Answer question #3 in 2 pages, double spaced, using APA referencing
Question
3. Define what are right-wing and conservative movements, explain what are the main ideologies and the factors which influence their emergence and becoming.
Identity issues, power relations, self-affirmation, recognition, inclusion, freedom, sacred values, symbols and beliefs are important again, as we will see by reading the texts mentioned below.
However, we will see that those movements also have their own histories and dynamics. For now, we will look at general presentations of these four movements to introduce you to them. Once again, you will learn more by reading more texts (see under “Required Readings’).
Module Notes
Indigenous Movements
The indigenous movements emerged mostly after the Second World War in states arising from the European colonization of the Americas and Australia. The main colonizers were Great Britain, Spain, France and Portugal; the Netherlands also played a minor role in some colonies. As a result, we find indigenous movements in multiple states like Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and the United States. Therefore, it is not surprising that even if indigenous movements are typically involved in local conflicts, they are also active at the international level (through the United Nations with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, for example) and related to transnational organizations, such as the Front of Binational Organizations (FIOB). They typically fight for specific rights for indigenous groups, self-determination, the preservation of cultures, and the protection of territories and resources. The work of Amazon Watch in Brazil to denounce the deforestation of the Amazon and the conflicts in the USA around the Dakota Access Pipeline are good examples at this level.
Indigenous movements have often been related to ecological thinking for cultural and political reasons, but they should not be confused with environmental movements, even if they can be allies on many issues. Indigenous movements typically fight for small minorities and economically poor populations, but they have been able to make significant legal and political gains in the last decades. The election in 2001 of the first Peruvian president of indigenous origin, Alejandro Toledo, is an interesting illustration of the growing political importance of indigenous movements in many states. However, Peru is somewhat of an exception since 45% of the population is indigenous.
Radical Muslim Movement
The radical Muslim movement is well known due to the increase in related terrorist actions in the last decades. It is made up of various organizations like Al-Qaeda, the Taliban (Afghanistan), Hamas, Boko Haram (Nigeria), Al-Shabaab (Somalia) and ISIS. Those are specific movements and should never be confused with all Muslim people, in the same way that all white people in the USA are not members of the Ku Klux Klan.
All radical Muslim movements are composed of Muslim people, but not all Muslims are members or even supporters of these movements. In fact, members and supporters of these movements are part of small minorities in various countries. These movements can partly be seen as the effects of the colonization of European states — mostly Great Britain and France. These movements can be found in various locations on this planet these days, but they particularly flourish in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia where European colonization happened.
They are also related to the failures of post-Second World War nationalist movements in these areas, as well as the corruption of the elites and the more recent hegemony of superpowers like the USSR (until 1989) and the USA. In this respect, it is not by accident that Great-Britain, France, Russia and the USA are common targets of terrorist actions coming from those movements. This social movement is a complex social phenomenon which cannot be explained in a few sentences or even one text.
For instance, they are related to terrorist organizations, but cannot be reduced to them. Movement organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood, for example, have been very active in poor neighbourhoods, offering social, cultural and economic support to families, students, etc. They can be also very involved in religious activities and education through mosques, universities and the publication of books and other texts. Generally speaking, they are identity movements based on the exclusion (and often the denigration) of non-Muslims, the protection of cultures and religious beliefs, and political sovereignty. They are typically opposed to modern practices, movements and institutions (cinema, non-sacred literature, Feminism, any kind of “liberation” of sexuality, etc.) which are presented as sources of “pollution” or corruption of the mind.
This fundamentalist religious movement is a reactionary one against the “Westernization” of Muslim countries. They typically want to go back to what they see as the fundamentals of the Muslim religion, and implement the Sharia law (religious laws) as the law of the states. The way of life of Muhammed and his companions is seen as a model to follow. Muhammed lived from CE 570 to CE 632 and was, in part, a military leader involved in the “Jihad” (holy war made to spread Islam). Many “modernized” women are victims of repression (including rapes and murders) from radical Muslim people. Many “intellectuals” in these countries have also been victims of severe repression, including murders once again. If there is no “clash of civilization” between the Muslims and “Westernized” people, there is certainly a central conflict between these conservative and religious social movements and what we can call the “Western civilization” or modernity. For this reason and others, talking about these movements is a very sensitive issue. This is one reason why we need sociological research on these movements: to talk about this real and serious problem in rigorous and “detached” ways; with rational ideas and empirical data more than values, beliefs and emotions.
Alter-globalization Movement
The alter-globalization movement, also called the counter-globalization or the anti-globalization movement, is a very contemporary movement. In fact, like other large movements, it is a configuration of multiple movement organizations we find pretty much all over the world, even if they are more important in richer states. As its names show, this is a reaction and a contestation of the actual economic, political and cultural globalization of the world. Many discourses and actions focus on the economic dimension of the globalization. These people contest the “neo-liberal” globalization of the world. More precisely, they oppose the freedom and the powers of multinational corporations, political measures supported by international organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). They ask for more democratic representation and participation of the citizens on global decisions which affects localities and the whole planet; push for sustainable development rather than a development centred only or mostly on profits; and they defend the human rights of populations victims of global powers; and ask for “fair trade” in order to protect vulnerable farmers, workers and communities. “Alter-globalists” have also been involved in some forms of pacifist actions; for example, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where millions of people marched on the streets of many cities all around the world, roughly at the same time. This vast and fluid movement is also made by a constellation of national and transnational organizations.
The emergence of new right-wing populist movements has been quite spectacular in the last decades in states like Austria, Canada, Chile, France, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, the United States, and many others.
The “unexpected” political victory of the Brexit side in a referendum in the United Kingdom (forcing the exit of the UK from the European Union) and the election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States of America have showed the force of these movements in our societies today. These are “populist” and “right-wing” movements, meaning they represent and defend the “People” against “left-wing” elites (the “liberals’, the “communists”…) who are supposed to use the governments, the media, the school systems, the universities, the banks and even the United Nations to control the world, the institutions and the mind of the people. They are also typically against the globalization of the world even if they should not be confused with the “alter-globalization” movement which is a “left-wing” one. They can also be close to anti-abortion movements and other neo-conservative movements, even if they are usually not religious movements like these two. They are nationalist movements and are more or less connected to racist organizations.
In the American version, Donald Trump and his advisor Steve Bannon summarized this ideology quite well by attacking the “liberals” and the mass media, by defending “ordinary” people like coal or steel workers against the “environmentalists’, by being against immigration (especially from the Muslim world), by calling for the construction of a “wall” between Mexico and the USA, and by repeating almost on a daily basis: “America first!”. Like the radical Muslims they despise a lot, they would like to restore the social order of the past, when everything was much better. These are “reactionary” movements. In their eyes, they are the real and only democratic movements since they protect the “people” against an undemocratic elite of “liberals” who work only for its own interests. It also made by various organizations active in various countries, and they have some international connections even if they are first and foremost nationalist movements fighting for their country and their “people”. Important political parties are part of these movements in states such as France (Front National), Netherlands (Party of Freedom) and the United Kingdom (UK Independence Party). In Canada, the defunct Reform Party was associated to this type of movements, as well as the former mayor of Toronto Rob Ford and some members of the Conservative Party at the federal level.
