism</a> and the dominance of financial capital are at the origin of a multiplicity of new democratic demands. These can no longer be addressed by simply reactivating the left-right confrontation: they require the establishment of a different type of frontier.</p>
<p>What is at stake is the connection of a variety of democratic demands with the potential to create a “collective will” struggling for another hegemony. It is clear that the democratic demands in our society cannot all be expressed through a “verticalist” party form that subordinates mass movements. </p>
<p>Even if it was reformed, it is not always possible or desirable to force democratic demands expressed through horizontal social movements into the hierarchical verticalist mode.</p>
<p>We need a new form of political organisation that can articulate both modes, where the unity of progressive people will be constituted not, as in the case of right-wing populism, by the exclusion of immigrants, but by the determination of an adversary represented by neoliberal forces. This is what I understand by “<a href="https://theconversation.com/populism-and-democracy-friend-or-foe-rising-stars-deepen-dilemma-39695">left-wing populism</a>”.</p>
<h2>Reclaiming populism for the left</h2>
<p>“Populist” is usually used in a negative way. This is a mistake, because populism represents an important dimension of democracy. Democracy understood as “power of the people” requires the existence of a “demos” – a “people”. Instead of rejecting the term populist, we should reclaim it.</p>
<p>The agonistic struggle is more than a struggle between conflicting hegemonic projects. It is a struggle about the construction of the people.</p>
<p>It is important for the left to grasp the nature of this struggle. Seen in terms of a “collective will”, “the people” are always a political construct.</p>
<p>There is no “we” without a “they”. It is how the adversary is defined that will determine the identity of the people. In this relationship lies one of the main differences between right-wing and left-wing populism. </p>
<p>Many of the demands that exist in a society do not have an essentialist reactionary or progressive character. It is how they are to be articulated that determines their identity.</p>
<p>This brings to the fore the role that representation plays in the constitution of a political force. Representation is not a one-way process going from the represented to the representative, because it is the very identity of the represented that is at stake in the process. </p>
<p>This is the central flaw of those who argue that representative democracy is an oxymoron and that a real democracy should be direct or “presentist”. What needs to be challenged is the lack of alternatives offered to the citizens, not the idea of representation itself.</p>
<p>A pluralist democratic society cannot exist without representation. To begin with, identities are never already given. They are always produced through identification; this process of identification is a process of representation. </p>
<p>Collective political subjects are created through representation. They do not exist beforehand. Every assertion of a political identity is thereby interior, not exterior, to the process of representation.</p>
<p>Second, in a democratic society where pluralism is not envisaged in the harmonious anti-political form and where the ever-present possibility of antagonism is taken into account, representative institutions, by giving form to the division of society, play a crucial role in allowing for the institutionalisation of this conflictual dimension.</p>
<p>Such a role can only be fulfilled through the availability of an agonistic confrontation. The central problem with our current post-political model is the absence of such confrontation. This is not going to be remedied through “horizontalist” practices of local autonomy, self-management and direct democracy that turn away from institutions and the state.</p>
<h2>The place of passion in politics</h2>
<p>Another important aspect of left-wing populism is that it acknowledges the central role played by affects and passions in politics. I use “passions” to refer to the common affects at play in the collective forms of identification that constitute political identities. Passions perform a central role in the construction of a collective will at the core of any left-wing populist project.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/118300/original/image-20160412-15895-3qrai2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marine Le Pen has harnessed political passions to establish her right-wing National Front as a political force in France.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/68651617@N07/7421302448">flickr/Blandine Le Cain</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The attempt by so many liberal-democratic political theorists to eliminate passion from politics – they refuse to accept its crucial role – is no doubt one of the reasons for their hostility to populism. This is a serious mistake. Only because this terrain has been abandoned to right-wing populists have they been able to make such progress in recent years.</p>
<p>Fortunately, thanks to the development of left-wing populist movements, this could change. It is urgent to understand that the only way to counter right-wing populism is through left-wing populism. </p>
<p>I am convinced we are witnessing a profound transformation of the political frontiers that used to be dominant in Europe. The crucial confrontation is going to be between left-wing populism and right-wing populism.</p>
<h2>Crisis and opportunity in Europe</h2>
<p>The future of democracy depends on the development of a left-wing populism that could revive interest in politics by mobilising passions and fomenting an agonistic debate about the availability of an alternative to the neoliberal order driving de-democratisation. This mobilisation should take place at the European level. To be victorious, a left-wing populist project needs to foster a left-wing populist movement fighting for a democratic refoundation of Europe.</p>
<p>We urgently need an agonistic confrontation about the future of the European Union. Many people on the left are beginning to doubt the possibility of constructing, within the EU framework, an alternative to the neoliberal model of globalisation. </p>
<p>The EU is increasingly perceived as being an intrinsically neoliberal project that cannot be reformed. It seems vain to try transforming its institutions; the only solution is to exit. Such a pessimistic view is no doubt the result of the fact that all attempts to challenge the prevalent neoliberal rules are constantly presented as anti-European attacks against the EU’s very existence.</p>
<p>Without the possibility of making legitimate criticisms of current neoliberal policies, it is unsurprising that a growing number of people are <a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-of-euroscepticism-masks-general-apathy-about-eu-vote-25984">turning to Euroscepticism</a>. They believe the European project itself is the cause of our predicament. They fear more European integration can only mean a reinforcement of neoliberal hegemony.</p>
<p>Such a position endangers the survival of the European project. The only way to counter it is by creating the conditions for a democratic contestation within the EU.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114812/original/image-20160311-11274-hds1pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114812/original/image-20160311-11274-hds1pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114812/original/image-20160311-11274-hds1pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114812/original/image-20160311-11274-hds1pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114812/original/image-20160311-11274-hds1pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114812/original/image-20160311-11274-hds1pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114812/original/image-20160311-11274-hds1pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rather than surrender to Euroscepticism, it’s possible to rebuild popular support for the European project by taking it in a new democratic direction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave Kellam/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the root of the disaffection with the EU is the absence of a project that could foster a strong identification among the citizens of Europe and provide an objective to mobilise their political passions in a democratic direction. </p>
<p>The EU is currently composed of consumers, not of citizens. It has been mainly constructed around a common market and has never really created an European common will. So it is no wonder that, in times of economic crisis and austerity, some people will begin to question its utility. They forget its important achievement of bringing peace to the continent.</p>
<p>It is a mistake to present this crisis as a crisis of the European project. It is a crisis of its neoliberal incarnation. This is why current attempts to solve it with more neoliberal policies cannot succeed.</p>
<p>A better approach would be to foster popular allegiance to the EU by developing a sociopolitical project that offers an alternative to the prevailing neoliberal model of recent decades. This model is in crisis but a different one is not yet available. We could say, following Gramsci, that we are witnessing an “organic crisis” where the old model cannot continue but the new one is not yet born.</p>
<p>The only way to counter the rise of anti-European sentiments and stop the growth of right-wing populist parties that excite them is to unite European citizens around a political project that gives them hope for a different, more democratic future. </p>
<p>Establishing a synergy between left parties and social movements at the European level would enable the emergence of a collective will that aims to radically transform the existing order.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chantal Mouffe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The future of democracy depends on developing a left-wing populism that can revive public interest by mobilising political passions in the fight for an alternative to neoliberal de-democratisation.Chantal Mouffe, Professor of Political Theory, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/577062016-04-14T09:34:58Z2016-04-14T09:34:58ZAre France’s #NuitDebout protests the start of a new political movement?<p>It’s a familiar script for anyone who knows recent French history: the government rolls out a reform, citizens react with outrage, and Paris is filled with demonstrations and strikes. </p>
<p>The current turmoil began in March, when President François Hollande proposed reworking the country’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/09/end-of-term-protests-threaten-francois-hollande-labour-legacy">labour code</a>. Known as the “El Khomri law” after the minister responsible, Myriam El Khomri, the reform shares some elements with earlier attempts – including providing companies with more flexibility in hiring and firing – but the results have been the same: widespread resistance.</p>
<p>This started with an <a href="https://www.change.org/p/loi-travail-non-merci-myriamelkhomri-loitravailnonmerci">online petition</a> that gathered more than a million signatures in two weeks, and has since shifted into the public realm. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/08/nuit-debout-protesters-occupy-french-cities-in-a-revolutionary-call-for-change">Thousands</a> of protestors have occupied the city’s Place de la République with all-night meetings and debates, and the protest is now known as “<em>Nuit Debout</em>” (roughly, “standing up all night”). </p>
<p>The ambition is to create a shared space that allows citizens to exchange stories, express shared outrage, and imagine a better world. Recently, the movement has spread beyond Paris to <a href="http://www.nicematin.com/index.php/politique/les-visages-de-la-contestation-du-mouvement-nuit-debout-a-nice-40449">Nice</a>, <a href="http://www.sudouest.fr/2016/04/11/le-pari-des-citoyens-noctambules-2327158-2780.php">Bordeaux</a> and <a href="https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/060416/lyon-une-nuit-debout-est-improvisee-sous-un-pont">Lyon</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"719976231891034112"}"></div></p>
<p>In early 2006, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/16/AR2006031601908.html">similar protests</a> broke out in France against a proposed “first-hire contract”. Students, unions and left-wing political parties united against the proposed contract, and after months of protests, then-prime minister Dominique de Villepin <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/85c031e6-c8f7-11da-b642-0000779e2340.html">abandoned the idea</a>.</p>
<p>In <em>Nuit Debout</em> key roles have been played by author, filmmaker and activist François Ruffin, whose film <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/arts/international/the-film-merci-patron-emerges-as-a-rallying-cry-in-france.html">Merci Patron!</a> has been a touchstone for the protesters, and economist Frédéric Lordon. There are echoes of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/19/occupy-wall-street-financial-system">Occupy Wall Street</a> and Spain’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/28/spain-indignados-protests-state-of-mind"><em>indignados</em></a> (“the outraged”). In Spain, the protest movement gave rise to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/31/podemos-revolution-radical-academics-changed-european-politics">political party Podemos</a>, which made significant gains in the December 2015 election and is now playing a key role in the negotiations to <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-a-reminder-that-spain-still-doesnt-have-a-government-55884">form a national government</a>.</p>
<p>And as the protests have grown in France, supporters have gone beyond the initial objective of forcing the withdrawal of the labour law, as happened in 2006, to the idea of launching a wider political movement.</p>
<h2>The law that started it all</h2>
<p>Of course, simple frustration isn’t enough to launch a mass mobilisation – a trigger is needed. The proposed labour reform allowed the protests to spread beyond the core group of <a href="https://theconversation.com/qui-sont-les-organisations-etudiantes-quel-est-leur-role-et-qui-representent-elles-56311">high-school students</a>, activists and labour unions, and to gain visibility in the mass media. The law also provided the framework for a regular series of demonstrations, allowing the movement to establish a cohesive form. As <a href="http://lexpansion.lexpress.fr/actualite-economique/frederic-lordon-l-economiste-qui-dit-merci-a-la-loi-el-khomri_1779193.html">Frédéric Lordon said</a> during the first <em>Nuit Debout</em> on March 31:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We will never be able to sufficiently thank the El Khomri law for having woken us from our political slumber.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What distinguishes social movements from mere protests is that they have a larger purpose, not one specific demand. From the first meetings of university and high school students on March 9, the El Khomri law served as an opportunity to express general indignation. In protest leaflets, students called for resistance “against government policy” rather than just this one bill. During marches, protesters expressed their disappointment with the political left in general and the ruling Socialist Party in particular.</p>
<h2>Standing up to the elites</h2>
<p>The students denounced the collusion between the country’s political and economic elites, much like the Occupy movements that swept the world in 2011. They joined many activists, intellectuals, and progressive politicians from the “left of the left”, a political movement that forced a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/16/french-prime-minister-vote-of-confidence-parliament">vote of confidence</a> against Prime Minister Manuel Valls in 2014.</p>
<p>The lack of viable political alternatives in France makes it a particularly favourable time to mobilise outrage and propose a more participatory democracy, centred around the people. French citizens no longer identify with national and European political elites. The system appears to them to be “democracy without choice”, where voting for either the left-wing Socialist Party or the right-wing Republicans barely changes the government’s social and economic policies.</p>
<p>Debates over finance minister Emmanuel Macron’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/business/france-labor-market-jobs-unemployment.html">economic programme</a> (passed only with a manoeuvre that sidestepped a parliamentary vote) only strengthened this conviction. As did the failed proposed constitutional amendment to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/30/francois-hollande-drops-plan-to-revoke-citizenship-of-dual-national-terrorists">strip French citizenship</a> from convicted terrorists with dual nationality.</p>
<p>With disappointment in the government widespread, and established leftist movements such as the Green Party and the <em>Front de Gauche</em> torn by internal dissent, the only option for progressive citizens has been to express disapproval and build “another policy” from the streets. In <em>Nuit Debout</em>, as in the Occupy camps, it has all been about “getting our act together as citizens” to question the relevance of representative democracy.</p>
<h2>A youth with no future?</h2>
<p>During the events on the Place de la République and on social networks (<em><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OnVautMieuxQueCa&src=typd">#OnVautMieuxQueCa</a></em>, <em><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NuitDebout?src=hash">#NuitDebout</a></em>, <em><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=loitravail&src=typd">#LoiTravail</a></em>, <em><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/32mars">#32mars</a></em>), young people express their fears of being “deprived of their future”.</p>
<p>If Occupy, the <em>indignados</em> and <em>Nuit Debout</em> aren’t specifically youth movements, young people are the driving force behind them. Through these demonstrations, they affirm and express themselves as individuals, as a force for democracy, willing to re-imagine the world. This all-encompassing desire can be seen embodied in a <a href="https://twitter.com/marillerpat/status/706267757965344768">single tweet</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We need to think of tomorrow’s society, with humanism, freedom, equality, fraternity.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Where next?</h2>
<p>So will <em>Nuit Debout</em> fizzle like Occupy or follow the same path as <em>Los Indignados</em>, which sparked political change in Spain? </p>
<p>While both movements refused to engage in the electoral process, some of their activists chose to do so. The campaigns of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/jeremy-corbyn">Jeremy Corbyn</a>, elected to the head of the British Labour Party in 2015, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/bernie-sanders">Bernie Sanders</a>, currently running against Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee for US president, have been empowered by young activists angry and frustrated with politics as usual. </p>
<p>The rise of the Podemos political party in Spain was both the continuation and inversion of the <em>indignados</em> movement: it showed that political change is possible, but only by moving from <a href="http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Espagne-de-l-indignation-a-l-organisation.html">indignation to organisation</a>. To do so, Pablo Iglesias, secretary-general of Podemos since 2014, betrayed certain core values of the <em>indignados</em>, including its leaderless structure and the requirement that decisions be made by the largest possible number of participants.</p>
<p>While <em>Nuit Debout</em> borrows some of the Spanish movement’s codes, the political situation in France and Europe is quite different from 2011, with the rise of far-right parties and security concerns. <em>Nuit Debout’s</em> centre on the Place de la République is where the huge public memorials were held after <em>Charlie Hebdo</em> and the November 13 attacks. Some politicians, including former prime minister and presidential candidate François Fillon, have criticised the movement as being a <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2016/04/10/francois-fillon-critique-le-mouvement-nuit-debout-tolere-en-plein-etat-d-urgence_4899572_823448.html">security risk</a>. </p>
<p>With France’s recently extended <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/22/france-considers-extending-national-state-of-emergency">state of emergency</a>, authorities haven’t just targeted potential terrorists. Muslims and young people are regularly brutalised by the police, and some student demonstrations have been <a href="http://www.liberation.fr/france/2016/04/05/un-policier-m-a-dit-que-ca-lui-faisait-plaisir-de-nous-matraquer_1444126">violently suppressed</a>.</p>
