NEW SOCIAL

MOVEMENTS

Dr.NC Vamshi Krishna

FACULTY FOR SOCIOLOGY
• These movements, which may be called new social
movements, emphasize the quality of life and lifestyle
concerns rather than focusing on economic
redistribution as an expression of a fundamental break
from industrial era movements.
Therefore, new social movements question the
welfare-oriented materialist goals of industrial
societies In other words, issues about “peace, nuclear
energy, local autonomy, homosexuality and feminism”,
which replaced the class-based political mobilization in
Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, constitute the agenda
of social movements.
CHILE PROTESTS: (NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS)
The wave of civil unrest in Chile’s capital, Santiago,

• CAUSE: A middle-income country lauded as a shining beacon of sound economic

management, despite its failure to redress staggering inequality along with a call
for huge social and political change in the country.
• protests against high living costs and inequality for nearly three weeks
• NEW MODES OF PROTEST:Despite the unrest, the majority of protesters have been
peaceful, with many banging spoons against cooking pots - a form of protest known
as cacerolazo.
• TRIGGER FACTOR: The protests began as a student-led demonstration against
transport fares. In early October, the government announced that the metro rush
hour prices would rise by 30 pesos ($0.04).
• According to Victor Villegas, a sociologist "it's not a coincidence" that the
movement began with high school students because "they have always driven
Chilean social movements". "Since the dictatorship, they have been involved in
political movements, and this time again, they again took the baton and started
the protests,"
• Chileans are frustrated with the increasing cost of living, low wages and pensions, a
lack of education rights, a poor public health system and crippling inequality.
• The protesters' demands called for a change to the pension system and an increase
of the minimum wage.
• There are also demands for a new constitution, as the current one was introduced in
the dictatorship.
• a series of corruption and tax-evasion scandals have eroded faith in the country’s
political and corporate elite. There is broad agreement, among protesters and
experts alike, that the country needs structural reforms.
 • 2017 UN report found that the richest 1 per cent of Chileans earns 33 per cent of
the nation's wealth. That makes Chile the most unequal country in the OECD.
• protests are largely about the middle class wanting necessary consumer goods.
Many of the protestors are university students, not the poorest Chileans.
• NEWER PARTICIPANTS: In many ways the protests in Chile are more like last year’s
yellow vest protests in France than the unrest in Venezuela and Ecuador. Both
France and Chile feature a middle class that feels neglected, even if their living
standards have improved, and that their income cannot keep up with the rising
cost of living.

• Due to enduring civil, student-led protests, Chile

to have free higher education. This is a huge victory
to grassroots activism and social movements.
YELLOW VESTS
MOVEMENT

• The Yellow Vest Movement, which aims to gather people who are
excluded from the system, has become a global movement thanks to new
communication technologies.
• The petition of The Yellow Vest Movement to reduce taxes on the
change.org was signed by more than 850,000 people (Tapiero, 2018).
• The movement that starts online and hosts many people from different
groups has been transformed into street actions organized in online
environments as a result of non-fulfilment of their demands.
• The non-leader structure, the lack of belonging to a particular political
ideology, the collective identity created by using the yellow vest symbol,
the horizontal communication and its spreading to a global space make it
possible to characterize The Yellow Vests Movement which is organized by
new communication technologies as a postmodern movement.
• New communication technologies have an impact on the way of
organizing, the action and the discourse of social movements. Although
traditional methods of participation in social movements continue in part,
it can be concluded that movements have reached a global dimension
through the use social networks.
Considering the reasons for the start of the Yellow Vests Movement, it is understood that the
taxes that President Emmanuel Macron decided to implement under the name of
“Environmental Tax” since January 1 were what started the demonstrations. (TRIGGER POINT)

The demonstrations initiated with the additional tax imposed on the fuel continue as a
spontaneous rebellion of the workers who are forced to pay against the austerity policies and
whose demands are not taken into account .

Sociologist Benoit Coquard, Yellow Vests do not only consist of white French men. According
to him, especially women who are in a precarious condition and have financial difficulties take
place behind the barricades.(PARTICIPANTS)

The yellow vest is cheap, easily accessible, easily definable and above all that it is a necessity
implemented by the government has proved the symbol selection to be inspirational and
played a great role in the rapid spread of the movement .(SYMBOLISM)

Social media has influenced the organization of the Yellow Vests Movement not only in France
but also in many countries, from Belgium to Bulgaria, from Serbia to Sweden, and from Israel
to Iraq (Henley, 2018). The anti-tax demonstrations in Paris was also adopted by the
demostrators in Iraq. (NEW MODES OF ORGANIZATION)