On alternative movements in the current conjuncture

Abstract

Recent social movements (from «Arab spring» to Occupy Wall Street, passing through «the outraged» European or the Latin American students) can be understood better, without denying local components, if alternatives are perceived as produced within the logic of the capitalist system. To that one must add the current conjuncture of insecurities produced by the visible crisis since 2008, which exacerbates the motives for protest. This, however, is not dominant, and its members pose -with difficulty- goals and means, while they oscillate from seeking changes within the system and its generalization towards a system change.