<p>The <em>Nuit Debout</em> movement in France will have to find its own way forward, building on both the successes and the limitations of its predecessors. Without predicting what its future may be, bringing together thousands of citizens of all generations to reaffirm that “another world is possible” – that there are progressive alternatives centred on democracy, social justice and dignity – is already a huge success.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Translated from the French by Leighton Walter Kille.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57706/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoffrey Pleyers is president of the "social movements" research committee of the International Association of Sociology.</span></em></p>Proposed labour reforms in France have sparked mass protests led by young people who want to reclaim democracy from the elite.Geoffrey Pleyers, Sociologue, FNRS-Université de Louvain & Collège d’études mondiales, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/551912016-03-24T11:56:27Z2016-03-24T11:56:27ZHow the legacies of the Tea Party and Occupy are shaping the 2016 race<p>As they continue to tear up their respective parties, <a href="https://theconversation.com/sanders-wins-new-hampshire-why-the-time-is-again-ripe-for-american-socialism-54317">Bernie Sanders</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-last-time-an-outsider-like-trump-crashed-the-gop-1940-55742">Donald Trump</a> are tapping into rich veins of “anti-establishment” fury. And while they’ve managed to create movements of a force not seen at the ballot box in years, they clearly owe a debt to the US’s two biggest protest movements of recent years: on the right, the Tea Party, and on the left, Occupy.</p>
<p>On the surface, it seems simple enough. Trump’s highly divisive campaign has amplified a <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2015/08/27/donald-trump-nativist-campaign-racists">nativist</a> strain that already ran strongly through the Tea Party; various observers see Sanders as an advocate for the supposed “<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/11/stephen-colbert-grills-bernie-sanders-isn-t-this-class-warfare.html">class warfare</a>” associated with Occupy.</p>
<p>But this rests on assumptions about the Tea Party and Occupy that aren’t completely accurate. In fact, both were far more internally diverse than was recognised at their peak – and it’s that quality that actually best resonates with what’s happening in the 2016 election.</p>
<p>While the Tea Party’s ranks certainly included a radical conservative majority, it also consisted of various elements held together by libertarians tolerant of a range of differing opinions. These Tea Partiers were open-minded about immigration, social issues, gay rights, and other issues, and they duly met with some hostility from the Tea Party’s more bellicose conservatives. Nonetheless, because of their shared disdain for government power and devotion to individual liberty, these libertarians became fellow travellers. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, while Occupy’s strong progressive or liberal majority generally dominated the considerable press coverage the group’s protests attracted, there was also a dissenting minority – an agglomeration of the radical left, left-libertarians, and anarchists who had a fundamentally different vision for the future of the country. Their views on inequality and the erosion of community chimed with the Occupy mainstream, but their positions on hierarchy, governmental power, and tactics differed significantly and caused friction.</p>
<p>Even though the Tea Party and Occupy spoke for a minority of the American population, the feelings of intense grievance and umbrage they expressed have permeated mainstream politics. There is now substantial division and discord within both parties, many of whose core constituencies are unwilling to compromise. </p>
<h2>Falling apart</h2>
<p>On the right, the friction between hardline conservatives and more libertarian types appears to have opened up a deep divide within the Republican Party, one that might be irreparable. </p>
<p>The Tea Party experience initially emboldened libertarians in their efforts to wield national political influence, and their renewed zeal for politicking drove Ron Paul’s explicitly libertarian 2012 campaign to far greater success than his 2008 run. But the Republican nomination responded by <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/29/chaos_on_the_convention_floor_as">changing the rules of the convention</a> to silence Paul and the corresponding delegates supporting him. </p>
<p>After that, many libertarians <a href="http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2016/02/ron-paul-liberty-minded-republicans-should-forget-about-gop-primaries-support-the-libertarian-party-instead/">swore an end</a> to their participation in the Republican Party. And the <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/rand-paul-dropping-out-of-white-house-race-218675">failure of Rand Paul’s 2016 campaign</a> indicates that whatever grip they had on the party’s thinking has slipped.</p>
<p>This libertarian collapse helps explain how candidates such as Donald Trump are frontrunners, even as they focus on social issues and authoritarian practices miles away from anything resembling a limited government philosophy. </p>
<p>The Democratic Party is witnessing a fragmentation as well, as Bernie Sanders lends a surprisingly strong voice to sections of American society that include the minority mentioned earlier in Occupy – even if he isn’t necessarily as hard a leftist as they might like. </p>
<p>Even Noam Chomsky, deeply sceptical of the possibility of a left-wing ascendancy in American politics, <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_noam_chomsky_bernie_sanders_is_not_a_socialist_new_dealer_20160217">has sympathetic words for Sanders</a>. It seems that after years on the margins, there’s a renewed desire among the radical left, the libertarian-left, and others to exert some real influence in mainstream electoral politics.</p>
<p>That the twin legacies of the Tea Party and Occupy have so disrupted the 2016 election spells deep change in American politics for years to come. The phenomenal performances of Sanders and Trump challenge the notion that American political culture is essentially bipolar, with coherent Republican and Democratic factions on either side, and indicate that the artificially bipolar makeup of American electoral politics need not necessarily be a given. </p>
<p>It would indeed seem that Americans are now following more in the steps of Thomas Jefferson, who stated: “I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am a member of the Democratic Party, but not an active volunteer.</span></em></p>The two biggest American protest groups of the millennium have long passed their peak – but their effects linger on.Alfred Cardone, PhD Candidate, Institute of North American Studies, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/527992016-01-11T14:46:04Z2016-01-11T14:46:04ZCould online ‘slacktivists’ actually help Making a Murderer’s Steven Avery?<p>After watching the new Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer, huge numbers of viewers have taken to social media to express outrage and advocate for the release of Steven Avery, the subject of the 10-episode series.</p>
<p>The hashtags #FreeStevenAvery and #stevenaveryisinnocent have been trending on Twitter. Meanwhile, thousands have signed Change.org and White House petitions demanding that President Obama pardon Avery, who, in 2007, was convicted of murder in Wisconsin. (The White House <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2016/01/08/making-a-murderer-netflix-steven-avery-brendan-dassey-white-house-petition-response/78498716/">responded</a> that the president can pardon only prisoners convicted of a federal offense.) </p>
<p>These people aren’t knocking on doors or holding rallies outside the Wisconsin State House. Nonetheless, they <em>are</em> making noise. While the White House has claimed that its hands are tied, could these social media activists (sometimes derided as “slacktivists”) end up making a difference? </p>
<p>In an article recently published in <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143611">PlosOne</a>, my coauthors and I analyzed the effect of this type of online activism – the way it interacts with other online media, and how online networks work to amplify the activists’ message. </p>
<h2>The changing nature of protests</h2>
<p>In the past, political activism was largely hamstrung by poor communication technology. On July 14, 1789, when a group of Parisians stormed the Bastille, news of the event could travel only as fast as the messengers carrying them.</p>
<p>Today, digital technologies overflow, in real time, with information about what people are doing around the planet. We’ve grown so used to technology playing a role in political action that it’s difficult to imagine how events must have unfolded in a world devoid of social media. If Stanislas-Marie Maillard, one of the leaders of the attack on the Bastille, had carried a smartphone, surely he would have tweeted a picture of the crowd rushing into the fortress – perhaps even a selfie. </p>
<p>We’ll never know if it would have made any difference for 18th-century revolutionaries to have had access to the digital networks that we now monitor idly from the palm of our hands. But we <em>do</em> <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7415/full/nature11421.html">know</a> that networked technologies are making a difference today for activists and political mobilization. </p>
<p>However, for years, many dismissed social media as an engine for social change. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell">Some claimed</a> that online networks were unable to stir political action to the same degree as traditional, face-to-face interactions. Others have argued that social networks encourage a sort of <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/09/05/from-slacktivism-to-activism/">feel-good activism</a> – signing an ePetition, joining Facebook groups or changing a profile picture – that suggests little true commitment to a political cause, and causes almost no larger impact.</p>
<p>What these accounts failed to acknowledge is that online networks help build a different kind of political identity, more liquid in its manifestation, less constrained by physical proximity. And, most crucially, online networks help raise awareness with unprecedented speed. During the first hours of the Ferguson demonstrations, for instance, journalists learned about the events <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/business/media/view-of-ferguson-thrust-michael-brown-shooting-to-national-attention.html">through their Twitter feeds</a>, not from their own news organizations. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, in this digital era, the term “slacktivism” has become a common figure of speech to talk about lightweight political engagement. It’s used to paint those who trivially like or retweet content in a negative light. </p>
<p>While it’s a bit of an oxymoron to talk about activists and slackers as the same people, it’s true that many people only make shallow contributions to a political cause – changing their profile pictures, sharing a post or using a trending hashtag. </p>
<p>And yet these actions sometimes escalate to the point of shaping the news agenda and directing attention to previously ignored political issues. The 2011 Occupy movement in the U.S., the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey, the 2014 umbrella revolution in Hong Kong – all serve as examples of how digital technology can amplify political action. </p>
<p>Why does this happen?</p>
<p>Here’s one way to think of it: like a piano, the volume of information that travels through networks responds to the speed with which we hit the keys. Online, there are many hands pressing the keys which – to continue with the metaphor – help speed up the hammer and make the sound of the notes reverberate and come out louder. </p>
<p>This is the moment when a hashtag becomes a trending topic, and public attention is directed to a new cause. </p>
<h2>The critical periphery</h2>
<p>It’s crucial to understand how so many hands converge to the same tune, and here is where networks become more than a convenient shorthand for everything digital: they offer a tool to understand how something small (an incipient protest, a political claim, a new hashtag) becomes big in a matter of days, if not hours.</p>
<p><a href="https://sites.google.com/a/binghamton.edu/netscied/teaching-learning/network-concepts">Research tells us</a> that networks are very different in how they look and operate. We could argue that, like people, they share a basic DNA; but the manifestations are as varied as the personalities of your fellow humans. Some networks are more conducive to chain reactions than others; others are more likely to limit the flow of information among small groups of people. And both types of networks can emerge online, depending on how we use social media.</p>
<p>So to understand the role slacktivists play in political action, we have to understand how they integrate within the social media networks – and how this influences the conduits through which a movement can mobilize resources and build up visibility. </p>
<p>This is what my coauthors and I did in a <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143611">recent paper</a>. We analyzed the online activity connected to certain political events, including the Gezi Park protests in Turkey. We reconstructed the network of retweets to map the flow of information, and we identified the users that were on the streets using geolocation tags. These users were at the core of the information network. </p>
<p>We found that the vast majority of people using protest hashtags were only peripherally involved in the process of building up momentum. These users engaged only occasionally with the messages, photos and videos posted from the ground. They retweeted this content every now and then but, on an individual basis, produced very little new information. </p>
<p>Collectively, however, they were a force: these users formed what we call the <em>critical periphery</em>, and they played a crucial role in amplifying the message of the core protesters. As a unit, peripheral users were the many hands that made the piano strings vibrate faster – increasing the volume and making the movement’s voice grow louder. </p>
<p>So is slacktivism worth it? At the time, the taking of the Bastille didn’t seem to matter much: there were only seven prisoners deprived of their freedom behind those walls. However, today we look at that event as one of the defining moments of Western history, especially for what it now represents in people’s imagination. </p>
<p>Likewise, it would be wrong to dismiss the impact of social networks. Through social media, people can challenge old hierarchies, deciding when and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12185/abstract">how</a> they convey their message. The documentary Making a Murderer introduced many people to Steven Avery’s case for the first time, but it’s been the viewers who have taken to social media who are making sure the story doesn’t end with the series’ credits. </p>
<p>And perhaps their collective voice will resonate to the point that Wisconsin’s political and judicial leadership will no longer be able to ignore it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra González-Bailón does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new paper details how armchair activists – put together – can be a force.Sandra González-Bailón, Assistant Professor of Communication, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/511382015-11-27T04:37:51Z2015-11-27T04:37:51ZStudent protesters must move beyond hashtags to real change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102812/original/image-20151123-18261-1sege1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">University of Johannesburg students summarise their goal in a hashtag. The question is, what happens next?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Protest movements are manifestos of a sort. Like manifestos, both political and aesthetic, they usually aim to create the support they need by seeking to identify a wrong, then proposing a way of righting it.</p>
<p>The best and most durable manifestos seek to provide an explanatory framework that brings the wrong in question into sharp focus. The manifesto draws on the resources of history and theory to promise an increased capacity for human agency and control over - or at least positive intervention in - the existing state of things.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/marx-publishes-manifesto">Communist Manifesto</a> of Marx and Engels was written in 1848. It came with the promise that understanding the world through its analyses would help to bring change. Despite its strong analysis, the manifesto had absolutely no immediate impact. But the depth of its thinking and its important reframing of social and economic understanding slowly converted into a long-term influence that makes it, today, the world’s most famous political manifesto.</p>
<p>South Africa in 2015 saw triumph for the hashtag; success for the slogan. University students won important gains in what became known as the #FeesMustFall movement. Now, in the aftermath of their immediate success, it may be a good moment to recognise some of the movement’s limits. Is there a danger that what the protest-manifesto gains in speed and reach through its use of a hashtag, it may lose in depth?</p>
<h2>A new era of protest</h2>
<p>The advent of social and digital media in the past decade or so has meant an extraordinary increase in both the speed and the reach of the protest –manifesto. From Tunisia, across the varied mass demonstrations of the Arab Spring, to the gatherings of los Indignadas in Spain and the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA, the social media dissemination of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-media-can-bring-down-politicians-but-can-it-also-make-politics-better-46705"># protest</a> has helped bring otherwise isolated people together in the occupation of public spaces. It has given them the courage to stand up to often harshly repressive governments.</p>
<p>Above all, the extraordinary speed and reach of a #slogan like #FeesMustFall relies on the #’s semiotic power to successfully condense a variety of issues around a single rallying point. South Africa’s universities are the latest to experience this power first hand.</p>
<p>It was a fight against fee increases that launched the protests. The issue of fees condenses all the problems that arise from the central contradiction running through the higher education system since 1994. This is the simultaneous growth and shrinkage of the system as a whole. It refers primarily to the question of state funding and support for a transforming system.</p>
<p>There has been a massive and welcome growth in student numbers since 1994. Simultaneously, the government has significantly lowered its financial contribution to universities. State support <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Reports%20Doc%20Library/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20on%20the%20review%20of%20the%20National%20Student%20Financial%20Aid%20Scheme.pdflink?">declined by around 20%</a> in the years between 1996 and 2008. The country’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa chaired a committee in 2013 that <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/SiteAssets/Latest%20News/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20for%20the%20Review%20of%20the%20Funding%20of%20Universities.pdf">recommended</a> significant increases in funding. The report found that these were essential to the maintenance - never mind the further growth - of the system.</p>
<h2>Problems are far deeper</h2>
<p>The rise in tertiary fees that mobilised students is just one symptom of the systemic stress produced by this central contradiction. Addressing it alone is unlikely to be of much help to the fragile ecology of the system as a whole, not to the lives and learning experiences of the students in it.</p>
<p>The strains in the ecology of the higher education system are there for all to see. Lecture halls and seminar rooms, designed to meet the needs of the highly restricted elite system of higher education during apartheid, are too small for the numbers proper to a system of mass education. Libraries at even the wealthiest institutions are not keeping up with scholarly and student demand. Academic staff are stretched thinner and thinner as teaching, administrative and research duties increase in line with the demands of global templates and rankings.</p>
