The new social movements and capitalist justice
Keywords:
New Social Movements, Capitalism, Neoliberalism, Capitalist subjectivityAbstract
Since 1991, New Social Movements (NSMs) of what Hardt and Negri called ‘the maultitude’ have emerged in several major capitalist countries. This paper investigates the potential of major NSMs for restructuring capitalist order. It argues that their potential for doing this is limited since they presume that reducing micro political dominance will automatically deconstruct capitalist macro power. Major NSM’s endorse postmodern subjectivity as depicted by Foucault and Deleuze and do not seek to construct an antagonistic capitalist subjectivity. Therefore, while they can succeed in reducing racism, environmental regulation etc, they are gradually absorbed within capitalist civil society and the existing capitalist macro political regime (neoliberalism)