Do New Social Movements signify the demise of class politics ?

Résumé du document

In May 1968, a student political meeting in the Sorbonne was broken up by the police, precipitating France into an intense disorder. Rapidly, it appeared that the battle of the students was not only against De Gaulle's conservative government. As Richard Johnson notices in The French Communist party versus the students: the revolutionary politics of May-June 1968 (1972), they were also in deep disagreement with the predominant left wing party: the PCF. Unlike this party which was using rhetoric of classes – fighting for a better pay for the “exploited” working class victim of the capitalist one structurally advantaged – the students did not define their struggle in terms of classes. They were not fighting against a powerful class, believing they were the dominated one. They were preoccupied by other issues, less economic and quantitative. They wanted to be recognised more rights, to be freer, and to get rid of the old fashioned morality which still impregnated the mentalities of the majority of French people. They wanted a better quality of life. For instance, one of their first demands was to have a better access to the female dormitories, a claim that Ronald Inglehart defined as “post materialist” in The silent revolution (1979).
The students' movements of 1968 – which were particularly intense in France , but appeared also in West Germany, Japan, USA and other Western democracies – have been followed by lots of other movements such as the environmentalist ones, the homosexual ones, the feminist ones, and also some peace movements. All these movements introduced a new rhetoric, new goals, and get rid of the traditional struggle of classes' ideology. On these criteria, they were all given the label “New Social Movements“.
Thirty years after 1968's key date, the rise of these movements and the collapse of the communist regimes definitely made lots of thinkers – such as Francis Fukuyama – think that The End of History and ideologies has happened, and that class struggle no longer plays a role in our modern societies.

However, isn't it possible to argue that New Social Movements do not reflect the destruction of the class struggle, but only its reorganization? Can't it be demonstrated that New Social Movements are part of a new class cleavage?

Then, do New Social Movements really signify the demise of class politics?

If the rise of these movements undoubtedly reflects a diminution of the strength of the traditional class struggle – and not, as we will demonstrate, its complete disappearance - with the introduction of new goals and new methods (part 1), some other facts make us think that their members constitute a new class associated with new antagonisms (part 2).

Extraits

[...] Then, do New Social Movements really signify the demise of class politics? If the rise of these movements undoubtedly reflects a diminution of the strength of the traditional class struggle and not, as we will demonstrate, its complete disappearance - with the introduction of new goals and new methods (part some other facts make us think that their members constitute a new class associated with new antagonisms (part 2). The issues and methods introduced by New social Movements on the political scene are indicators of the decreasing weight of the traditional class struggle At first sight, it is necessary to give a precise definition of this traditional class struggle. [...]

[...] In Social movements in Britain (chapter Who are they?) , Paul Byrne demonstrates that members of NSM are mostly part of a middle class”. This specific class is different from what we can call the “traditional” middle class. It does not get its power from the same things. Unlike the old middle class which based its influence upon ownership and control of the means of industrial production, the middle class's power is due to its knowledge and education. It appeared during the sixties, with the expansion of the third sector and the democratization of the higher education system. [...]

[...] For instance, Paul Byrne notices in Social movements in Britain that, even if women's movements fight for a better pay, their aim is not the better pay in itself, but the symbolic recognition of the gender equality that would be associated with this improvement. It is the same when the homosexual movements express that they want the State to allow them to marry. They do not only fight for the economic advantages associated with this marital status. What they really expect is the recognition of the equal value of their identity. The environmentalist movements and the peace movements also have aims that are not related to money. [...]

[...] It is very important that the media constitute a relay for a movement's cause and bring the population's support. What is important is that, in order to obtain the media's support, NSM do not need to make massive demonstrations. For instance, the high qualified status of the searchers allows them to use expertise instead of a traditional massive protest in order to attract the media's attention. This situation, added to the fact that members of NSM often fight for the rights of people who do not have a lot of resources and, therefore, can not mobilize themselves like the prostitutes or the asylum seekers makes us think that, perhaps, the members of NSM are part of a specific new class associated with new cleavages. [...]

[...] The unemployment was not a problem in those days. Moreover, the purchase power of the households had increased and people could afford lots of new consumer goods. For instance, in 1971, ninety nine per cent of the French households were already equipped with a television. The fact that a rebellion appeared in such a time of abundance can seem paradoxical. Tocqueville, in the nineteenth century, had already pointed out this contradiction in De l'ancien regime a la Revolution by declaring (concerning the French revolution of 1789): “French seem to have found their situation even worse because it was becoming better”. [...]