Arte Blanco con Motivos Negros: Fernando Ortiz's Concept of Cuban National Culture and Identity

The purpose of this article is to analyze Fernando Ortiz's treatment of the poetic production of the 1920s and 30s movement of Afrocubanismo . The first section explains his belief in a process which would culminate with the consolidation of a mulatto Cuban national identity. It is argued that Ortiz conceived of this process as one which would eliminate what he assumed were pure African forms, which he viewed as primitive and inferior. The second section explores how these notions affected his evaluations of the poetry of the movement. The third section compares Ortiz's methodology in determining identities to what is known in anthropology as an etic perspective. It is argued that Ortiz ascribes mulatto identities to cultural forms without considering the perspectives of their practitioners. The article reaches three main conclusions regarding Ortiz's treatment of afrocubanista poetry. Firstly, that he used it as the confirmation of a process of formation of a mulatto Cuban national identity. Secondly, that he viewed it as a genre which could stylize and make acceptable inferior African cultural forms. Thirdly, that he used it as an instrument through which to dilute conflictive black or African identities.     

Migration in the enlarged European Union: Empirical evidence for labour mobility in the Baltic states

Abstract

The free movement of workers again is a hot issue with regard to the Eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU). Members of the EU are extremely anxious of mass immigration flows from Central and Eastern Europe countries (CEECs). This paper analyses the socio-economic and demographic impacts of migration in the context of the next EU enlargement. How many people might migrate from the Eastern European transition countries to Western Europe, and what will be the socio-economic and demographic consequences of this emigration for the home countries? After providing a short overview of the theoretical literature and the empirical evidence on the socio-economic determinants of migration, the next section discusses the historical evidence of the migrant flows from the candidate countries into the EU. We draw on suggestions from the literature as well as on our empirical work. In the following parts, we evaluate the size and the structure of current and future migration to Western Europe following the opening up of the transition countries in the beginning of the 1990s. This part quantitatively evaluates the future migration pressure, based on the economic and demographic situation in the Baltic states and Western Europe. In the last section, we discuss the policy implication of our econometric analysis, and draw policy conclusions.     

Intellectuals and Political Power in Social Movements: The Parallel Paths of Fadlallah and Hizbullah

This article examines the intellectual impact of Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah (1935–2010) on Hizbullah's political behaviour. Many depicted Fadlallah as the ‘spiritual guide’ and ‘oracle’ of Hizbullah, while others accentuated his socio-political independence and the potential he represented as an ‘alternative’ to Hizbullah and Iran. This study argues that Fadlallah directly influenced Hizbullah's political worldviews, but the Islamic movement's socialisation in Lebanon, its dependence on Iran and its war with Israel have led it to pursue a separate path from Fadlallah. But despite the separation, the Ayatollah shared a common world vision with Hizbullah and the Islamic Republic, and would not have formed an alternative. The article is divided into two sections. The first examines the socio-political origins of Fadlallah and Hizbullah as an intellectual and a political movement, respectively, and conceptualises the discursive and political fields that motivate the behaviour of the two actors. The second section assesses the impact of Fadlallah's ideas on Hizbullah by focusing on three main themes: (1) Islamic liberation and resistance against injustice; (2) the Islamic state and Lebanon; and (3) Wilayat al-Faqih and Islamic Iran.     

Libya's foreign policy in flux

This article provides a brief assessment of Libya’s oftenunpredictable foreign policy with regard to Africa. The firstsection presents a brief historical background to Libya’sinvolvement on the African continent and Colonel Gaddafi’smilitary interventionism in Africa. The next section assessesthe 1990s and Muammar Gaddafi’s popularity during thisperiod as well as his often extravagant economic involvementin Africa. The third section considers Gaddafi’s ambitiousrole in the African Union and his efforts to secure a unitedAfrica. The fourth section assesses Gaddafi’s dramaticforeign policy shift from rogue criminal to responsible statesman,following his historic decision to relinquish his country’sweapons of mass destruction (WMD) and an almost enthusiasticwillingness to welcome the West back after decades of antagonismand the subsequent wave of international praise as a consequence.Finally, it gives a brief assessment of the future of Libya’sforeign relations.     

