Alter-Europe: Progressive activists and Europe

In: Blokker, P. (ed.) Imagining Europe. Transnational contestation and civic populism, Palgrave, 33-57. , 2022

DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025) is among the most prominent recent attempts of left-wing transnationalism. In this chapter, we analyze how DiEM25 activists identify with ‘Europe’ and how they assess the practice of transnational activism. Our findings contribute to three important general debates on contemporary social movement activism. First, we provide further evidence that ‘anti-nationalist Europeanism’ constitutes a cornerstone of the political identity of many contemporary left-wing activists. Despite the strong criticism of and disappointment with the real-existing EU among DiEM25 activists, they strongly hold on to European integration, while being critical of the nation state, often equated with nationalism. Second, our findings underline the difficulties of ‘Europeanization from below’: despite DiEM25’s strong transnationalism on an ideational level, the actual practices of transnational activism involve many challenges, both offline and online. Third, we link to more general debates on the transnational strategies of left-wing actors in Europe, questioning the feasibility of such an approach, not only because of the challenges to effectively organize transnationally, but also because social science research indicates the immunization of the EU against left-wing reform. Methodologically, we make use of novel data collected for the research project that forms the basis of this book: semi-structured interviews with DiEM25 activists.

2017

Social movement scholars have become increasingly interested in the role of stories in contentious politics. Stories may facilitate the mobilization of activists and strengthen the resonance of their claims within public discourse and institutional politics. This book explores the role of narratives in building collective identity – a vital element in activists’ continued commitment. While often claimed important, the connection between narratives and movement identity remains understudied. Drawing on a rich pool of original data, the book’s analysis focusses on the Global Justice Movement (GJM), a movement known for its diversity of political perspectives. Based on a comparison of different national constellations of the GJM in Europe, the book demonstrates the centrality of activists’ narratives in forming and maintaining movement identity and in making the GJM more enduring.

Interface: the journal of and for social movements 5(2): 98-120., 2013

Overview On June 28, the Transnational Institute Amsterdam hosted a symposium with activists from a range of movements and researchers from the three main European networks of social movement research (Council for European Studies, European Sociological Association, European Consortium for Political Research). The goal was to share experiences from participants' different standpoints, map out the current situation of movement organising in Europe, and identify strategic implications in a way that can be usefully shared with activists across Europe. The participants were The symposium discussed three key questions: 1. Where are movements at? New and old elements, strengths and weaknesses (introduced by Benjamin Tejerina) 2. How can movements help each other? Networking across differences, solidarity, building a European movement? (introduced by Marianne Maeckelbergh) 3. How can movements win? Movement strategy in the crisis (introduced by Laurence Cox) Following the event we asked participants to write up their reflections arising

Notre Europe Policy Paper, 2006

Are social movement organisations euro-sceptical, rejecting the construction of European-level institutions? Or do they accept the EU as a new level of governance upon which to put pressure, developing critical Europeanism? This paper addresses these issues, locating contemporary social movements in a broader scenario of political conflicts around European integration,. Movements' attitudes towards Europe are discussed on the basis of empirical information collected on the organizations and activists that belong to the transnational networks of protest that have been known under the labels of alterglobalists, Globalizierungskritikers, or global justice movement. These data challenge the inclusion of those social movement organisations and activists among the eurosceptics, suggesting instead that they be defined as "critical Europeanists", who are not against more competences for Europe in principle, but are dissatisfied with its present policies. In this frame, the existing "market Europe" is criticized as supporting neo-liberal policies, but an alternative, "social Europe" is called for. With internal differences, movement organizations and activists do not favour in fact a return to the nation state, but rather develop a process of "Europeanisation from below", which includes the formation of European identities and European organizational networks. The intensification of the debate about Europe has brought about the symbolic linkage of the "conflict over Europe", layering various other cleavages over the original territorial ones Support and opposition thus tend to refer not only to (or not very much to) the integration process itself, but more and more address its form and content.

Interface: a journal for and about social movements vol. 5 no. 2: 98 - 120, 2013

Overview On June 28, the Transnational Institute Amsterdam hosted a symposium with activists from a range of movements and researchers from the three main European networks of social movement research (Council for European Studies, European Sociological Association, European Consortium for Political Research). The goal was to share experiences from participants' different standpoints, map out the current situation of movement organising in Europe, and identify strategic implications in a way that can be usefully shared with activists across Europe. The participants were The symposium discussed three key questions: 1. Where are movements at? New and old elements, strengths and weaknesses (introduced by Benjamin Tejerina) 2. How can movements help each other? Networking across differences, solidarity, building a European movement? (introduced by Marianne Maeckelbergh) 3. How can movements win? Movement strategy in the crisis (introduced by Laurence Cox) Following the event we asked participants to write up their reflections arising