Seven Theses on Latin American Social Movements and Political Change: A Tribute to André Gunder Frank (1929-2005)

Abstract

The resurgence of social movements is a phenomenon that rarely takes place in isolation. Increased social mobilisation often occurs consecutively in several countries and with the involvement of diverse movements. But the sudden increase of social movement activity is often followed by an evenly sudden downfall. André Gunder Frank pointed at this cyclical character of social movements in an article that he wrote with his wife Marta Fuentes in the late 1980s. Their Ten theses on social movements (published in World Development in 1989) was in fact a homage to the ‘new’ social movements of the late Cold War years, though still highly topical. As a student of Frank in that period, I appreciated his particular interest in the cyclical dynamics of social movements (Frank 1992). This focus was part of a broader research looking at the existence of long cycles in the world system. Social movements and other actors responded in Frank’s view both to internal and external circumstances that determined their life cycles. These external circumstances, in turn, also were cyclical, and altogether they determined in some way particular phases of crisis and recovery in the world system, one of the core themes of Frank’s academic work. Along the lines of Kondratieff’s long economic cycle, Frank assumed these ‘long cycles’ in social history had to be examined in all of their aspects in order to get a better understanding of the ‘pulse’ of the world system. By looking at cycles of ideological hegemony, politics and war, or economic and technological change, certain patterns could become apparent. One of these patterns seems to be that social movements become more offensive and socially responsible in periods of economic downturn, when people’s livelihood and identity is negatively affected. Another pattern analysed by Frank and Fuentes is the cyclical character of their action: ‘As movements mobilize people rather than institutionalizing action, even when they are unsuccessful or still relevant to existing circumstances, social movements tend to lose their force as their capacity to mobilize wanes’ (Fuentes and Frank 1989, 183). This ‘susceptibility to aging and death’ is often seen with movements that rely on charismatic leaders to mobilize their members, which was the case with many (Southern) revolutionary movements in the past. Over fifteen years later, Latin American social movements again seem to flourish in a period of economic downturn, which apparently coincides with a phase described above by Fuentes and Frank. The big difference is that new ‘progressive’ regimes have gained state power in many Latin American countries. This triggers several questions about the current position of social movements in the region: Why did social movements gain so much influence over the past decade in Latin America? Is this political influence not undermining their autonomy? And if for that reason their cyclical downfall might become inevitable, how are they dealing with the ambiguity of influencing the state and simultaneously maintaining their autonomy? The ideas below were originally drafted for a seminar at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague. Shortly before the seminar in late April 2005 we received the sad news of Andre Gunder Frank’s passing away. As a small tribute to a key development theorist (and above all a critical and inspiring thinker) I reorganised this essay by developing the following seven theses on current Latin American social movements and political change.