Orchestrating Anti-Dispossession Politics: Caste and Movement Leadership in Rural West Bengal

ABSTRACT

This article uses the concepts of orchestration and spectacle to analyse the work of leaders of an anti-dispossession movement in rural West Bengal. It examines what being a movement leader entails and argues for the importance of connections and social relations in the production of both movement leadership and movement spectacles. By introducing a Dalit perspective on a movement that was otherwise led by the local middle-caste peasantry, the article shows how local caste and class relations have been important in defining access to positions of movement leadership; in disconnecting specific Dalit interests from the movement’s larger political agenda; and in giving rise to certain forms of internal policing of caste boundaries within the movement. The fact that the ability to cultivate and “connect” to the new political spaces opened by the anti-dispossession movement correlates strongly with historically produced caste and class inequalities calls for greater attention to the internal caste politics of anti-dispossession movements.     

The feminist movement in Taiwan, 1972–87

Abstract

The definition of the women's movement has caused a certain degree of confusion in the women's studies community in Taiwan. Before 1986 it was debated whether there was or had ever been a women's movement at all on the island, for gender equality had been guaranteed by the 1947 Constitution, and hence some people questioned the desirability and potential impact of such a movement. Afterwards, as social movements collected momentum and popular support, the tendency has been to define the women's movement broadly to include all types of women's group activities.     

The Co‐optation of LGBT Movements in Mexico and Nicaragua: Modernizing Clientelism?

Before the 1980s, LGBT groups in Latin America were largely (though not entirely) excluded from the state. This article argues that a combination of factors—democratization, social movement demands, neoliberal globalization and its accompanying discourse of modernity—has led many state actors to seek to incorporate LGBT groups into the state. Considering two cases of self‐proclaimed revolutionary parties, Mexico's PRI and Nicaragua's FSLN, the article examines how and why these parties incorporated LGBT organizations and what impact such incorporation had on the LGBT groups themselves. In both countries, LGBT groups benefited from clientelistic resources at the same time that they found themselves deradicalizing, often forced to accept visibility without rights. But in Nicaragua, a more recent revolutionary experience and ties to a combative, autonomous feminist movement have allowed some LGBT activists to resist the state's efforts to co‐opt their movement.     

Assessing India's Emerging Land Warfare Doctrines and Capabilities: Prospects and Concerns

Abstract

This article attempts to locate and assess the sources of India's land warfare doctrines and capabilities. It begins by briefly examining the Indian army's significant combat experience in dealing with the external and internal security threats during the past six decades. The first section analyzes the security challenges and threats that presently drive the evolution of India's land war–fighting doctrines and capabilities. The next section explains the military imperatives that are driving this doctrinal change. In the next section, the current status of India's land war–fighting capabilities is discussed. The subsequent section examines the institutional limitations that inhibit organizational change, and the final section highlights how these doctrinal and capability gaps might be addressed in the future.     

A short review

Abstract

As the title indicates, Zhou En-lai is the link which joins together the two distinct parts of this brief work. The first section by Davison and Selden is a short interpretive history of the Chinese revolution from the Opium War to 1975, highlighting Zhou's participation in and contributions to it. The second section contains reprints from New China Magazine of Zhou's 1971 talks with Americans on selected topics including class struggle in the socialist period, slogans, the Cultural Revolution, and U.S.-China relations.     

Japan and China: Security interests in the post-Cold War era

This article examines the role of Japan in relation to China’s security interests in the post-Cold War era. The first section assesses Japan as a potential security threat to China at a time when Japan appears to be re-emerging as a great power. It analyzes the possible rise of nationalism in Japan today, including discussion of China’s dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands. The second section looks at how Japan can actually enhance China’s security interests, particularly in the economic sphere. Japan’s contribution to China’s modernization drive is assessed. It is argued that Japan seems to enhance China’s security interests more than it poses a threat, partly because of the economic benefits China derives from trading with Japan, and partly because Japanese foreign policy has hitherto been kept in check by the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty.     

