The Rhizomatic Left, neoliberal capitalism and class: Theoretical interventions on contemporary social movements in the global north

Abstract

This article begins to theoretically explore today's left social movement formations in relation to shifts in capital and class relations. The article links the emergence of a novel matrix of social movement politics, which it calls the Rhizomatic Left, to the structural shifts from Fordism to neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari, the image of the rhizome is insightful for outlining the nature and workings of contemporary social movement powered politics. The article briefly sketches four central characteristics of the Rhizomatic Left: transnationality, diversity, multi-connectivity and communication. Despite arguable success, however, the Rhizomatic Left also faces inherent challenges for sustained movement building. The article locates these limitations in the absence of a unifying or transversal dimension of and for the diversity of the constitutive groups and movements of the Rhizomatic Left. The article suggests that re-emphasizing capitalism and class relations as such a transversal axis might allow the Rhizomatic Left to begin congealing as a more resilient movement formation, shifting from a ‘class in itself’ to a ‘class for itself’.

Keywords:

• social movements
• neoliberalism
• globalization
• class formation; communication

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the reviewers and in particular Chen Shuoying for invaluable editorial suggestions and advice. Moreover, I would like to acknowledge the support of the University of South Florida's Research & Development Grant.

Notes

¹Also referred to the anti-globalization movement, the Global Justice Movement, I prefer the term alter-globalization since it indicates that the vast majority of movements and groups are not against global integration but against the neoliberal form of globalization.

²But see Janson (2007). In his thorough account of the roots of this unraveling in case of the United States, Janson argues persuasively that the New Deal actually started to unravel as early as the 1930s, much earlier than commonly thought.

³For an account that we are not as globalized as often assumed, see Ghemawat (2011).

⁴For an exploration of the Chinese working class, see, for instance, Li (2011).

⁵For a detailed account of the use of communication for suturing class-based movement, see Funke, Robé and Wolfson (2012).

⁶For an analysis of the rhizome in relation to social forums, see Funke (forthcoming 2012).