Anti-Systemic Movements

Anti-Systemic Movements

by Giovanni Arrighi, Terence K. Hopkins, and Immanuel Wallerstein

Verso 2012

Peerless examination of the rise of social movements against the global capitalist system.

Antisystemic Movements is an eloquent and concise history of popular resistance and class struggle by the leading exponents of the “world-systems” perspective on capitalism. Basing itself on an analysis of resistance movements since the emergence of capitalism, it shows that while some early forms were successful in their own terms, ultimately they did not impede the consolidation of the modern capitalist world-system. Taking the year 1968 as a symbolic turning-point, the authors argue that “new” antisystemic movements have arisen which challenge the logic of the capitalist world-system more centrally than ever before. These new movements have a different ethnic and gender composition and different ways of organizing, while their key inspirations show an increasing ability to cross national boundaries. The authors suggest that the new assertiveness of the south, the development of class struggle in the east and the emergence of rainbow coalitions in different world zones might hold out the promise of a future socialist world-system.