Taiwan’s Anti-Nuclear Movement: The Making of a Militant Citizen Movement

Social movement studies have constantly focused on research relating to movement strategy, without reaching a consensus on the most viable strategies for realising a movement’s goal. Instead of conceptualising movement strategy as merely a product of movement leaders’ rational calculations, this article analyses a case of strategy shift attributable to leadership replacement and unexpected events. This article examines the significant breakthroughs achieved by Taiwan’s anti-nuclear movement following Japan’s Fukushima Incident in 2011, as well as the 2014 Sunflower Movement in Taiwan. It argues that a militant citizen movement came into being because a new wave of activism employed non-partisan leadership and demonstrated a willingness to employ disruptive tactics. Mounting protests generated a split among members of the traditionally pro-nuclear Kuomintang political party, which was forced to halt the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant in 2014. With the regime change in 2016 that brought the more environment-friendly Democratic Progressive Party to power, Taiwan is now on course to phase out nuclear energy.     

The Crisis of Over-Accumulation in Japan

Abstract

Japan has now been mired in economic stagnation, punctuated by recurrent recessions, for the past two decades. What are the causes of this longstanding malaise? Is it merely the natural consequence of financial retrenchment and the onset of a pervasive “liquidity trap” after the collapse of the “bubble” economy in the early 1990s, or does the present slump signify a more profound historical phase of structural decline? The aim of this study is to provide several tentative hypotheses. In the first section, some of the possible causes of this phase of prolonged stagnation will be examined. The next section provides a theoretical treatment of the dynamics of debt-deflation from a Minsky-Fisher perspective. The final section evaluates whether the historical evidence lends credence to the debt-deflation thesis.     

Notes from the field

Abstract

In an attempt to publish some reviews sooner after material comes out, the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars has added this section of short reviews of individual books, movies, TV series, and so on. If you are interested in writing a short review, please contact Peter Zarrow (for more information, see the introduction to the list of books to review on p. 84 of this issue).

As someone who proudly served in the antiwar movement, I tend to believe we can't have too many books about the righteous struggle waged in the United States to end the Indochina wars. So on one level I welcome Tom Wells's expansion of his Berkeley Ph.D. thesis into the volume under review here. The War Within has many strengths. It mercilessly exposes the ignorant, reflexive anticommunism of such war managers as CIA director Richard Helms, White House advisor (and ideological architect of the wars in Indochina) Walt Rostow, the Nixon entourage, and others. Furthermore, Wells does what no other writer has done: narrate the interfamilial generational conflict between government officials and their children brought on by the Indochina conflicts. Offspring of Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, Spiro Agnew, H.R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman joined (or as in the case of Kim Agnew, wanted to join) the movement. Daniel Ellsberg has told us how pressures from those he loved helped transform a once gung-ho Marine and prowar government policy maker into an antiwar militant, and Wells cites Ellsberg's experiences, adding horrifying details on the savage assaults mounted on him by the Nixon administration.     

1970年以后韩国妇女运动的发展与变化

20世纪70年代韩国妇女运动兴起,开展修改家族法的运动和反对性旅游的运动以及改善女工劳动条件和待遇的斗争。80年代,韩国女性创建多个左派妇女团体,妇女运动走向联合,展现出妇女运动集结的力量。90年代,妇女运动采取社会性别主流化战略,成功地制定和修改诸多女性相关法律,年轻的女性主义运动小组崭露头角,妇女运动趋向多样化。2000年以后,展开以废除户主制为核心的妇女运动,互联网上的妇女运动也活跃,而且边缘女性群体也展开了各种活动。     

Multisectoral Movement Alliances and Media Access: Salvadoran Newspaper Coverage of the Health Care Struggle

