SCHOOL OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, THE UNIVERSITY OF KENT Prefigurative Politics: Perils and Promise PhD Dissertation Juuso V.M. Miettunen 19 August 2015 102,291 Words 246 Pages Abstract. Many recent social movements have been characterised by their commitment to direct democratic decision-making procedures and leaderless, non-hierarchic organizational structures. This political tendency also implies the search for autonomy from existing political institutions and practises. Movements seek instead to embody in the political action itself the social relations, ways of collective decision-making and values that are ultimately desired for the whole society. This prefigurative approach to social change is often criticized for being naiive or marginal. This thesis argues first that this is not the case, but that prefigurative politics is misunderstood due to its differing view on questions of strategy, organisation and ultimately the possibility of fundamental societal change. The dissertation first outlines the often implicit strategy or vision of change underpinning prefigurative politics. It then identifies as the key challenge for prefigurative movements their ability to avoid reproducing oppressive forms of power, ‗power-over.‘ This understudied aspect is investigated through extensive ethnographic field research with the unemployed workers movement, MTD Lanús in Buenos Aires, and the Zapatista movement in Mexico. The thesis concludes that it seems impossible to completely avoid reproducing old forms of power. Often key individuals in the movements end up in a paradoxical position whereby, in an effort to ensure the group‘s prefigurative nature, these individuals enjoy non-prefigurative influence. The findings imply that the state and corresponding political forms and practises are not the only source of hierarchic pressures. As such, it would be more useful to view prefigurative political action as desirable, yet impossible. Juuso V.M. Miettunen Prefigurative Politics Contents Contents ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Context ......................................................................................................................................... 2 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................................... 7 What is at stake? ........................................................................................................................ 11 Chapter 1. Autonomism as a strategy for social change ................................................................. 13 Definitions .................................................................................................................................. 15 Social movement ......................................................................................................... 15 Prefiguration ............................................................................................................... 18 The nature of autonomous movements ...................................................................................... 20 Divisions within the ‗alter-globalization‘ movement ................................................. 20 Autonomist notions of power, revolution and revolutionary subjectivity .................. 23 Autonomism and subjectivity ..................................................................................... 25 The concept of autonomy ........................................................................................................... 26 Theory of John Holloway .......................................................................................................... 31 Open Marxism and the context of Holloway‘s theory ................................................ 32 To Change the World without Taking Power – Social change according to Holloway .................................................................................................................................... 34 Autonomism as strategy ............................................................................................................. 40 Challenges to autonomism ......................................................................................................... 42 External challenges ..................................................................................................... 42 Internal challenges ...................................................................................................... 44 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 49 Chapter 2. Social movement theory and Autonomism .................................................................... 50 Part 1. North American social movement theories .................................................................... 51 Resource and Opportunities ........................................................................................ 51 Political Opportunity Structures (POS) ...................................................................... 52 The ‗cultural turn‘ and framing approaches ................................................................ 53 Part 2. Prefiguration and (American) social movement theory .................................................. 55 Autonomous movements and ‗free spaces‘ ................................................................ 60 Part 3. New Social movement theory ......................................................................................... 62 Prefiguration and NSM - Critique of new social movement theory ........................... 64 Self-limiting radicalism and ‗life-style‘ politics – the ‗retreatist‘ assumption ........... 67 Part 4. Social movements and ‗success‘ .................................................................................... 69 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 71 Chapter 3. Challenges to autonomism and the methodological approach for studying them ..... 74 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 74 Part one – tensions and challenges for prefiguring alternative social relations ......................... 75 Informal elites and the ‗Iron Law of Oligarchy‘ ......................................................... 76 Deliberative democracy and focus of group decision-making in prefigurative movements .................................................................................................................. 81 Two-phase approach to case studies .......................................................................................... 85 Part two. A methodological approach to studying autonomous movements ............................. 86 Case selection ............................................................................................................. 87 Method – strengths ...................................................................................................... 89 Part three. Challenges of the method ......................................................................................... 95 Access ......................................................................................................................... 95 Validity through reflexivity ........................................................................................ 96 Representativeness ...................................................................................................... 97 Research and power – the ethics of ethnography ........................................................ 98 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 102 Chapter 4. Zapatismo and the challenges of autonomism............................................................. 103 The importance of Zapatismo ................................................................................... 105 Part 1. Material and political origins of Zapatismo .................................................................. 106 Rich land, poor people .............................................................................................. 107 Land .......................................................................................................................... 107 Neoliberalism and the end of land reform ................................................................ 108 Revolution and PRI Rule .......................................................................................... 109 Past movements ........................................................................................................ 111 ‗Community in arms‘ – or, when Marcos met Moises ............................................. 115 From 1994 to current moment – changes and challenges ......................................... 117 Potential problems of prefiguring Zapatista autonomy