<p>At the same time, anger over fees is surely at least partly generated by the second decisive fact or feature of the post-apartheid higher education system: its extremely poor ‘throughput’ ratio. This is the rate at which students entering university complete their degrees and graduate.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Reports%20Doc%20Library/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Committee%20on%20the%20review%20of%20the%20National%20Student%20Financial%20Aid%20Scheme.pdflink?">Up to 40%</a> of a student loan can be converted into a student grant on successful completion of each year’s work. But 55% of students are likely to <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf">not complete</a> their degrees, so the issue of fees is always at the same time an issue of teaching.</p>
<p>Again, the key feature here is the transformation of the higher education landscape. In 1994 it was an elite system that catered to only <a href="http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198716082.001.0001/acprof-9780198716082-chapter-7">around 12%</a> of the population. Today it’s a system of mass participation, aimed at providing for 30% in <a href="http://www.researchictafrica.net/home_archive_reader.php?aid=131">the next decade</a>.</p>
<p>As the Curriculum Reform Report of 2013 argued, the system as a whole needs re-gearing, with concerted attention being paid to the content and progression of undergraduate studies. It <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf">called</a> for three year programmes of undergraduate study to be lengthened to four years.</p>
<p>Calls for curriculum change have been largely in terms of content. It may be that the real problem for students is that of teaching form, and the need for sustained critical reflection on the progressive structure of teaching in and across all degrees to meet the needs and help to realise the potential of the new mass student body.</p>
<h2>From manifesto to change</h2>
<p>It is only by systematic analytic attention to these material contradictions in the higher education system as a whole that the causes of alienation experienced by so many students are likely to be understood and addressed. Without this kind of attention - the manifesto element in the protest-manifesto - we may well end up with only providing imaginary solutions to real problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Higgins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Student protests in South Africa saw triumph for the hashtag and success for the slogan. What lies beyond this as students push for genuine change in universities?John Higgins, Arderne Chair of Literature, with interests in higher education as well as topics in literary, cultural and political studies, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473782015-09-11T05:33:36Z2015-09-11T05:33:36ZCorbyn cometh: has 21st-century UK protest politics just fully bloomed?<p>The unthinkable has happened. Jeremy Corbyn <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/sep/12/labour-announces-leadership-election-result-with-corbyn-tipped-to-win-politics-live">has won</a> the Labour leadership election by a landslide, easily taking more than the other three candidates put together. With a huge groundswell of support from the several hundred thousand people who have joined the party since the last election, the radical democratic socialist has snatched Labour from under the noses of the establishment. </p>
<p>It comes at a time when the UK <a href="http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Audit-of-Political-Engagement-11-2014.pdf">has never been</a> more disillusioned with mainstream politics. The major parties are viewed as too similar, made up of representatives who are far-removed from the experiences of ordinary people – step forward Corbyn’s rival leadership contenders. What we are not used to is these perceptions affecting political participation. The way in which we used to register our discontent was by passively rejecting party politics. <a href="http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781317524328_sample_1076582.pdf">Only around</a> 1% of the electorate are members of a political party, compared to nearly 4% in 1983 <a href="http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN05125">for example</a>. </p>
<p>Corbynmania may be challenging this trend, however. In an extraordinary period in the history of the Labour party, an avowedly left-wing candidate has generated a level of support and enthusiasm that <a href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/1447-ruling-the-void">we don’t tend to associate</a> with modern UK politics, or indeed with established democracies. The full implications of these events are as yet unclear but they may have sparked an appetite for a more participatory model of politics in this country. </p>
<p>At the end of 2014, Labour membership <a href="http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781317524328_sample_1076582.pdf">stood at</a> 193,000, having not exceeded 250,000 since 2000. Then came <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/01/how-labours-proposed-new-leadership-election-system-would-work">Ed Miliband’s changes</a> to the party rules for leadership contests, aimed at extending democratic engagement. These created a selectorate of three groups – members, supporters and trade union affiliates. </p>
<p>Supporters and full members <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/26/labour-leadership-election-party-to-check-voting-history-of-new-supporters">have come</a> to the party in large numbers, generating substantial fees in the process. Of the 554,000 eligible to vote in the current election – which is after the party’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/20/labour-leadership-election-rejected-supporters-express-their-anger">weeding out</a> of illegitimate sign-ups – 293,000 are full members (fees vary, but can be £50), 113,000 are supporters (fees £3), and the remaining 148,000 are trade union affiliates. While Corbyn has been most popular among the union sign-ups, <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/10/corbyn-pull-ahead/">he has</a> enjoyed widespread support among all three groups. </p>
<p>On the face of it, participation in UK politics has obviously been enhanced by the Labour leadership campaign – albeit perhaps in a shallow form given it was possible to sign up for the price of a latte. The real test of engagement will be whether these £3 supporters remain involved. Harriet Harman <a href="http://www.sunnation.co.uk/5-things-we-learned-from-harriet-harmans-andrew-marr-interview/">has suggested</a> this group will naturally convert to full membership to influence policy, but these are probably false hopes.</p>
<h2>People power</h2>
<p>The Corbyn surge may also have wider implications. The swell of enthusiasm for this radical candidate involves rejecting right-wing austerity economics, inequality and elitism, and it has the feel of a mass movement. Clearly the UK is not immune to forces that have already been evident in <a href="http://revolting-europe.com">European</a> and <a href="http://occupywallst.org">US politics</a>. The Corbyn message has appeared authentic, sincere and consistent, not labels commonly attached to politicians. </p>
<p>Perhaps even more important has been its sense of hope and optimism, reminiscent of the <a href="http://www.yesscotland.net/thankyou.html">Yes campaign</a> in the Scottish independence referendum. A positive vision can be inspiring, particularly at a time when many citizens in the UK and elsewhere are desperate for some good political news. Corbyn recognises that popular trust in politics is critical and requires nurturing. This is why he advocates a Labour party built on genuine input from the grassroots. </p>
<p>Corbyn’s campaign has taken the shape of a traditional style of politics, namely the political meeting. He has addressed more than 100 meetings and rallies, with many spillover talks and many people turned away – further echoes of the Scottish Yes campaign – and this has combined with a modern, professional and energetic online campaign. </p>
<p>What we are observing in Labour politics might even have been inspired by events north of the border. Remember that Yes backers the <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/boost-for-snp-as-membership-hits-100-000-mark-1-3725308">SNP</a> and <a href="http://www.scottishgreens.org.uk/news/membership-surge-sets-up-strong-scottish-green-mp-campaign/">Scottish Greens</a> both experienced a dramatic increase in membership following the referendum. There <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/11600345/Why-are-so-many-people-joining-the-Liberal-Democrats.html">was even</a> a rise in membership of the heavily defeated Liberal Democrats following the general election. Note the break from the past here: until recently, membership increases were associated with election success, not failure.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94411/original/image-20150910-27309-amqzco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Scotland’s latest export?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&searchterm=Yes%20Scotland&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=205896952">EQRoy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A new politics?</h2>
<p>Put this all together and it begins to look like we may be entering a new age of protest politics, born of deep disillusionment with the political mainstream. Voters on the centre-left may be persuaded that a viable alternative exists and politicians who can articulate this alternative might inspire a new generation – in a reversal of the <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Right">politics that ended</a> the social-democratic consensus of the 1970s. </p>
<p>Then again, we must bear in mind that the politics of party membership is unrepresentative of the electorate at large. What wins an internal party debate is unlikely to win a general election. Conventional wisdom suggests this will be protest to no end. That won’t stop the Corbynistas hoping that this is the beginning of a reshaping of the ideological debate in UK politics – and perhaps even a new model of democratic politics. But for them to be right we’ll still need to see the sort of sea change that has not happened in this country for a very long time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynn Bennie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the Labour Left’s fourth choice of candidate prepares to take the party reins, he may have taken the lead from Scotland’s Yes campaign and ushered in a new age in UK politics.Lynn Bennie, Reader in Politics, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/351012014-12-09T00:54:03Z2014-12-09T00:54:03ZUmbrella Man: a unique threat to China or symbol of wider change?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66499/original/image-20141208-20647-12ed44i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amid clouds of teargas, the Hong Kong 'Umbrella Man' defies police attempts to end the protest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/studiokanu/15468365175">Wikimedia Commons/Pasu Au Yeung</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The haunting image of a masked protester defiantly hoisting two black umbrellas amid a cloud of tear gas flickered across global social media platforms in the seconds and minutes after the Umbrella uprising began. In real time, the image became an iconic meme of the events taking place in Hong Kong. The “Umbrella Man” immediately drew comparisons in western media with another image from an earlier uprising – that of Beijing’s “Tank Man”.</p>
<p>Seen around the world in the days and weeks after the Tiananmen Square <a href="https://theconversation.com/tiananmen-square-is-being-cleansed-with-blood-horror-of-that-night-lives-on-after-25-years-27552">protests and massacre</a>, that photo is still a symbol of defiance in the face of undemocratic power 25 years on. In the weeks since the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/tracing-the-history-of-hong-kongs-umbrella-movement/5848312">Umbrella Uprising</a> began, attempts have been made to connect the events in Hong Kong to those of Tiananmen Square in 1989.</p>
<p>Yet this comparison must be considered outdated. In the past 25 years, China and the world – their political and economic structures, communication flows and notions of territorial sovereignty – have been altered by globalisation, media and an increasingly dense labyrinth of transnational corporations.</p>
<figure>
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<p>The near-instantaneous adoption of the umbrella as a viral symbol of the protests illustrates the new global communication space the movement is taking place in. As a result, we must view the uprising in the cross-border context of other recent protest movements, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement">Occupy</a>, that have erupted around the world. </p>
<p>Since the 1970s, democratic countries have often viewed China as a monolithic entity with a security apparatus capable of enforcing strict control on its citizens. Scholars like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minxin_Pei">Minxin Pei</a> have bolstered this idea, <a href="http://www.docstoc.com/docs/154635550/Is-CCP-Rule-Fragile-or-Resilient">arguing that</a> regimes like China maintain their control because they are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… ready, willing and able to use the coercive power necessary to suppress any societal challenge. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, we should question such standard assumptions. Instead, as John Keane <a href="https://theconversation.com/carnival-china-29448">puts it</a>, contemporary China should be seen as “a cauldron of contradictions, a kaleidoscope of confusing and conflicting trends”. </p>
<p>China faces growing challenges, such as a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-14/china-new-credit-growth-misses-economists-estimates-on-slowdown.html">slowing economy</a>, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-12-03/transparency-international-socks-china-for-corruption">corruption scandals</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-diplomatic-fallout-from-flight-mh370-reveals-a-region-on-edge-24831">poor relations</a> with other regional players and unrest in outlying areas such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-chinas-censors-dont-want-you-to-read-about-the-uyghurs-32383">Xinjiang</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/self-immolation-and-human-rights-why-we-need-to-talk-about-tibet-13092">Tibet</a>. As a result, China is more fragmented than it appears on the outside.</p>
<p>The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), still basing its conception of power on traditional notions of state and territorial sovereignty, may be at a critical juncture in its history. It is thus uniquely vulnerable to movements such as this. </p>
<p>Why? Because the top-down, cumbersome political structure of the party is no match for an uprising marked by agility, global roots and, crucially, a powerful mediatised resonance.</p>
<h2>Finding ways to exploit the cracks in power</h2>
<p>At this point it is useful to ask if the transnational context of this movement constitutes a game-changing challenge to the CCP as it seeks to quash domestic claims for democracy.</p>
<p>The distinctive characteristics of the Umbrella movement ought not be overlooked. It is the first open challenge to the Communist Party from a globalised and networked citizenry. This citizenry also continues to resist Chinese identity – surveys indicate repeatedly that they <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-hong-kong-chinas-future-33966">identify themselves</a> as Hong Kong people, not Chinese.</p>
<p>Remarkably, the uprising has stayed open and relatively leaderless, not allowing for any grappling for power. Its transnational quality – Hong Kong has a large international diaspora – supersedes older conceptions of the nation-state. Protesters are not aiming to topple the state. </p>
<p>Hong Kong’s status as a global financial centre has also ensured an unusually attentive and invested international media audience.</p>
<p>The uprising has been marked by its meshed quality as it relies heavily on savvy use of social media platforms and mobile phones to spread information, organise and circumvent the authorities. China, ever fearful of a colour revolution or Arab Spring-style uprising, has made great efforts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-canopy-of-deadening-silence-the-beijing-media-assault-on-hong-kong-citizens-32543">suppress information</a> “bleed” to the mainland. Recent party rhetoric has openly pointed to foreign “external forces” as the source of the discontent. </p>
<p>Yet, in a heavily mediatised age, attempts to curtail such democratic aspirations have the potential for a ripple effect across the nation.</p>
<p>So what are the implications? Can we see Hong Kong’s uprising as a surprising eruption with the potential to transform a China facing numerous domestic political threats? While the movement has temporarily upset the political order, it remains to be seen if things will restabilise to existing norms or if unseen democratic possibilities will emerge.</p>
<p>As we watch events unfold, I am reminded of the political activist David Graeber’s <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=NjRxSBP0JqYC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=Power+is+not+completely+monolithic:+there+are+always+temporary+cracks+and+fissures&source=bl&ots=hUFWeEeQZJ&sig=NiILcs8oojNDgBAhQrY9yJupqqA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OvuEVMvmBISL8QWv1YCYAw&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Power%20is%20not%20completely%20monolithic%3A%20there%20are%20always%20temporary%20cracks%20and%20fissures&f=false">words</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Power is not completely monolithic: there are always temporary cracks and fissures, ephemeral spaces in which self-organised communities can and do continually emerge like eruptions.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephenie Andal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The haunting image of a masked protester defiantly hoisting two black umbrellas amid a cloud of tear gas flickered across global social media platforms in the seconds and minutes after the Umbrella uprising…Stephenie Andal, PhD Candidate in Government & International Relations, Sydney Democracy Network, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/350582014-12-04T19:51:30Z2014-12-04T19:51:30ZEric Garner, the ‘American problem’ and a chance to unite<p>Police violence has dominated American headlines over the past year. The seemingly unaccounted-for police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson brought renewed attention and public protests to this issue; now, the decision <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/03/eric-garner-grand-jury-declines-indict-nypd-chokehold-death">not to charge</a> officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner, even after he was caught on video illegally restraining him with a chokehold, has only added to these rising concerns over apparently unaccountable use of force by police officers across the country, particularly against African-Americans.</p>
<p>In the months since Garner’s death, authorities had feared unrest on the same scale as in Ferguson, or even worse. These worries were especially acute in light of <a href="http://time.com/3615660/chokehold-eric-garner-daniel-pantaleo-nypd/">video footage</a> showing the officer putting the victim in an illicit chokehold while he repeatedly gasped: “I can’t breathe.” </p>
<p>This evidence was even more damning given the <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/01/337177619/nyc-man-s-chokehold-death-was-a-homicide-medical-examiner-says">coroner’s report</a> that the death was a homicide caused “by the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police”.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, this violence has been largely linked to the persistence of racism in the US. The American news cycle has been tightly focused on the country’s racial divisions, the threat of race riots and the stark disparity in the way the white majority and the African-American minority are treated. </p>
<p>But tragic and racially charged though these incidents have been, they are also a golden opportunity to unite Americans behind the cause of fundamental social change – a cause that encompasses racism, but goes further too. And while no such movement is yet in the offing, the seeds of one are already starting to sprout.</p>
<h2>Black lives matter</h2>
<p>The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, quickly responded to Pantaleo’s non-indictment with <a href="http://nypost.com/2014/12/03/cop-cleared-in-eric-garner-chokehold-death/">appeals for non-violent protests</a>, declaring: “New York City owns a proud and powerful tradition of expressing ourselves through non-violent protest. We trust that those unhappy with today’s grand jury decision will make their views known in the same peaceful, constructive way.”</p>
