By Eva Schwienbacher
What does protesting achieve? Who takes to the streets? And are people protesting more today than they used to? Social movement researcher Karin Fischer of Johannes Kepler University Linz responds.
20er: It feels as if you can take part in a demonstration almost every week. Are we living in a time of protest?
Karin Fischer: Protest is part of democracy and occurs in cycles. We saw particularly intense global protest movements in the 1960s, with student revolts and environmental, women’s, and peace movements. A quieter period in the 1980s was followed in the late 1990s and 2000s by major anti-globalisation protests from Seattle to Copenhagen. In Austria, the anti-nuclear movement, the protests against the Hainburg power plant, and the demonstrations in 2000 against the conservative/far-right coalition mobilised a great many people. I don’t see similarly large levels of resistance at present.
What factors actually trigger a mass movement?
That’s impossible to say in advance. In several major movements in recent times, such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ following the fatal police violence against George Floyd in the US, or the protests in Iran following the murder of Mahsa Amini, individual tragedies became focal points for resistance. A single action in itself does not constitute a movement; it only becomes a social movement once people with shared beliefs and goals have organised themselves as a collective over a longer period of time.
Across Tyrol, many smaller citizens’ initiatives are currently emerging, whether driven by demands for a 30 km/h [about 19 mph] speed limit or a women-only sauna. Are people not being heard at the political level?
Protest makes it possible to put issues on the agenda, attract public attention, and perhaps even shift the public discourse. When people take to the streets and block a motorway, as they recently did at the Brenner Pass, I see that as a sign that they are not otherwise being heard. It’s a form of interest articulation chosen by people who are shut out of the institutionalised system of power, or who perceive it as closed to them. They then resort to methods of so-called non-cooperation, such as boycotts, strikes, blockades, or other forms of civil disobedience.
Who are the people who typically take to the streets?
In general, it’s system-critical people on the left who are perceived as having a strong affinity for protest. But social movements aren’t just feel-good left-wing causes, acting in the interests of society or even of humanity. They can also be authoritarian, far-right and hostile to human rights. Identitarian and right-wing movements in and outside Austria have largely adopted the forms of action and cultural codes of the anti-authoritarian left.
So protest movements can also become dangerous?
Yes, of course. As I said, social movements can also be fascist. We know this from our history.
‘Family values’ protesters, anti-vaxxers and Identitarians ran side by side in the corona demonstrations. What happened there?
It seems they were successful in defining a common enemy and cause across dividing lines. The immediate trigger has passed, and the movement’s party-like organisation has failed, but the issues still crop up in the newly emerged right-wing media. The mobilisation of opinion taking place there could potentially bring people back onto the streets.
Do you think there is a gap in the research when it comes to right-wing protest movements?
There used to be a great deal of research in Austria on the FPÖ [Freedom Party of Austria], but that petered out. With the current authoritarian turn and the internationally observed resurgence of the right, research is now catching up again. Researchers are examining transnational right-wing networks, organisations, and the strategies employed by right-wing groups.
When are social movements successful?
There is no single scientific measure of success. For example, one can look at whether a movement is able to use divisions among those in power as an anchor, or how open it is to building alliances with other groups and initiatives. The ability to mobilise sufficient human, temporal, and financial resources, and to shape key strategic concepts, is also regarded as a success factor. On top of that, a movement needs a convincing definition of the problem, along with a proposed solution.
There have been movements in Austria that have brought about lasting change, such as the anti-nuclear movement. The fact that the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant was never commissioned is clearly a success, isn’t it?
That’s a good example of a movement that had a clear goal and ultimately achieved it. But what about the labour movement or the women’s movement? If we compare the life of a woman today with that of a woman in the 1950s or 1960s, we’ve achieved an incredible amount, and yet the struggle isn’t over. It can also be a success when the concerns of a social movement make it onto the political agenda. In the best-case scenario, a social movement makes itself obsolete. With some movements, we don’t see what they’ve achieved until years later. Many say that the Arab Spring failed, but the movement may well be continuing beneath the surface, drawing on earlier networks. And I’m convinced that we’ll be seeing climate protests again, simply because the climate crisis is intensifying.
Speaking of climate protests: how important are a strong lobby and influence in legitimising protest?
Very important. A strong lobby is definitely needed. Climate protests challenge an entire system, after all: they are not just about protection or the rights of a particular group; they are about the bigger picture, and that makes them much more confrontational. Its treatment at the hands of the media and the legal system pushed the Last Generation movement to where it currently is, ultimately leading to its dissolution. But the people are still there, and a new generation is growing up that may, in turn, be mobilised again in entirely new ways. We will have to wait and see.
Austria is currently making cuts across the board – in education, transport, culture, and social services. Do you think that there will be more protests?
It’s impossible to say in advance with any certainty whether isolated protest marches will turn into movements. Why some issues catch on while others don’t is unclear. After all, we’re not seeing a movement for wealth taxes, even though they have many disadvantages and benefit only a select few – apparently that’s not enough to give rise to a movement.
Translated from German via Translators Without Borders
Courtesy of 20er / INSP.ngo
