Emergence of a global social movement: World says no to inequality

Since the Arab uprising in 2010 the world has realized that mass mobilizations and social movements could still be feasible means of achieving socio- political goals. The movement which started in the Middle East, later spread to Spain, Greece, England, Chile and recently with the Occupy Wall Street Movement which originated in the USA, to the rest of the globe. The main concern of the protestors is increasing economic inequality. The demonstrators have been framing this as the opposition of 99% against 1% of the society. Some link their protest to the crisis of capitalism and the others associate it with an ongoing struggle for democracy.

The movements of 1960s were referred to as ‘new’ in contrast to the ‘old’ workers movements. According to the New Social Movement Theory, the emergence of the ‘new’ social movements was then linked to emergence of a ‘new type of society’ which could generate ‘new’ demands and therefore, ‘new’ types of social movements. Considering the fact that since 1960s, this is the first time we are witnessing a globally expanding movement, uprising of this global movement has given rise to a very essential question: are we witnessing emergence of the ‘post- new social movements’ and consequently a ‘newer type of society’? My main objective in this article is to answer this question. The article has three sections. First, by incorporating original research to the existing data on the movement I present an overall, coherent overview of this newly emerged global movement. Second, with reference to the New Social Movement Theory, I provide an analytical framework for the analysis of the movement. Finally, I point out the implications of emergence of such a global movement for New Social Movement Theory.