<p>While the moderating impulse is understandable, sentiments such as these do little more than focus attention on the “threat” of “violent” blacks rather than the actual aggression and violence of the white police officers responsible for Garner’s death. </p>
<p>But de Blasio also managed to advance things a little, bluntly and honestly <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/03/368249828/reports-nyc-grand-jury-does-not-indict-officer-in-chokehold-case?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=202603">acknowledging</a> that “centuries of racism that have brought us to this day”. That spoke to the deeper anger driving these protests, reflected in the protesters’ rallying cry: “Black lives matter”.</p>
<p>At the heart of these words and the protests they addressed was a desire to unite the country in condemning the status quo. The emphasis was on “healing” a divided nation, while also recognising the serious need for reform at all levels of the state. As the US president, Barack Obama, <a href="http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/the-death-of-eric-garner-the-grand-jury-decision/?_r=0">said in response</a>: “We are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust and a strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement.”</p>
<p>But crucial to the success of those efforts will be realising that this is not just a racial problem – it is a problem with authority in the US in general.</p>
<h2>Fight the system</h2>
<p>Undeniably, African Americans are <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/14/police-killings-data/14060357/?AID=10709313&PID=4003003&SID=1qmlggfjl3g52">disproportionately affected</a> by police violence – but it also affects people of all races. Within months of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of the Ferguson police, there were two less publicised cases of excessive police violence against white suspects in the surrounding area: Joseph Jennings, who <a href="http://www.kctv5.com/story/26355241/ottawa-police-involved-in-shooting">was shot 16 times</a> outside a Kansas hardware store, and 17-year-old Bryce Masters, who <a href="http://fox4kc.com/2014/09/17/search-warrants-shed-light-on-taser-incident-that-hospitalized-bryce-masters/">ended up in a coma</a> after a police officer tasered him when he refused to roll down his window after being stopped.</p>
<p>Obama echoed this need to both recognise the racial dynamic driving much of this violence while also the importance of treating it as a national not just “black” or “minority” crisis. He <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/25/obama-ferguson-protests-immigration-speech/70111056/">maintained</a>: “The problem is not just a Ferguson problem. It’s an American problem.”</p>
<p>In order to address the problem, we have to confront its deeper causes, ones that certainly involve but are by no means limited to the country’s ongoing structural racism. Rising inequality and poverty, especially in the wake of the financial crisis, have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arzu-kaya-uranli/the-problem-is-not-just-a_b_6233104.html?utm_hp_ref=police-brutality">done much to contribute to police brutality</a>. These economic factors have been exacerbated by the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746">growing domination of US politics by elites</a>.</p>
<p>Framing police violence as principally a “black problem” reinforces the underlying notion that African-Americans are somehow separate from other Americans and that authoritarian crackdowns on them are reactive, not active. This plays into an established tactic of <a href="http://peoplestribune.org/pt-news/2014/11/poverty-police-violence-spare-none/">strategically highlighting racial divisions</a> within the country to distract attention from other issues such as class polarisation and oligarchy. </p>
<p>Ultimately, this is a way to freeze out solidarity across race, geography and even class, leaving Americans with an identity politics of distrust and conflict.</p>
<p>This strategy is part of the culture of fear that has driven much of the US government’s policy for decades. From the War on Drugs to the War on Terror, chronic and growing issues of unemployment, economic insecurity and declining social welfare are channelled into anger and action against existential “enemies” – most of whom are non-white, or in some way portrayed as less than “American”.</p>
<p>These policy “wars” have been mounted in the service of a growing authoritarianism in contemporary America. The militarisation of the police force, for instance, reflects the government’s need to neutralise urban areas marked by often extreme poverty and violence. Instead of an attack on the <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/155801/city-ruins">economic and social causes of ghettoisation and urban blight</a>, we’ve seen a move away from “<a href="http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e030917193-CP-Defined.pdf">community policing</a>” toward what has been called: “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/izak-pratt/the-united-police-states-of-america_b_6226452.html?utm_hp_ref=police-brutality">The United Police States of America</a>”.</p>
<p>To overcome this strategy, then, it must be tackled as more than just a programme of racism. What must be emphasised is the authoritarianism and deeper shared disenfranchisement that motivates the state violence we see today – a tendency that certainly includes structural racism, but which is by no means limited to it.</p>
<p>In the words Obama used when responding to the Eric Garner case, it must be framed as an “American problem”.</p>
<h2>Unite against authoritarianism</h2>
<p>The foundations for such a movement are well established and span the political spectrum. On the right, anti-authoritarian feelings have spurred the Tea Party movement to unprecedented, if chaotic, success. While Tea Partiers are primarily up in arms about public intervention in the private sector, their politics speak to an underlying fear of unaccountable state power and mass political marginalisation. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, on the left, the Occupy movement has been railing against the growing influence of corporations and their political handmaidens since 2011; an <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/10/04/occupy-wall-street-is-a-populist-movement-the-t/182601">anti-elite politics</a> that appeals to many of the same Americans outraged at the surveillance policies of the NSA. The authoritarianism of the police response to the Occupy protests drew unforgiving attention to just how defensive US police forces can become when power is confronted.</p>
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<p>Unpunished incidents of police violence should be a catalyst for uniting Americans in a common cause against authoritarianism. In the US, the odds are stacked against most of the general public in favour of a privileged minority – and police forces are seen to ultimately serve to protect this unfair system more than they safeguard citizens.</p>
<p>What is needed is a vision of constructive change, one focused not simply on individual justice but on collective national progress. That means going beyond simply blaming law enforcement officials and instead indicting the system as a whole. </p>
<p>The fight against police violence should unite Americans, not divide them. Before the country can heal, it first needs to come together to cure itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Police violence has dominated American headlines over the past year. The seemingly unaccounted-for police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson brought renewed attention and public protests…Peter Bloom, Lecturer in Organisation Studies, Department of People and Organisation, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/345122014-11-25T10:15:25Z2014-11-25T10:15:25ZBeyond left and right: revelations from the Common Core debate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65247/original/image-20141123-1049-456319.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New Jersey high school students</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/33193739@N06/3094838806/">j.sanna</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A paradoxical situation seems to confront today’s political scene and the choices it generates. </p>
<p>On the one hand, the market and its particular logic have come to dominate more and more human affairs. Even after the Great Recession and the documented failures of this logic, we continue to be told of the need to bring a market rationality to solve a host of public problems – from the “crises” in public education to the efficient delivery of mail. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the state – the occasional counterbalance to market swings and excesses – has become more business-oriented itself. Today’s state is attempting to rationalize, audit and assess all public expenditures and “nudge” people toward particular types of market appropriate behavior. This can be seen in attempts to offload more of the cost of a university education in order to reduce tax burdens,create efficiencies and make students more responsible and risk-aware. </p>
<p>The upshot is that the tension between market and state that once was more overt seems now to have dissolved. The boundaries between the two at times seem indeterminate.</p>
<p>This paradoxical state of contemporary politics can be observed in the current debate over the <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/">Common Core</a>and standardized testing. </p>
<h2>An emblematic debate over Common Core</h2>
<p>Common Core has been readily condemned on both sides of the political spectrum. </p>
<p>On the one hand, there are individuals such as academic Diane Ravitch and schoolteacher Mercedes Schneider, and organizations like the National Education Association and the Chicago Teachers’ Union. They deplore the testing mania, the push to privatization, and the excessive influence of venture philanthropies such as the Gates and Walton Foundations on education policy as well as the loss of teacher autonomy they believe Common Core generates. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum are people such as Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, TV host Glen Beck and Senator Rand Paul and groups like FreedomWorks and the libertarian Cato Institute. They condemn Common Core as a power grab by the federal government. They see it as a part of the government’s efforts to further nationalize education and indoctrinate children. </p>
<p>Adding to this Common Core confusion is a great motley mixture of supporters, ranging from Jeb Bush, the Business Roundtable and Conservatives for Higher Standards to former DC Schools Chancellor Michele Rhee, the National Governors Association, the Southern Poverty Law Center and, somewhat tentatively and timidly, the American Federation of Teachers.</p>
<p>What, then, does Common Core’s reconfiguration of the usual right and left political positioning signal about the state of contemporary politics in the US? </p>
<h2>Beyond left and right</h2>
<p>Explaining these unlikely alliances and divisions over education policy requires a very different understanding from the usual liberal versus conservative framework that has come to dominate our thinking on political matters in the US. </p>
<p>For the last few decades a new political model has been unfolding in various places around the world, one that brings together an activist, pro-market state that has intensified its monitoring of public agencies with a less regulated and more expansive market. Or, put it another way, what we are seeing emerge is a highly regulated public realm coupled with a highly deregulated private realm. </p>
<p>In this new configuration we encounter what I would call a “worst of both worlds situation.” Markets expand into what was previously the public domain and go largely unchecked in order to stimulate the never ending pursuit of growth and accumulation. Meanwhile, thanks to <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Eachaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Public_choice_theory.html">public choice theory</a> (which gives material interest priority) and new forms of public management in institutions like schools, the public sector – and the people in it such as teachers or government workers – are no longer trusted by governments. As a result, they are increasingly monitored and managed from above instead of from within their own professional ranks. </p>
<p>It is in this newly created political space that the strange politics of Common Core are currently playing out.</p>
<h2>Strange bedfellows</h2>
<p>In the resistance to Common Core we are seeing the emergence of a style of politics that links libertarians who fear the increased intrusion of the state with the anti-corporatist activists who fear the growing dominance of the market. </p>
<p>Interestingly, this is similar to the situation that emerged in the 1930s that resulted in political coalitions between those Americans who feared the intrusions of state-centered socialism like Nazism and Soviet Communism and those who protested the the growing economic inequality that resulted in the Great Depression. These coalitions were ultimately responsible for launching the social liberalism that came to dominate American politics for almost fifty years. </p>
<p>More recently such a political take can be found in Ralph Nader’s new book Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State and his rather astonishing appearance over the summer at the Cato Institute. </p>
<p>The debate over Common Core reveals, to my mind, that the Occupy Movement and Tea Party both have valid points to make in their critiques of contemporary political scene. In America democratic participation has been usurped. Power today has become centralized in the hands of both the market and state. Politically speaking, it is simply a matter of which centralizing power one focuses on in a given moment. </p>
<p>The political story of Common Core is dramatic proof that the real problem is both.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34512/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven C. Ward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A paradoxical situation seems to confront today’s political scene and the choices it generates. On the one hand, the market and its particular logic have come to dominate more and more human affairs. Even…Steven C. Ward, Professor of Sociology , Western Connecticut State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/326562014-10-09T05:07:22Z2014-10-09T05:07:22ZHong Kong protesters have sights set on global problems<p>Complaints about the supposed political apathy of todays’ students are not uncommon among middle-aged professors. Historian [Mark Lilla](http://www.zeit.de/2014/37/ideologie-freiheit-westen](http://www.zeit.de/2014/37/ideologie-freiheit-westen) diagnosed that apathy as a problem affecting not just American students, but even Chinese students born after 1989. </p>
<p>For Lilla, trying to get across the heady political mood of the Cold War era in the classroom now makes him feel like a “poet singing of the Lost Atlantis”.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-leaders-in-lockstep-against-divided-protesters-32534">Hong Kong’s pro-democracy student protests</a> have seemingly defied that commonly heard generational lament. Far from apathy, Hong Kong’s students have shown an admirable determination to confront the former colony’s baby-boomer elite, as well as the idealism to spurn conciliatory moves by figures like <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/east-asia/story/hong-kong-occupy-leader-benny-tai-admits-protest-out-control-amid-traffic-">Benny Tai</a>, a leader of the protests. </p>
<p>Naturally, some have suggested that the students’ idealism is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/29/fight-for-democracy-not-just-people-hong-kong">reminiscent of the hope that infused the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations</a>. If anything, Hong Kong students are even more indomitable; Hong Kong’s free press means they are less naïve about the Chinese government’s capacity and willingness to reform itself than the Beijing students were back in 1989.</p>
<p>This sentiment was shared by many who contributed to the coverage of the recent events in the West: the free press in Hong Kong was held up as the true game-changer, exposing a regime that fends off dissent on the mainland by flaunting GDP growth figures and <a href="https://theconversation.com/great-firewall-of-china-tasked-with-keeping-hong-kong-conflagration-in-check-32288">censoring the news</a>.</p>
<p>But Occupy Central is not just a burst of rage about the obscure provisions of universal suffrage under the CCP’s watch, a local Chinese story off-shooting from 1989. It is at its heart much more part of the anti-globalisation movement worldwide – as the movement’s name implies.</p>
<h2>Going global</h2>
<p>It’s not just China that has radically changed since 1989. Today’s insatiable 24/7 media cycle may have loved to wedge Occupy Central into a comparison with the Tiananmen events of 1989, but given the staggering income inequality which has always characterised Hong Kong society, and the enormous clout a handful of tycoons wield there (with Beijing’s blessing, of course), it’s surprising just how little the Western media made the link between Occupy Central and Occupy Wall Street. </p>
<p>Both initially began as protest movements against growing inequality, albeit on opposite sides of the planet, and anyone passing by the tent city set up by the original Occupy Central movement activists under the HSBC headquarters back in 2011 would have been struck by the similarity to the economic protest movements in the West. </p>
<p>There is a distinctly global dimension to what has been unfolding in Hong Kong’s financial district. Hong Kong’s recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has also meant realty prices there have skyrocketed to the extent most locally-born 20-year-olds can scarcely imagine owning homes any time in the near future. In that sense, Hong Kong is not much different to <a href="https://twitter.com/occupySYDNEY">Sydney</a>, <a href="http://occupylondon.org.uk/">London</a>, or <a href="http://occupywallstreet.net/">New York</a>. And as in many other global hubs, Hong Kong’s middle class has become desperately squeezed, with real wages stubbornly stagnant for the last two decades. </p>
<p>Meanwhile Hong Kong’s recent prosperity has been towed along in the slipstream of mainland efforts to dodge the 2008 global economic downturn, most obviously a <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/12585407">massive stimulus package</a>. Beijing has also allowed if not encouraged an upsurge of mainland tourism into the former colony, to such an extent that some Hong Kong businesses have complained of a <a href="http://www.ejinsight.com/20140923-beijing-to-reconsider-individual-tour-scheme-to-hk/">strain on public resources</a>.</p>
<h2>Getting it wrong</h2>
<p>This much-overlooked economic dependency on the mainland means Hong Kong’s tycoons have much to fear from the Occupy Central movement. What’s at stake for them goes well beyond the issue of universal suffrage. As a measure of their worry, Beijing has also demonstrated – through the establishment of the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/06/news/economy/shanghai-free-trade-zone/">Shanghai Free Trade Zone</a> - that it is prepared to prime Shanghai as an alternative finance hub should the situation in Hong Kong spin out of control.</p>
<p>This is why framing the Hong Kong protests as a story of “democracy vs Beijing” is misleading. Nor do Cold War narratives of liberal democracy vs communism really make sense; instead, globalisation is the real matter at hand. It is affecting everyone, and warping old ideological and political divisions.</p>
<p>China has been by far the single largest beneficiary of post-1989 globalisation, and has been through one of the most radical transitions of any major world power, but it’s also struggling with inequality. The difference between the mainland and Hong Kong in that respect is that most mainland youths are better off than their parents were at their age, and stand a better chance than ever of receiving tertiary education. </p>
<p>They therefore remain optimistic about the future. By delivering better standard of living in absolute terms and a return on tertiary education, the CCP has so far avoided a repeat of Tiananmen 1989 even as inequality in the PRC has <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/05/inequality_china">widened</a> so much in relative terms.</p>
<h2>Aiming high</h2>
<p>So far, Occupy movements around the world have failed to converge into anything resembling a truly effective transnational network. Beyond the machinations of a few odd hardcores and anarchists, there seems to have been no substantive organisational co-ordination between, say, the British <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/nov/10/student-protest-fees-violent">student riots of 2010</a> and the anti-austerity demonstrations in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22362757">Greece</a> and <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/03/anti-austerity-protesters-march-spain-2014322192956618925.html">Spain</a>. </p>
