CONFLICTS & DOWNFALLS

THE STRUGGLES/CONFLICT

“Touraine, there is one key conflict between opposed social movements: the conflict between the dominant class which has appropriated historicity, changing it into order through organization, and the dominated who attempt to re - appropriate it, to break down the status quo, reveal the conflict it conceals, and introduce innovatory ways of thinking, working, and living” (108). – Fair trade is a social movement with the conflict of two interest groups; businesses who want to charge less and gain supply from other third world countries and the conflict between workers who work in terrible conditions

In Touraine ’ s view, since social movements now struggle directly over the social conditions of self - determination, contemporary society works on itself directly through culture to a greater extent than ever before. His definition of social action makes clear his view of the importance of cultural contest: “ Action is the behavior of an actor guided by cultural orientations and set within social relations defined by an unequal connection with the social control of those orientations ” (Touraine, 1981 : 61). (108/109)

For Melucci, as for Touraine, social movements have a tangential relationship to established institutional politics; they cannot be assimilated to the political process because the conflicts they engender break the bounds of the current system (Melucci, 1989 : 29). Melucci (116)

Not only are there struggles within the organization, but the overall cause also affects workers from third world countries who fight for fairer wages against their employers. This is often a very difficult situation when being confronted by a worker. Many times businesses are able to replace disobedient workers, which creates a fear for the workers to behave and act as they are told. This creates a situation of oppression, leaving the employers to take advantage of the situation. By having organizations such as Fair Trade step into the process, they are able to help the farmers produce fairer wages.

DOWNFALLS:

A downfall to Fair Trade social movement is that it’s not classified as a ‘standard movement’ where protests are common and seen as the standard. “Social movements that did not resemble the labor movement, with its organized political parties and instrumental demands for improved social conditions, tended to be ignored as not political” (Tilly 89). Thus, this viewing of Fair Trade leads to a lesser importance in the issue. However, it does have political involvements in the cause due to the push of creating the ability for business from developed countries to help negotiate fair trade to other developing countries.

For Resource Mobilization theorists, although social movements may initially have a problematic relation to government insofar as their members do not see themselves as properly represented in dominant political parties and institutions, success for a social movement involves achieving routine access to the political process (93)