Limits to transnationalism in social movements: the case of the farmers' protests in the European Union

Résumé du document

Farmers are among the most vigorous protestors against the European Union. However, contrary to some other groups, the farmers fail to cooperate. Transnational movements are quite rare, and quasi inexistent. It is for this reason that it is interesting to focus on this group in order to understand the limit of the transnational's in social movements and the factors which prevent cooperation between national movements across domestic boundaries. Two axes will be analyzed: firstly the material incapacity for the farmers to cooperate and secondly the lack of common interests which is the base for each transnational movement. Traditionally, political action in the industrial countries presupposed a specific concept of space and territory. The state used its power for the legitimate use of force in a limited area, to fix its borders. That is why, in a first time, former social movements took for granted the assumption that the national state defined the relevant political space for political contenders.

Extraits

[...] It is thus advantageous to a movement like that of the farmers to develop an enemy because it leads to the establishment of ‘esprit de corps'. This notion expresses ‘group spirit'. The development of ‘esprit de corps' helps to foster the attachment of people to a movement[34]. Concretely, one can observe that the United States and American multinational corporations are the main targets for the European farmers. For instance, they ransacked McDonald's restaurants, and blockaded Euro- Disney in 1992. It is principally for two reasons that the European farmers target the U.S. [...]

[...] This leads to a redefinition of the state as a central contender in the protests in Europe. - The domestic level as a characteristic of the occupational groups The second point is the fact that the domestication of the conflict is also due to the structure of the farmers' group, which is very unique compared to other movements where transnationalization is observed. In fact, the farmers belong to the occupational group, also made up of laborers and miners; that means a group whose members work for themselves. [...]

[...] Transaction Publishers. Smith Chatfield C and Pagnucco R Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics: solidarity beyond the State. New York. Snow, D. Soule A and Kriesi H. The Blackwell companion to social movements Malden. Tarrow Sidney Power in Movement. Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge University Press. Tarrow Sidney Transnational Contention. No. 2000/44. European University Institute. Agriculture in the European Union. [...]

[...] The second category concerns the cooperative transnationalism, which includes parallel protests with “different or same targets in cooperative but recognizably separate acts”[36]. The last category is very interesting: it is the competitive transnationalism, in which “private actors from one member-state protest against and may target private actors from another state”[37]. This sort of transnationalism suggests a far different dimension of European integration. In this case, it is extremely common among the farmers: protesters rally against, rather than join with, their competitors from other nations. [...]

[...] If transnational movements occur, it is between the farmers sharing the same values and the same resources, most often the richest contenders. This is the reason why it requires, when we analyze the farmers' protests, to discuss each and every aspect of the farmers' groups such as ‘rich' farmers, the ‘small' farms, the fishermen and cereal farms, involving totally opposite concepts of the movement, which leads to a most concrete formation of their interests. Appendix References Della Porta Donatella and Reiter Herbert. [...]