<p>Still, Hong Kong’s protesters have certainly and quite admirably pulled off a “local feat”. They may have not massively teamed up with Occupy clusters elsewhere, but they have drawn the attention of media around the world – and they have almost overnight shaken off Hong Kong’s image as a politically apathetic and buttoned-up city, one happy to cosy up to big business and in love with laissez-faire government and low corporate tax.</p>
<p>Occupy Central 2014 may not ultimately be remembered as Hong Kong’s largest or most significant protest against Beijing, and nor is it; <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/07/01/hk.protest/">even more people took to the streets in 2003</a> to protest a new “anti-subversion” law imposed from the mainland (<a href="http://www.scmp.com/topics/hong-kong-basic-law-article-23">Basic Law Article 23</a>). </p>
<p>There are now signs of <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/hong-kong-protests-concessions">serious division</a> within the Occupy Central ranks, and of mainstream Hong Kong turning its back on the movement for good after the traffic disruption it caused; Beijing may have won its stare-down with the protesters for the time being. But the prospect of serious social upheaval in China as a result of globalisation and growing inequality is not going away. </p>
<p>And at the very least, the spectacular exploits of Hong Kong’s animated youth movement should remind baby-boomers that today’s students can still kick up an admirable storm when a lofty cause demands it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niv Horesh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Complaints about the supposed political apathy of todays’ students are not uncommon among middle-aged professors. Historian [Mark Lilla](http://www.zeit.de/2014/37/ideologie-freiheit-westen](http://www.zeit.de/2014/37/ideologie-freiheit-westen…Niv Horesh, Professor of Modern Chinese History and Director of the China Policy Institute , University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/323542014-10-02T09:06:17Z2014-10-02T09:06:17ZBuilding a new economics for the #Occupy generation<p>After the global financial crisis in 2008, economics was in disarray. <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/3386353/The-Queen-asks-why-no-one-saw-the-credit-crunch-coming.html">Even the Queen was moved</a> to chide economists for failing to warn about the build-up of debt in households and banks in the major economies and the threat this posed to the global economy. She might have added that few economists provided convincing accounts of why the meltdown had happened. And some advocated policies in its wake that made things worse. </p>
<p>She is not the only one left wondering. One important legacy the financial crisis has left us with is a <a href="http://www.post-crasheconomics.com/">new generation</a> which is no longer satisfied with learning the economics which got this so wrong. No young person who has witnessed or participated in the #Occupy protests around the world – such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hong-kong-protests-beijing-is-now-face-to-face-with-universal-suffrage-promise-32339">one taking place in Hong Kong </a> now – can remain wedded to a curriculum which fails to evolve in their wake.</p>
<h2>Demands for change</h2>
<p>There have been loud calls for economists to face up to the failures of their discipline and embrace new ways of thinking. Students in universities from <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/24/students-post-crash-economics">Manchester</a> to Santiago, Chile were fed up with a curriculum that simply ignored the upsurge in economic disparities and the threat of global climate change. They were among the first to channel the discontent and demand that the teaching of economics respond to the shortcomings of the discipline. </p>
<p>For decades students around the world have experienced economics as a kind of endless boot camp that never quite engages with reality. Nataly Grisales, writing in a student newspaper in Bogota about her decision to study economics said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A professor mentioned that economics would give me a way to describe and predict human behaviour through mathematical tools, which seemed fantastic to me. Now, after many semesters, I have the mathematical tools; but all the people I wanted to study have disappeared from the scene.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One response <a href="http://core-econ.org/about/">has been the CORE project</a>, which has brought together economists – including me – from around the world to change the old way of doing things. Funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking in New York and based at Oxford Martin School we have developed <a href="https://www.inkling.com/read/the-economy-sept-2014-the-core-project/preface/reader-1">an ebook, The Economy</a>, which is designed to give students a set of economic concepts, many of which are missing from conventional teaching, and which they can use to address central economic problems of our day. </p>
<h2>Newconomics</h2>
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<p>New theories in economics make it possible to situate the economy within its historical, social and environmental context. Elinor Ostrom showed how communities can reverse the <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Eachaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Tragedy_of_the_commons.html">tragedy of the commons</a> - in which individuals acting out of self-interest will inevitably deplete shared resources. Labour economists have showed that because workers determine the quality of their effort, higher wages are often better not only for workers but also for their employers. Economists of finance and money have showed why bubbles such as the housing boom and bust occur.</p>
<p>Though students have been kept in the dark about these new developments, economics has actually made huge progress in the past three decades in understanding how real human beings in real situations behave and why this sometimes leads to the problems facing us today. One of the key jobs of the CORE project is to make students aware of <a href="http://heckmanequation.org/heckman-equation">new empirical results</a> as well as novel ideas in economics that have not yet made their way into the core of the introductory curriculum.</p>
<p>Among the new results that are changing economics today is a series of experiments showing that people are not the unmitigated selfish, <a href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-economic-man.htm">so-called economic man</a> of the textbooks. Computer simulations have revealed the inherent instability of capitalist economies. New theories of labour and credit markets show that an unregulated market economy often produces inefficient results. And particularly since the financial crisis of 2008, economists have turned their attention to problems of finance, banking and money that were previously ignored in the introductory curriculum. </p>
<p>The new curriculum is still in beta testing and a year and a half from its official release. But since we posted our beta version on the web just 3 weeks ago, some 4,000 people have registered to have a look and testing will continue at universities in Latin America, France, India, Australia and Italy in the months to come. The financial crisis, growing inequality, and looming environmental catastrophe have inspired a new generation of economists to help build a new learning infrastructure, and perhaps a brighter future <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/why-economics-is-really-called-the-dismal-science/282454/">for the dismal science</a>. A new generation of economists is demanding nothing less.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Carlin receives funding from the Institute for New Economic Thinking. </span></em></p>After the global financial crisis in 2008, economics was in disarray. Even the Queen was moved to chide economists for failing to warn about the build-up of debt in households and banks in the major economies…Wendy Carlin, Professor of Economics, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124312013-02-26T03:04:56Z2013-02-26T03:04:56ZMaking the case for Wall Street<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/20632/original/ppm9cm34-1361844353.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the wake of the GFC and the Occupy protests, critics have not shied away from voicing their anger at Wall Street.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr\Matthew Knott</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The first thing that strikes you when you re-read the “Declaration” issued in autumn 2011 by the Occupy protesters assembled in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan is how little of it actually relates to Wall Street. </p>
<p>Many of the “demands” inserted into the manifesto drafted by the various grassroots organisations behind the protest have no relation to how Wall Street functions, or to the issues that have arose since the credit crunch led America (and much of the developed world) into this Great Recession.</p>
<p>Following the age-old agitprop dictum that no good popular uprising should go to waste, it seems that a variety of other concerns, such as student loans, public employees pensions, animal rights and genetically-modified food, were the principal concerns of many of Occupiers. The complexities and intricacies of Wall Street and the City of London were largely ignored, except for a few cursory statements about bank bailouts and excessive compensation that have been stapled on to their wishlist.</p>
<p>The initial choice of venue – the financial district in Manhattan – gave the protesters a chance to air other long-standing grievances in a different location. But frustratingly little of what was said, sung, chanted and painted on signs was actually directed at the way the global financial systems currently operate and how these practices could be improved. Few men and women who work on Wall Street or in the City of London would make the claim that modern financial markets have achieved some variant of divine perfection. These markets exist as a result of human endeavours and, as a result, they are subject to human frailties and flaws. There is always room for improvements.</p>
<p>Ultimately, though, an attempt at a direct and informed critique of the operation of the global financial system was frustratingly absent from the Occupy demonstrations.</p>
<p>Simply put, the process of connecting savers with borrowers, and providers of capital with users of capital, requires intermediation. This need for intermediates creates a need for savings banks, stock markets, brokerage firms, mutual funds and investment banks. Otherwise, it would be practically impossible to put Uncle Edgar’s or Aunt Edna’s pension contributions into the hand of the corporate treasurers of either Apple or Facebook, or the public coffers of various governmental agencies who fund their operations based on bond issuances.</p>
<p>What we call “Wall Street” is a significant component of this intermediation infrastructure. Unless we move away from a monetised economy, and opt in favour of bartering on a scale never seen before, then the intermediaries must remain.</p>
<p>There will always be valid criticism that can be made about any industry, and Wall Street is no exception. To the extent that the demonstrators in Zuccotti Park would have coalesced around a few convincing compelling themes directly relevant to improving the financial infrastructure and ensuring that Wall Street is successful at spurring economic growth for the United States and its citizens (as well as in other developed and developing countries around the world), then they could very well have had a meaningful and lasting impact.</p>
<p>Since the Occupiers’ demands remained vague and ambiguous, distracted by an amorphous assault on rhetorical bogeymen and unable to propose clear and specific criticisms, then it was always highly unlikely that they would have anything like the impact that they desire and deserve. Just “wanting change” is never enough.</p>
<p>It is easy to talk about the contest between “Wall Street” and “Main Street”. It is a simple analogy and, like most simple analogies, it can be very compelling. It is an oversimplification to say that Wall Street must exist for the purpose of serving Main Street. </p>
<p>The problems that Main Street faces could be solved locally, without recourse to the financial markets that Wall Street and other financial centres orchestrate. Investors, savers, borrowers and issuers turn to these financial centres because they are in search of returns that are higher, or funds that are less expensive, than they can obtain in their own local communities.</p>
<p>Operating as a middleman, investment banks earn lucrative profits by matchmaking investors with investment opportunities. As more money is funnelled into the financial markets, there are more opportunities to trade in these investments and potentially earn further profits based on which was the market moves over the short-, medium- and long-term.</p>
<p>The great linguistic contribution of the Occupy Wall Street movement - and perhaps its only lasting contribution - was mainstreaming the propaganda terms “the 1%” and “the 99%.” On both sides of the Atlantic, as economies remain fragile and unemployment stubbornly high, identifying with the 99% has resonated with many earners and savers who are having difficulty navigating the new financial landscape.</p>
<p>Eyes are increasingly turning to the so-called 1%. What is the proper role of the ultra-wealthy in addressing these issues? What should we expect from the private equity and hedge fund professionals who earn large sums of money from their investment acumen?</p>
<p>Interestingly, simply being wealthy does not appear to be enough to earn someone the negative sentiment that is directed at the 1% by the Occupiers and their sympathisers. It is curious how the bright lights of media coverage that follow around a lottery winner do not invoke the vitriol and judgemental language that a large Wall Street bonus does. This is particularly true if one gives any thought to the shockingly low payout rates of lotteries and how they disproportionately prey on the wallets of the working poor.</p>
<p>Is it right that money won by sheer luck from gambling should be considered morally superior to money that was earned through work? What is it about the manner in which the 1% are commonly believed to have acquired their fortune is giving these critics so much concern?</p>
<p>These are the difficult questions which Wall Street ultimately needs to answer in order to make its case to its critics and retain the support of its champions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Timothy Spangler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The first thing that strikes you when you re-read the “Declaration” issued in autumn 2011 by the Occupy protesters assembled in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan is how little of it actually relates…Timothy Spangler, Adjunct Professor, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/105502013-01-09T19:21:45Z2013-01-09T19:21:45ZThe precariat is recruiting: youth, please apply<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/17485/original/f92kt96r-1352676255.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">With stable jobs in short supply, what does the future hold for Australia's young workers?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The term “precariat” conveys the idea that the old working class, the proletariat, has transmuted into a new social class where work and life are characterised by precariousness and risk.</p>
<p>While the old working class might have been poor and exploited, in the post war era at least, its members had jobs they could rely on. Not so for the precariat of the 21st century. Work and jobs have become fragmented and unstable and this flows through to how lives are fulfilled.</p>
<p>In his book <a href="http://www.unrisd.org/80256B42004CCC77/(httpInfoFiles)/67C39BBE49F10606C12578F8004B09D0/$file/Guy-Standing.pdf">The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class</a>, labour economist Professor Guy Standing says that youth forms the epicentre of the emerging precariat. <a href="http://www.youthandwork.ca/2011/11/strategic-abandonment-youth-and.html">Following a protracted education process</a> accompanied by massive debt accumulation, young people find that entry points into the jobs for which they are primed for, are scarce or non-existent.</p>
<p>The trajectory for many is a series of <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features40June+2009">casual</a> and <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_180976.pdf">short-term jobs</a>, with tenuous links to their education, and limited potential as stepping stones to the jobs they want. A few will take up unpaid <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/all-work-and-no-pay-20121008-277yh.html">internships</a> with family support, and a sizable minority become unemployed. The traditional quest for independence is stifled with many remaining in the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/generation-stuck-at-home-20120611-205nv.html">family home</a> well into their twenties or later. Some may drift into a rootless existence, isolated from the mainstream. </p>
<p>The lack of suitable trajectories for a young, well educated population fuels dissatisfaction with the status quo, according to Standing. It arises out of thwarted aspirations for status, upward mobility, and stability through employment. For some, it is incurred by an itinerant and alienated existence. Resentments towards an aged populace with its past advantages and future needs of support may also play a part.</p>
<p><strong>The long good bye to youth jobs</strong></p>
<p>In the 1950s or 1960s, young people simply left school in their mid to late teens and got a job. Young men stepped into junior level jobs in business, into apprenticeships in manufacturing or jobs in primary industries. Young women went to work in offices, hospitals or factories often as a precursor to marriage. A few went on to colleges for specific training such as to become teachers, and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-university-experience-then-and-now-10135">very small group</a> went on to universities with a view to the “elite” professions.</p>
<p>But by 1978, high youth unemployment was entrenched and this has hardly changed in the last 34 years. The unemployment rate <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features40June+2009">for 15 to 24-year-olds</a> was around 12 per cent in September 1978 and was 12 per cent in September 2012. This is much better than the youth unemployment rates in the <a href="http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php?title=File:Youth_unemployment,_2011Q4_(%25).png&filetimestamp=20120502094632">EU</a> at 21 per cent or the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/youth.nr0.htm">USA at 17%</a> but far above the national average for Australia of around 5%. It is close to the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_180976.pdf">global average youth unemployment rate</a>.</p>
<p>The “problem” of youth unemployment from the 1970s was attributed to lack of skills and qualifications. The “solution” to youth unemployment has focused on education and training for the jobs emerging in the post-industrial economy.</p>
<p>To this end, higher education and vocational training have been encouraged in public policy resulting in massive increases in <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features40Mar+2011">school completion</a> and <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features20Sep+2012#HIGHER">post-school</a> education participation. Early school leaving has been actively discouraged. <a href="http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/youth-allowance">Income support policy</a> demands that young people without year 12 undertake training in order to qualify for Youth Allowance.</p>
<p>While decent education for all is always a desirable social objective, its link to decent work outcomes for all has been progressively difficult to sustain. Social stratification in education as documented in the <a href="http://www.betterschools.gov.au/review">Review of Funding for Schooling</a>, is a byproduct of this dynamic and leads to stratified outcomes in employment.</p>
<p><strong>The new dangerous class?</strong></p>
<p>The growth <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---actrav/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_179787.pdf">in precarious employment</a> and a precariat class, Standing argues, is laying the foundation for social upheaval.</p>
