Social Movements

Kate Nash claims “that social movements have such a central place in the understanding of new forms of politics in the field is largely due to the way in which they have been placed on the research agenda by those sympathetic to, or actively involved in, those politics.” (Nash, 2012: 87) From this statement it is clear social movements have played a crucial role in defining South Africa in terms of social and political status, and they have been the source of many of our current laws and norms that we conform to today. Throughout history there has been debate on whether the terms ‘old’ and ‘new’ social movements are practical when discussing them within a South African context. In this essay, the various characteristics of both ‘old’ and ‘new’ social movements will be discussed in detail so as to understand what each entails, and examples will be given of each. From this, the usefulness of the distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ social movements in the post-1994 South African context will be explored so as to come to a conclusion regarding their use in South African history. Reference will be made to the studies of Kate Nash, Richard Ballard et al., Thokazani Nzimakwe and Tsepho Madlingozi

‘Old’ social movements tend to emphasise labour movements and parties that focus movement was seen as directing its attention towards the corporatist state. “ (Nash, 2010: 88) In simpler words, ‘old’ social movements are oriented towards the state, and are therefore emphasise structural hierarchy. ‘Old’ social movements are also seen as having an instrumental role, meaning that their members take part for specific reasons, such as to make money. There are many examples of movements which fall into the category of ‘old’ social movements in South Africa, and these include Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), many of the labour oriented movements and most of the women’s movements such as Self-Employed Women’s union. According to Nash (2010: 89) “women’s groups worked...