Global Waves of Social Protest and Labor Unrest, 1850-2016

• In Event: 4149 - Current Topics in World-Systems Research

Abstract

Using a new original database on global level social protest and labor unrest from 1851 to the present, this paper shows that, since 2011, we have been experiencing an “unusual” wave of global social protest. We compare the frequency, geographical spread and class composition of the current protest wave with previous global waves of protest in 1905, 1917-1919, the 1930s, the 1960s and 1989. Our data shows that years in which mass social/labor unrest is taking place simultaneously in many countries are rare, and that hegemonic crisis/breakdown periods are disproportionately represented among these years. Moreover, we argue that we are presently living through a period of crisis/breakdown of US hegemony, which is in many ways analogous to the early 20th century crisis/breakdown of British world-hegemony. Among the similarities between these two periods that can be seen from the GSP dataset are the surge of unemployment related movements and the rise of far-right movements. The analysis presented in the paper also highlights key differences between the two hegemonic crisis periods such as the lack of open warfare between great powers, increasing frequency of labor unrest in the global south and the increase in alternative (non-strike) forms of workers’ struggles. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the paper’s comparative-historical analysis for understanding the present; and in particular pointing to how two intertwined processes—world hegemonic crisis and global social protest—has shaped and is continuing to shape the emerging world (dis-)order of the twenty-first century.

Authors

• Beverly Judith Silver, Johns Hopkins University

• Sahan Savas Karatasli, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Sefika Kumral, UNC-Greensboro