<p>To some extent, it is expressed in events such as the <a href="http://www.euromayday.org/about.php">EuroMayDay</a> rallies and protests against the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/28/geneva-wto-protests-2009-_n_372855.html">World Trade Organisation</a>. It may also be part of the ferment of the <a href="http://www.occupyaustralia.net/">Occupy movement</a>. While notable and even significant, these demonstrations could hardly be characterised as a serious challenge to the forces of globalisation, neo-liberal economic policies, and corporate practices which have broken down the old employment models.</p>
<p>Other dangers may lie in the growth of far right, fringe political parties, which can consolidate grievances and resentments of a disenfranchised precariat into a support base, as suggested by Professor Standing. The success of the <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2012/05/07/greece-fears-over-far-right-election-breakthrough/">Golden Dawn party</a> in the Greek elections in May 2012 exemplifies this potential.</p>
<p>But elsewhere the aspirations of the extremist political parties have been curtailed, with limited outcomes for the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/french-election-blog-2012/2012/apr/25/marine-le-pen-french-elections-2012">Le Front National in France</a> and the <a href="http://theconversation.com/tea-party-goes-cold-as-us-voters-reject-the-far-right-10621">Tea-Party in the USA</a> in the 2012 elections. In Australia, there are no equivalent political forces at this time.</p>
<p>The real dangers of a precariat with a strong youth component perhaps lie elsewhere in Australia. A lack of opportunities for young people is simply a waste of their talents and skills at a time when Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/productivity-growth-provides-a-reality-check-for-the-lucky-country-8693">productivity</a> and growth potential are under question.</p>
<p>In addition, the existence of a precariat is a hallmark of social inequality. As Wilkinson and Pickett argue with compelling evidence in the <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2010/11/inequality-social-health-essay">Spirit Level</a>, countries with high levels of inequality simply do worse than more equal countries.</p>
<p>The precariat is created where opportunities for decent work have been eroded. So a core task for public policy is to restore <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm">a “decent work” agenda</a>. The recommendations of the <a href="http://www.actu.org.au/Publications/Other/LivesonHoldUnlockingthepotentialofAustraliasworkforce.aspx">ACTU Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work</a> would help to achieve this. </p>
<p>However, work and jobs may never be reconstituted as they were in the past. <a href="http://www.guystanding.com/">Standing proposes</a> a new vision of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Work-After-Globalisation-Occupational-Citizenship/dp/1848441649">citizen participation, and work and jobs</a>, linked to provision of <a href="http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html">basic, unconditional economic security</a>. While none of this is likely for the forseeable future, his ideas sustain some alternative visions for engaging and tapping the creative potential of a youthful - and not so youthful - precariat.</p>
<p>Links:
<a href="http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2012/professor_guy_standing.shtml">University of Sydney seminar</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.podcasts.com/unrisd_podcasts/episode/guy_standings_seminar">United Nations Research Institute for Social Development seminar</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/10550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Veronica Sheen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The term “precariat” conveys the idea that the old working class, the proletariat, has transmuted into a new social class where work and life are characterised by precariousness and risk. While the old…Veronica Sheen, Research Associate, Political and Social Inquiry , Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/110032012-12-26T21:28:48Z2012-12-26T21:28:48ZThe bitter necessity of debt relief<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18851/original/bcrxqzs8-1355807437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">According to the organisers of Occupy's Rolling Jubilee, 77.5% of American households are in debt.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Debt, it seems, is an idea with currency. Cities, states, nations and individuals are indebted, with creditors at the door, demanding repayment. This year, the US Federal Reserve even had David Graeber — a prominent anarchist, anthropologist and Occupy Wall Street participant — in their offices to discuss debt. Graeber’s book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Debt-The-First-000-Years/dp/1933633867">Debt: The First Five Thousand Years</a> has become a totem of the moment, a symbol of concern with debt’s overbearing presence in our lives.</p>
<p>The US Occupy movement has recently launched its Rolling Jubilee. The Jubilee combines Occupy’s <a href="http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2012-11-07-postel-en.html">populist</a> élan with teachings from Graeber’s fascinating albeit <a href="http://jacobinmag.com/2012/08/debt-the-first-500-pages/">misguided</a> book. Appealing to religious conceptions of the jubilee (a year which wipes clean debts and releases slaves) and a parochial American tradition of “abolition,” the Rolling Jubilee will buy up debt for roughly 5 cents on the dollar and abolish the debt. One of the aims of the project is to draw attention to debt’s secondary and tertiary collection markets. </p>
<p>When debt goes bad and creditors no longer expect repayment, the debt is sold to collectors who make every effort to recoup the money. So a bank may sell credit card debt for 2 or 3 cents per dollar. Via dubious and often illegal tactics of harassment and threats, the debt collector may hope to double their money by squeezing out 5 cents on the dollar from the debtor. Rolling Jubilee wants to step in as a benevolent collector, pronouncing debt dead and freeing debtors from obligations.</p>
<p>At the beginning of this week, Rolling Jubilee had enough donations to abolish $8.5 million of US private debt. By any measure, this is a tiny percentage of total US debt. The Rolling Jubilee applied the first parcel of debt abolition to medical debts. Reactions to this action are mixed, albeit with <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/11/10/links-10-nov-finally-an-occupy-wall-street-idea-we-can-all-get-behind-the-rolling-jubilee/">sympathy</a> and <a href="http://lbo-news.com/2012/11/13/rolling-where/">criticism</a> coming from unexpected quarters.</p>
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<p>There are two Occupy actions feeding into this campaign. One set of ideas comes from foreclosure activists who work to educate and inform foreclosed mortgagees on how to fight banks. Perhaps the stronger force in the move to Occupy debt collection originated with the Strike Debt campaign, an energetic and productive subgroup that is attempting to bring about a broad strike in debt repayments.</p>
<p>Strike Debt published the <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/105740740/The-Debt-Resistors-Operations-Manual">Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual</a>, an educative publication about resisting what the group sees as the pernicious creep of debt into the lives of most US citizens. Reflecting this, the Strike Debt organisers seek with their Jubilee to bring the question of debt into debate, as its other actions and projects have also done.</p>
<p>Indeed, Rolling Jubilee <a href="http://rollingjubilee.org/">presents a strong set of numbers</a> to argue its case for calling a halt to individual indebtedness. 77.5% of American households are in debt, organisers claim. 62% of all bankruptcies are caused by a medical illness; tuition (tertiary education) debt is $1,000,000,000,000 and is second only to mortgage debt in size, with around half of recent graduates in default; 1 in every 7 Americans is being pursued by a debt collection; the ratio of household debt to income is 154%; 40% of indebted households have used credit cards to pay for basic living expenses. With such large numbers — although some of them are disputed and a percentage of households may be overrepresented — debt connects many citizens, even as it is typically seen as a private and individual concern. In other words, Rolling Jubilee wants debtors to see themselves as the 99%, with creditors as the 1%.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/18854/original/4fw962kn-1355809333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">original.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>US debt</strong></p>
<p>Let’s consider how debt came to be central to the US economy. In part, this is due to the persistence of an anachronistic “good life” fantasy that can no longer be sustained, at least not without greater levels of debt. For example, homeownership — that central plank of the American Dream — was greatly extended after the Depression and WWII, with regulation and reform addressing earlier barriers to ordinary working people taking on mortgages. This expansion of mortgages relied on stable work and rising household incomes, secured by the union movement and agreed to by a ruling and business elite anxious about the threat of communism and organised labour. As in Australia, inflation in US housing prices became a kind of national sport.</p>
<p>As communism began to tank, finance moved from the margins to the centre of the economy. Simultaneously, the union movement lost power as the ruling and business elite lost their fear of a present communist danger: income began <a href="http://stateofworkingamerica.org/fact-sheets/income/">stagnating</a>, as the recent State of Working America report makes clear; inequality has risen in the <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/publication/42729">US</a> and other western nations since this turnaround; increases in cost of living, with the result that wages have not kept pace with ordinary, basic expenses; plus a shift to individual contracts accompanies a financialisation of firms, as shareholders and financial institutions decide on and prescribe salary levels, organisation of labour, productivity and forms of valorisation.</p>
<p>The logic of finance has entered the management of companies and the public sector. The emphasis on “just in time” production arrangements holds sway over all firms, where the aim is to maintain a “lean” employee pool. Consequently, the increase in precarious, casual and seasonal work means many people endure periods of uncertain income and existential insecurity.</p>
<p>Notice the types of debt named by the Rolling Jubilee as their prime targets: education loans, medical loans and credit card debt. There does not seem to be anything profligate — if that is the implication of the righteous, often sadistic morality of “paying one’s debts” — about these expenses. Instead, privatisation have driven up the cost of education and healthcare. One way of describing the shift over recent decades is from a system of social insurance and national debt to one of personal care and individual indebtedness. The marketisation of general and basic services such as medicine and education open them up to pervasive indebtedness, as the American example makes clear.</p>
<p>So the mid-century social democratic welfare state is wilting, but the fundamental fantasies it nourished remain in place: a place to live, a job, a future, a holiday. Debt comes to be a way of securing a disappearing future, a promissory good life. Stagnant wages effectively fall behind the inflation in the price of consumer goods; private insurance replaces public risk-sharing. The morality of personal debt — “these people just couldn’t wait for their TV” or “they bought a family home when they couldn’t afford it” — overlooks these causes of debt’s increase. Debt steps into wageless periods as an answer to the question of how to live with these forms of employment. Credit is the solution to a global problem caused by capital’s voracious appetite and new modes of production. </p>
<p>The unfolding crisis has to do with a contradiction between advertising’s persistent good life injunctions (“you deserve everything without exception”) and the media-cum-political discourse of austerity (“you’ve lived beyond your means”). An asceticism of work and debt clashes with a hedonistic ethic of mass consumption.</p>
<p><strong>Politics and economy</strong> </p>
<p>The Debt Jubilee may be one step toward a repoliticiasation of the economy. Politicians today claim they are not following a certain economic ideology, but that they are simply implementing “what works”. An “administrative” and “managerial” technocratic approach to the economy reigns, with the sense of administering social affairs with no grand ethos or commitments beyond that of “the market”. Governments govern in the mode of not governing. (I will say more about this in a follow-up article for The Conversation in coming days.)</p>
<p>Against this, Rolling Jubilee and Strike Debt draw economic arrangements into view, perhaps opening onto the question of whether we can re-organise our economies away from debt and the high price of education, healthcare and everyday goods. The catchy concepts of the Jubilee wants to say that the economy is in the realm of the political; it is an area of dispute, where various significant alternatives are in dispute, despite what our day-to-day media and political discussions suggest.</p>
<p><strong>Entrée or endpoint?</strong></p>
<p>This raises crucial questions for the Rolling Jubilee. If, hypothetically, all debt was abolished, and yet contemporary capitalism is now reliant on privatised insurance and debt throughout the economy, would not the institutions and actors within them simply generate new debts? Also, debt is one hugely important part of how capitalism functions, but there are other parts too — those stagnant wages or the origins of private wealth in the poorly compensated labour of others. Debt may be a symptom rather than a cause.</p>
<p>Given the import of debt-credit to capitalism today, this raises the spectre of systemic collapse. Nevertheless, states and banks — increasingly arrayed on the same side — have more resources to out-wait the most obstinate and recalcitrant debtors, even if they are internationally organised. Hence the question becomes, is Rolling Jubilee an entrée or an endpoint? Can their gifts — parcels of anonymous debt repayment — address a systemic problem?</p>
<p>Another way of approaching this — is this a symbolic or a real action? Although the question falsely presupposes it cannot be both, the emphasis in Rolling Jubilee’s explanations lies in the symbolic function of these actions; the debt abolition draws attention to the fact that some debts are dismissed on the cheap anyway (i.e. 5 cents on the dollar), hence debt is not as crucial as morality of “paying one’s debts” may suggest. </p>
<p>Their hope here is to draw debt into open discussion — and maybe ask questions about why it is that US healthcare is so expensive and financially dangerous, why education is so expensive, why homeownership is so central to the national ethos, and so on. The signs are not good on these discussions opening up, as feelgood mainstream coverage has focussed on the mechanism of debt abolition without asking more probing questions about debt and social services. Meanwhile, real action may also be questionable, as banks no longer care about debt on secondary markets and the relieved debtor will mostly experience the debt relief as charity or a deus ex machina pardon.</p>
<p><em>The author acknowledges an exchange with Dr Michael Beggs, Department of Political Economy at University of Sydney, aided the writing of this piece. Nevertheless, all analysis is the author’s own.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/11003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Gook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Debt, it seems, is an idea with currency. Cities, states, nations and individuals are indebted, with creditors at the door, demanding repayment. This year, the US Federal Reserve even had David Graeber…Ben Gook, PhD candidate, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94982012-09-17T20:41:19Z2012-09-17T20:41:19ZObama or Romney? The choice of the 1%<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15553/original/n3r8x8yc-1347860680.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Burdened by expectation: Barack Obama prepares to leave the White House aboard Marine One last weekend.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Michael Reynolds</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On November 6, US voters will make a choice between two very different candidates with very different visions, policies and approaches. Well, that is the official version, at least.</p>
<p>The reality is rather different. Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and their respective parties, represent the two wings of capital, the 1% if you like. No matter who wins on November 6, Wall Street, not Main Street, will still be firmly in control. Big business not ordinary people will continue to run the government.</p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/47-of-congress-members-millionaires-a-status-shared-by-only-1-of-americans/">Almost half</a> of all Congressmen and women are millionaires. In 2010 the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/11/congress-enjoys-robust-financial-status.html">average net worth</a> of Senators was estimated at US$2.63 million. This wealth and their high salaries divorces them from the life experience of poverty and unemployment and of falling living standards that many Americans have or are experiencing. To some extent their wealth even shields them from the racism, sexism and homophobia common to much of US society.</p>
<p>The rise of neoliberalism as an ideology of wealth shifting from the poor and working class to the rich was a response to falling profit rates across much of the developed world at the end of long boom in the late 1960s and early 1970s. </p>
<p>Just as in Australia, the two major parties of capital in the US adopted the prescriptions and remedies of neoliberalism: attacking working class wages and living standards, cutting government spending on social services, privatising public goods, cutting taxes on the rich and capital and using the state to suppress unions and union activity.</p>
<p>After almost 30 years of this unrelenting one-sided class war by the 1%, Barack Obama in 2008 <a href="https://theconversation.com/american-election-rhetoric-great-2008-speeches-cast-long-2012-shadows-8973">inspired millions</a> with talk of change.</p>
<p>Four years later the reality denies the soaring rhetoric. Most working class Americans are worse off than when he came to power and much of his enthusiastic base deserted him as he continued the Bush economic and geopolitical agenda.</p>
<p>In 2008 it was a case of voting for the charlatan of capital whose role in practice of ruling for the rich has been revealed.</p>
<p>Oh, cry the Democrats, at least he is not as bad as Romney.</p>
<p>This lesser evil argument has a few problems. Why vote for evil in the first place? Second, in power the Democrats might end up being just as bad if not worse than the Republicans.</p>
<p>Certainly, Obama has proven powerless in the face of the worst economic crisis in US history since the Great Depression. This is because the economic problems are systemic and neither Obama nor Romney has any intention of attacking the system that produces recession and depressions. Bandaids don’t cure cancer.</p>
<p>Lyndon Johnson won the 1964 election in part because he was the lesser evil compared to Barry Goldwater. The two million Vietnamese killed as a result of Johnson’s escalation of the war in Vietnam might question, if they could, this lesser evil strategy.</p>
<p>Internationally, Obama unleashed more <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/02/drone-wars-secrecy-barack-obama">drone attacks</a> in one year than Bush did in eight years.</p>
<p>None of this is to argue that voting for Romney would be a step forward. Romney offers a shit sandwich. Obama asks if you want fries with it.</p>
<p>The two candidates are part of the plutocracy governing America, and that the alternative is to build struggles to force them to adopt pro-people not pro-profit policies. Out of that might arise a challenge to both the parties of US capitalism, one that expresses the anger and frustration many Americans have with policies as usual and ultimately challenges the rule of capital.</p>
<p>There is something else in all of this. US politics, like Australian politics, has swung far to the Right over the last few decades.</p>
<p>Danny Katch puts it this way in his forthcoming book America’s Got Democracy! The Making of the World’s Longest Running Reality Show, in what he calls the “Two Party Shuffle”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hey Tea Party, looking for a fight?
