5 - The Search for Social Power

Summary

“The Search for Social Power” considers the development of radical movements after the crisis year of 1968, showing how revolutionary tactics were adjusted even as new concerns and actors came to the fore. Exploring how activists responded to the danger of “recuperation”—the act by which consumer capitalism packaged rebellion and sold it back to its constituents—the chapter examines the rise of political undergrounds determined to live authentically even while searching for new avenues in the political struggle. While numerous small new communist parties emerged demanding a return to Marxist-Leninist basics alongside small cells dedicated to armed struggle, new movements such as second wave feminism emerged to challenge the usually male-dominated politics of militant struggle in favor of attempts to reshape the experience of daily life. In every case, the post-1968 moment was shaped by the attempt to achieve “social power,” that is, to find workable strategies for producing real change in the world.