Step from your Right to your really far Right! Now reach for your partner, the GOP. Pull them a step toward you on three! Okay Democrats, now it’s your turn. Slide to where the Republicans were! Now grab on to your liberal base. Yank them a step to a “realistic” place!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet as the Occupy movement shows, and the massive but passive support it got confirms, many Americans in reality reject the remedies and prescriptions of the politicians of the 1%. They want better and more accessible health care and education, action on climate change, even gay marriage and abortion rights.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15552/original/r35wb6rc-1347860208.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/15552/original/r35wb6rc-1347860208.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15552/original/r35wb6rc-1347860208.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15552/original/r35wb6rc-1347860208.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15552/original/r35wb6rc-1347860208.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15552/original/r35wb6rc-1347860208.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/15552/original/r35wb6rc-1347860208.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public school teachers in Chicago have been on strike over the past week, seeking better pay and conditions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Tannen Maury</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For the last week 25,000 teachers <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81279.html">have been on strike</a> in Chicago and 50,000 people demonstrated for them on Wednesday. The strike is against the wage cutting and privatisation plans of Obama’s former right hand man and now Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel. Mitt Romney <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/romney-says-chicago-teachers-turn-backs-on-students-obama-favors-unions-over-education/2012/09/10/a93eaa2e-fbba-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html">came out</a> against the teachers and in support of the Democratic Party’s attacks on teachers.</p>
<p>It didn’t take long for the posters of “Rahmney” to appear, making it clear that in the battle between workers and the elite over the future of education, the two parties of business are in fact on the same side: against teachers.</p>
<p>Even on health care the two parties accept the basic premise that a “free” market in private health care is the best way to look after the sick and unwell. Thus private health funds have been the main beneficiaries of Obamacare.</p>
<p>The US presidential election is a choice between two representatives of big business. The task is to fight the one percent and build an alternative. Occupy gave us a glimpse of the possibilities. </p>
<p>Winning the immediate fight and building that alternative, as Occupy and now the Chicago teachers’ strike shows, can only be done on the streets and in the workplaces, through demonstrations and strikes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/9498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Passant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On November 6, US voters will make a choice between two very different candidates with very different visions, policies and approaches. Well, that is the official version, at least. The reality is rather…John Passant, Tutor, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/76762012-07-02T00:12:58Z2012-07-02T00:12:58ZAustralian census: not quite the US, but income gap widens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12414/original/f6v5xcry-1340951072.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Occupy movement highlighted income disparity across the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dean Lewins</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/occupy-movement">Occupy movement</a> in the US has brought into sharp focus the level of income inequality that exists in society.</p>
<p>For example, in 2009 the top 10% of households in the US had an income that was about 11.5 times as high as the income of the bottom 10% of households (the so-called <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acs-16.pdf">90/10 ratio</a>). In many ways it is surprising to an outside observer that there is not even more popular anger about how income is distributed there.</p>
<p>Income inequality in Australia is not anywhere near as high as it is in the US. However, it does appear to be rising. <a>According to the ABS</a>) the 90/10 ratio of disposable household income was 4.21 in 2009/10 compared to 3.78 in 1994/1995.</p>
<p>The release of initial data from the 2011 census allows us to pick apart this income distribution by where a person lives as well as their individual, family and household characteristics.</p>
<p>According to the ABS, median personal income in 2011 was $577 and median household income was $1,234. </p>
<p>After adjusting for inflation, median personal income was 7.5% higher than it was in 2006, whereas median household income was 4.3% higher. Unlike much of Europe and North America, income in Australia has increased over the past half-decade.</p>
<p>As documented in the following figure though, this increase has not been consistent across states.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12261/original/r9dw75hv-1340770713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12261/original/r9dw75hv-1340770713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12261/original/r9dw75hv-1340770713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12261/original/r9dw75hv-1340770713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12261/original/r9dw75hv-1340770713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12261/original/r9dw75hv-1340770713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12261/original/r9dw75hv-1340770713.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage change in (real) median weekly household income, 2006 to 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">2006 and 2011 censuses</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Quite clearly, the fastest rate of growth in median household income has occurred in the Northern Territory and Western Australia and it is tempting to think that the commodities boom is driving most of the increase in household income. </p>
<p>We will have to wait till labour force data on the census is released later in the year to check how income has grown across different occupations and industries. However, with an increase in income of 10.3%, the ACT isn’t that far behind these resource-rich states. Looking out our windows at the ANU, there aren’t too many mining trucks rumbling along Northbourne Avenue. </p>
<p>Looking at individual characteristics, we can see that there has been a faster increase in mean income for women (8.66% between 2006 and 2011) than men (4.48%). Although men on average still have a higher average income than women, there has been a slight decrease in the gap between the sexes over the past 5 years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12262/original/xk2gtx9d-1340772380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12262/original/xk2gtx9d-1340772380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12262/original/xk2gtx9d-1340772380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12262/original/xk2gtx9d-1340772380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12262/original/xk2gtx9d-1340772380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12262/original/xk2gtx9d-1340772380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12262/original/xk2gtx9d-1340772380.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ratio of male to female weekly mean income by age bracket, 2006 and 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">2006 and 2011 censuses</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As interesting as these national-level or State/Territory statistics are, it is unlikely that when most people want to gauge their own income they go to the ABS website. Instead, they probably use other informal means. This includes: </p>
<ul>
<li>Through social networks (virtual or otherwise);</li>
<li>Through the media; </li>
<li>In the workplace; or </li>
<li>From other people in the area or neighbourhood in which they live.</li>
</ul>
<p>The 2011 Census gives us a chance to look at the income distribution from the last of these perspectives. Unlike sample surveys, censuses allow us to replicate someone looking around them at others in their neighbourhood or area and seeing what the income distribution looks like. </p>
<p>As the following figure shows, income isn’t distributed evenly across or within our large cities. The first set of bars gives the median income for each of the five largest capital cities (and their surrounding suburbs). Sydney and Perth had the highest median household incomes in 2011 (at $1,447 and $1,459 respectively) with Adelaide having the lowest ($1,106). Melbourne and Brisbane fall somewhere in between ($1,333 and $1,388 respectively).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12282/original/jt7tchwt-1340778658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12282/original/jt7tchwt-1340778658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12282/original/jt7tchwt-1340778658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12282/original/jt7tchwt-1340778658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12282/original/jt7tchwt-1340778658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12282/original/jt7tchwt-1340778658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12282/original/jt7tchwt-1340778658.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Median household weekly income across and within cities - 2011.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second set of bars gives the ratio of the median income in the richest part of the city to the median income in the poorest part. Here, we can see that although Sydney has quite a high income on average, this is not evenly spread by geography. </p>
<p>Median income in North Sydney ($2,111) was more than twice as high as median income on the Central Coast ($1,003). There were disparities in other cities (for example between Inner Perth and Mandurah) but they weren’t nearly as large.</p>
<p>Income data from censuses and other surveys suggest that while Australians have on average experienced significant income growth since the 2006 census, concerns about income inequality are still valid. </p>
<p>Overall income inequality is rising in Australia, with this phenomenon reflecting differences both between regions, and within major cities. These numbers can’t tell us how the man on the street feels the effects of this inequality, but they do suggest that the situation in Australia is not yet as dramatic as that in the US.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/7676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Biddle receives funding from the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) as well as the respective State/Territory Indigenous/Aboriginal Affairs departments.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maxine Montaigne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Occupy movement in the US has brought into sharp focus the level of income inequality that exists in society. For example, in 2009 the top 10% of households in the US had an income that was about 11.5…Nicholas Biddle, Fellow, Australian National UniversityMaxine Montaigne, Research Assistant, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/67052012-05-01T20:43:24Z2012-05-01T20:43:24ZYou have been indoctrinated (oh yes you have)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9998/original/zm6kbjzj-1335496094.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indoctrination is one of the key forces at play in any society.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">flickr/lets.book</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite its association with totalitarian societies of the left and right, indoctrination is also a common feature of societies that describe themselves as free: those where the coercive powers of the state are weakest and the population cannot be easily controlled by violence and fear.</p>
<p>Although since the 1930s it has been primarily understood in pejorative terms, not all indoctrination should be seen as malignant. </p>
<p>It underwrites every faith-based belief system including all monotheistic religions. It is the primary means for the transmission of values from one generation to the next. And it would be difficult to imagine any educational curriculum – or parental advice to young children - without propaganda of some kind featuring extensively.</p>
<p>Indoctrination is particularly prevalent in minority and persecuted cultures, especially amongst 1st generation migrants, because it is seen as an essential tool for maintaining social cohesion, integrity, and ultimately, group identity.</p>
<p>In establishing traditions which must be followed, or taboos which need to be avoided, indoctrination first erects and then patrols the intellectual boundaries within which legitimate thoughts can be freely expressed. These boundaries are tightly prescribed but they must remain largely invisible if they are to be effective and remain unchallenged. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Rai">Milan Rai</a> argues, “we can no longer perceive the ideas that are shaping our thoughts, as the fish cannot perceive the sea.” Debate and discussion occurs, but within strictly controlled limits that may not be widely recognised.</p>
<p>In this way, a degree of ideological control is achieved in free societies, not by threats or intimidation, but by defining the spectrum of permitted thought: a voluntary rather than a coercive constraint, but no less effective.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10002/original/r9hyy2fg-1335496716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10002/original/r9hyy2fg-1335496716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10002/original/r9hyy2fg-1335496716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10002/original/r9hyy2fg-1335496716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10002/original/r9hyy2fg-1335496716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10002/original/r9hyy2fg-1335496716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10002/original/r9hyy2fg-1335496716.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">North Korean soldiers cheering pro-regime slogans. Indoctrination is an essential tool of social control.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/YONHAP/KCNA SOUTH KOREA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Control is achieved by removing contestable ideas from the contest of ideas, making them instead presuppositions whose acceptance is actually a pre-requisite for discourse about a particular subject. </p>
<p>Making an idea implicit tends to protect it from being challenged or opposed. By being constantly reinforced, the idea comes to be accepted as part of the framework necessary to even start a discussion.</p>
<p>Paradoxically, this is easier in open societies which champion free speech and permit vigorous debates and discussion: said to be the lifeblood of all liberal democracies. </p>
<p>In truth, much of what is defined as dissent in these societies is in fact feigned and confined to the mainstream, which by definition is the only location where “serious” ideas can be found. On some issues, the spectrum of legitimate thought is very narrow.</p>
<p>One recent example is the aftermath of the global financial crisis (GFC) which began in 2007. Policy responses to the crisis in the US centred on how to stabilise or “reform” the global financial system, but within strictly controlled limits which largely preserved the status quo: exorbitant fees regardless of company share price or the performance of bankers, generous bonuses unrelated to share price or performance, innovative complexity of financial instruments and, most importantly, minimal regulation of the sector. </p>
<p>The challenge was to make the existing system work better, rather than replace it with something less volatile and dangerous, or more just and humane.</p>
<p>As a consequence of a concerted mobilisation by the business class and President Obama’s indebtedness to the finance community for funding his election campaigns, even minor proposals for long overdue reform were aborted. Despite a window of opportunity for wholesale reform at the height of the crisis, serious attempts at structural change were not even considered. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10008/original/3djpjpf4-1335500998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10008/original/3djpjpf4-1335500998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10008/original/3djpjpf4-1335500998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10008/original/3djpjpf4-1335500998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10008/original/3djpjpf4-1335500998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10008/original/3djpjpf4-1335500998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/10008/original/3djpjpf4-1335500998.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The financial crash of 2008 exposed many of the flaws in an economic model once seen as perfect.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Justin Lane</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An elite consensus for preserving the privileges of the status quo prevailed over the interests of the general population. Consequently, the crisis will almost certainly be reprised, though for much of Europe it has been barely attenuated.</p>
<p>This outcome could not have occurred without the lowering of public expectations and propaganda which sought to limit any changes to the margins of the current system. It was presupposed that the existing system was the best that could be hoped for, and permitted policy discussion was confined to proposals which would not inhibit its workings in any meaningful way. </p>
<p>Extraordinary disparities of wealth and income, or the contrasting fortunes of bankers and pension holders, were seen as simply part and parcel of life. This is because it is vital that the system is seen as broadly legitimate, even by those who have the least to gain from it.</p>
<p>From the perspective of the bankers who launched an offensive against regulation, the campaign was a total success. We are no better prepared for the inevitable, next financial crisis today than we were five years ago.</p>
<p>Indoctrination and propaganda train us for obedience and conformity. They discourage us from thinking differently or creatively, particularly in dealing with new problems and challenges we face every day. </p>
<p>Instead they provide ready-made, pre-prepared answers so we don’t really have to think at all. Too often they attempt to constrain our possible futures by limiting our possible thoughts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Burchill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite its association with totalitarian societies of the left and right, indoctrination is also a common feature of societies that describe themselves as free: those where the coercive powers of the…Scott Burchill, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56862012-03-05T19:43:41Z2012-03-05T19:43:41ZHow government policy provides rich pickings for Australia’s billionaires<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8314/original/ffqygc4z-1330906425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=100%2C27%2C2888%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Billionaire Clive Palmer: how much of his fabulous wealth is due to government policy?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the last year or so, the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/10/occupy-the-world-the-99-percent-movement-goes-global/246757/">Occupy movement</a> has garnered wide attention, with people of all backgrounds gathering to protest the deteriorating social conditions. </p>
<p>However, these grievances have been running for decades. The bottom 80% of US income earners have seen their wages decline (adjusted for inflation) since 1973. The median household under the Bush and Obama administrations also saw their real incomes decline as well. On the other hand, the rich (or 1%) has managed to increase their share of incomes and wealth over the decades.</p>
<p>In Australia, waning social democratic policies have ensured an economic assault against the public by political and economic elites has not had the same deleterious impact on equality that exists in the US.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the wealthy have certainly become relatively richer than the rest of us. Our own 99% movement, while smaller than those in the US, has highlighted that all is not well in our “lucky country”.</p>
<p>As some may retort, isn’t progressive taxation and the social welfare state supposed to even out the social and economic inequalities in Australia? While the tax and transfer system redistributes wealth and income from the relatively wealthy to the middle and working class, the rich still appear to be racing ahead.</p>
<p>The reason why the rich are rich is primarily due to one factor: rent. This is an economic term to define the excess of market prices and income over the prevailing cost of production. It has also been defined as “unearned income” - income or revenue over and above what would exist under competitive market conditions. Those who make their living off economic rent are called rentiers.</p>
<p>Far from eliminating or taxing away this unearned income, so-called neoliberal policies are designed to create as much rent as possible for the rich to feed upon. The term “neoliberal” itself has two problems: it is not new and has little to do with economic liberalisation. These policies have been embedded in all modern economies.</p>
<p>I will briefly cover some of the ways that the rich become ever wealthier.</p>
<h2>Land</h2>
<p>Possibly the worst of the policies concerns the land market. UK economist <a href="http://www.fredharrison.com/">Fred Harrison</a> - who has predicted housing bubbles years in advance in Australia, the US and UK - authored a book called <a href="http://www.johnreedbooks.com.au/product/35632-RicardosLawHousePricesandtheGreatTaxClawbackScam-9780856832413">Ricardo’s Law: House Prices and the Tax Clawback Scam </a>to explain how the rich feed off this market.</p>
<p>Using economic and historical evidence, Harrison showed that the wealthy do not pay a single cent in tax because they manage to claw back decades of progressive taxes through the uplift in land values of their property holdings.</p>
<p>The way this is achieved is twofold. Taxpayer-funded infrastructure - whether highways, public libraries, transport, schools and so forth - has the effect of raising land values, though the owner has done nothing to earn it (outside of property improvements). This disproportionately benefits those who own the most land - the top 10% of households own 38% of all net property wealth and 45% of all wealth in Australia.</p>
<p>The second is through the boom-bust housing cycle that has afflicted economies over the centuries. The speculative pyramid schemes result in colossal increases in land values - capital gains - that owners have not done anything to earn.</p>
<p>Our own Ponzi scheme has seen the land market in Australia rapidly increase from $1.2 trillion in 1996, peaking at $4.1 trillion in 2010. As Harrison points out, this process allows the rich to recoup all taxes and more, whereas those with no land holdings get jack squat. Even as bubbles deflate, Harrison notes they simply make up their lost wealth with the next bubble, which is typically larger than the last.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8312/original/8mbhgvcc-1330905669.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8312/original/8mbhgvcc-1330905669.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8312/original/8mbhgvcc-1330905669.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8312/original/8mbhgvcc-1330905669.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8312/original/8mbhgvcc-1330905669.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8312/original/8mbhgvcc-1330905669.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8312/original/8mbhgvcc-1330905669.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gina Rinehart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The optimal method of stifling or preventing housing bubbles it to place substantial taxes upon land. Land is not like capital; nobody has created it, taxing does not reduce supply and land cannot move to a tax-free haven.</p>
<p>Taxes on land and natural resources distort the economy far less than the 125 burdensome taxes placed upon productive business and labour. Our tax system leads to deadweight losses of approximately 30 cents to the dollar (or $100 billion per year in Australia). It has been shown that land taxes can replace all <a href="http://www.prosper.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/dwyer-tax-resources.pdf">business and personal income taxes</a>.</p>
<h2>Mining and super profits</h2>
<p>The super profits that accrue to mining companies by selling sub-soil or natural resources, making their owners and managers fabulously wealthy in the process, are another form of rent, similar to land. There is no natural law that makes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Rinehart">Gina Rinehart</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Forrest">Andrew Forrest</a> billionaires from resources they have recovered through mining, but did not create.</p>
<h2>Intellectual property rights</h2>
<p>Intellectual property rights (IPRs) – patents, copyrights and trademarks - are another policy favored by the rentier class. The super-profits inherent in this form of medieval government monopoly ensure a torrent of wealth redistribution upwards to the rich, even though far better mechanisms for financing R&D and creative art exist. This is how Bill Gates became the world’s richest person - “entrepreneur”, “self-made”, “business wonder” – from government monopoly. </p>
<h2>Remuneration</h2>
<p>The enormous compensation and pay packages for the executives and managers of corporations is a pure form of rent, having nothing to do with the necessary cost of doing business. Conventional economists defend this on the basis that markets ensure incomes equal productivity.</p>
<p>One may ask what the productivity of the most highly paid managers in the FIRE sector (finance, insurance and real estate) is. After all, they pay themselves millions for having bankrupted billion-dollar firms and have driven trillion-dollar economies off the cliff. These corporate pay packages have nothing to do with attracting and retaining talent but rather rentiers enriching themselves at our expense.</p>
<h2>Inherited wealth</h2>
<p>Another method favoured by the rentier class is transferring wealth through inheritance, where a few fortunate children are made rich by been born to wealthy parents. It is essentially winning the lotto without ever having purchased a ticket. Wealth through inheritance is great for the 1%, but the rest of us in the 99% actually have to work for a living.</p>
<p>For those who believe in the phrase “there is no such thing as a free lunch”, reality shows otherwise. Not only has the rich in Australia being receiving a free lunch, government policy has created an overflowing banquet for them to feast upon each and every day.</p>
<p>Millionaires, billionaires and their supporters prefer to delude themselves into believing they have earned their wealth; rather, policy ensures that the <a href="http://deanbaker.net/index.php/home/books/the-conservative-nanny-state">nanny state</a> will always cater to the needs of the 1%.</p>
<p>While some of the policies that benefit the rentier class have been discussed in the media, others have remained hidden from view. Treasurer Wayne Swan has spoken out against the rentier class, but this is rank hypocrisy; ALP policy has been decidedly neoliberal, feeding the wealth of those he condemns in <a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/rising-influence-vested-interests-australia-001-cent-wayne-swan-4670">his article in The Monthly</a>.</p>
<p>If the 99% are serious about dealing with inequality and the social problems it causes, then it is high time to move the debate past progressive taxation and social welfare and onto the issue of eliminating rent from our economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Soos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over the last year or so, the Occupy movement has garnered wide attention, with people of all backgrounds gathering to protest the deteriorating social conditions. However, these grievances have been running…Philip Soos, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/46512011-12-09T00:51:25Z2011-12-09T00:51:25ZMoving right along: what powers do police have to ‘move-on’ protestors?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6268/original/g5zpfjc7-1323383616.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C1%2C592%2C344&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Occupy protestors have a right to protest; police powers to move them on from public spaces should be questioned.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">RynChristophe/Youtube</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When police removed a <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/police-criticised-after-tent-dress-torn-off-occupy-protester/story-e6frfkvr-1226215162454">young woman’s “tent dress”</a> this week at the <a href="http://occupymelbourne.org/">Occupy Melbourne</a> encampment, it was yet another controversial interaction between protesters and authorities.</p>
<p>As shown in the Occupy movement, the increasing regulation of public spaces through intensive policing is a global phenomenon. Governments across Australia are introducing increasingly strident laws to police public spaces. </p>
<p>However, the evidence shows that these powers do not reduce crimes, they are exercised in a discriminatory way against young people, racial minorities and people experiencing homelessness, and they breach the norms and standards of international human rights laws.</p>
<h2>Legal confusion</h2>
<p>Occupy Melbourne demonstrators were first evicted by police from City Square in October. Afterwards, there were <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/agencies-split-over-eviction-20111027-1mm5r.html">conflicting </a>explanations about the legal basis for protesters’ removal. It seemed that government, police and the local council were all citing different laws.</p>
<p>The Police Minister’s office suggested police were using the move-on powers contained in <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/soa1966189/s6.html">section 6</a> of the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/soa1966189.txt/cgi-bin/download.cgi/download/au/legis/vic/consol_act/soa1966189.rtf"><em>Summary Offences Act</em></a>. But these powers were <a href="http://archive.premier.vic.gov.au/component/content/article/7746.html">created in 2009</a> to help police deal with alcohol-fuelled violence; they specifically prevent police from moving on people “demonstrating or protesting”. </p>
<h2>Vulnerable targets </h2>
<p>Move-on powers allow police to control both the users and the usage of public space. Similar laws have been introduced in most Australian jurisdictions, with troubling implications.</p>
<p>Legal expert, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ben-saul-4459">Ben Saul</a> notes that “particularly if you are a young person, indigenous, homeless, or a sex worker, police scrutiny and state surveillance of the public use of public streets has become acute”. Empirical research is limited and not very recent, but it does point to discriminatory use of move-on powers. </p>
<p>People experiencing homelessness - like <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2008/s2290231.htm">Bruce Rowe</a>, who was brutally arrested by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf_rt5XJbek">Queensland police</a> in 2006 - occupy public spaces out of necessity but are disproportionately and adversely affected by move-on powers. </p>
<p>A Brisbane <a href="http://www.qpilch.org.au/_dbase_upl/Nowhere%20To%20Go.pdf">survey</a> of 132 people experiencing homelessness found a total of 76.5% of respondents had been told to move on one or more times in the last six months. Nearly 78% of respondents who received a move-on direction said their behaviour was innocuous and unlikely to meet the threshold requirements for a lawfully issued move-on direction. </p>
<p>Concerns about police “chasing” homeless people from one place to the next were raised throughout this research. Some respondents stated that it was often the same officers that followed homeless people throughout the day to “chase them away”. I often heard stories like this when I worked as a lawyer with Victoria’s <a href="http://www.pilch.org.au/hplc/">Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic</a>.</p>
<h2>Unequal treatment</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6269/original/6yjhkf5c-1323386212.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/6269/original/6yjhkf5c-1323386212.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6269/original/6yjhkf5c-1323386212.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6269/original/6yjhkf5c-1323386212.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6269/original/6yjhkf5c-1323386212.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6269/original/6yjhkf5c-1323386212.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/6269/original/6yjhkf5c-1323386212.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Occupy Melbourne protestor is removed from City Square by police.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">setaysha/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indigenous Australians appear most likely to be moved on compared to other community members. A detailed <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AILR/1996/4.html">1995 study</a> found that Indigenous young people were over-represented at every level of the justice system except police cautions. </p>
<p>This certainly appears to be the case with move-on orders. <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/criminal_justice_system/indigenousjustice/cjs/police.aspx">Chan and Cunneen</a> note that police use “move-on” powers against Aboriginal people at a massively disproportionate rate. </p>
<p>The New South Wales Ombudsman <a href="http://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/publication/PDF/other%20reports/PolicingPublicSafety_Nov1999.pdf">expressed concern</a> with the large numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people given direction to move on. This brings otherwise law-abiding individuals into contact with the criminal justice system in areas where relationships between the police and Aboriginal communities have been very poor. </p>
<h2>Young not welcome</h2>
<p>But it’s not only Indigenous young people who are over-policed by these move-on powers. The struggle over territory between police and young people is <a href="http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/previous%20series/proceedings/1-27/%7E/media/publications/proceedings/22/white.ashx">not a new phenomenon</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.acys.utas.edu.au/nyars/pdfs/pdfs-perceptions/perceptions.pdf">1992 study</a> found that 80% of young people aged 15 to 18 had been stopped by the police, and that 83% of them had been stopped on the street. In addition, 53% of the police officers who participated in the research thought that young people were causing problems in malls. </p>
<p>The disparity between young people being moved on by police, and the rate of their involvement in crime compared to their representation in the population, is disturbing. The disparity suggests police are not using the powers as an effective tool and are exercising the power in a discriminatory fashion. </p>
<p>This does not reduce the incidence of crime and it may lead to even more unsatisfactory outcomes. Police and young people may come into conflict or young people may be pushed into more serious offending behaviours. </p>
<p>There is no evidence, in Australia or internationally, that suggests move-on powers reduce crime rates.</p>
<h2>Breaching human rights?</h2>
<p>Human rights lawyers have <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/civil-rights-and-crossing-the-line-20111025-1mi0s.html">suggested</a> that the October eviction of Occupy protestors may breach Victoria’s <em><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/cohrara2006433.txt/cgi-bin/download.cgi/download/au/legis/vic/consol_act/cohrara2006433.rtf">Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act</a></em>. </p>
<p>Researchers have previously <a href="http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/mdocs/goldieLivingInPublicSpace.pdf">questioned</a> the human rights implications of move-on powers and other regulation of public space. The exercise of these police powers engages Charter rights including freedoms of <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/cohrara2006433/s12.html">movement</a>, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/cohrara2006433/s16.html">association</a> and <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/cohrara2006433/s15.html">expression</a>, among others. </p>
<p>Infringement of these rights, particularly given the disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups discussed above, may amount to an unreasonable limitation of the rights. This question is currently <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3359779.htm">before the Courts</a>, following action brought by an Occupy Melbourne protester.</p>
<p>As the Occupy movement challenges some of the existing power structures, let’s hope that this draconian legal development of police move-on powers is one of the first casualties.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/4651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Farrell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When police removed a young woman’s “tent dress” this week at the Occupy Melbourne encampment, it was yet another controversial interaction between protesters and authorities. As shown in the Occupy movement…James Farrell, Lecturer in Law, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.