Focusing on the social movement that resisted the privatization of health care in El Salvador in 2002–3, this article asks how the movement's multisectoral composition influenced news coverage of the health care policy debate. Specifically, it examines whether the diversity of perspectives in the alliance was reflected in the media's source selection and framing of the policy issues. A content analysis of Salvadoran newspapers' coverage shows that the media relied mainly on just two movement actors to represent the antiprivatization position: the striking doctors and the leftist opposition party. It also reveals that a period of elite dissensus on the policy issues opened a temporary opportunity to insert movement messages in the coverage. The study indicates that a multisectoral alliance does not enhance movement influence through the news media, though broad alliances confer strategic advantages for the movement's broader communication work.     

Protecting the Sacred: Tunisia's Islamist Movement Ennahdha and the Challenge of Free Speech

Since the 2011 uprising, Tunisia's Islamist movement Ennahdha has proposed a political project based on reclaiming the nation's Arab-Islamic identity. At the heart of this is the issue of ‘protection of the sacred’, which seeks to define limits to freedom of expression to protect religious symbols from criticism. This is part of Ennahdha's post-Islamist evolution. The movement has drawn away from its earlier ambitions to Islamise the state and now seeks to reconstruct the role of Islam by asserting a cultural Islamic identity, which recasts religious norms as conservative values and which has yet to determine the precise limits of new individual freedoms. The result was to propose a new set of rules for the community under which Tunisians would freely express their religious belief in a way denied them under the former regime, but would also live under a state that defended and guaranteed their religious values.     

Fratricidal War: The Conflict between the Mouvement national algérien (MNA) and the Front de libération nationale (FLN) in France during the Algerian War (1954–1962)

On the eve of the Algerian War—one of the most violent wars of decolonisation of the twentieth century—the Algerian nationalist movement was still led by Messali Hadj, the charismatic figure who had shaped it from its very beginnings in emigration in France in the mid-1920s. However, this movement, then known as the Mouvement pour le triomphe des libertés démocratiques (MTLD, 1946–1954), was affected by deep crises and tensions at the end of the 1940s and, at the beginning of the 1950s, by a conflict between Messali's supporters (known as the Messalists) and a younger generation of militants known as the Centralists. This conflict ultimately led to the emergence of a third nationalist force, which launched the insurrection of 1 November 1954 that marked the beginning of the Algerian War. This article explores some important aspects of the bloody internal war that opposed Messali Hadj's MNA and the FLN in France during the Algerian War and discusses some of the key political processes that led to the rapid decline of the Messalist movement in the last years of the war.     

INDONESIA’S 2019 ELECTIONS: A FRACTURED DEMOCRACY?

In April 2019, Indonesia carried out simultaneous presidential and legislative elections. With an estimated 192 million voters acceding to 800,000 polling stations, this was the world's largest direct presidential election. Barring some dispersed claims of irregularities, the mammoth task of electing public representatives at the national as well as provincial and local levels was successfully carried out. Indonesia's voters had to decide on the 575 members of the national parliament, as well as some 20,000 seats in the country's many provincial and local legislatures, including 2,207 provincial level MPs from 34 provinces and 17,610 local councillors from more than 500 local authorities. Voter turn-out was an estimated 81.9 percent, the highest yet since Indonesia's transition to full democracy. Thus, at first blush, this electoral exercise can be seen as a logistical and political achievement, and an addition to Indonesia's track record of successfully-held elections. Yet, despite its technical proficiency and solid participation, the 2019 polls highlight pervasive societal and geographic fault-lines and raise questions about the strength of Indonesia's democratic institutions.

In order to analyse the importance of these elections, this article is comprised of six parts. Following this introduction, the second section briefly discusses the salient aspects of Jokowi's first administration. The subsequent part sets out the run-up to the presidential campaign, paying particular importance to changes in ‘rules of the game’ that altered the structural dynamics of the elections. The fourth section compares and contrasts the campaigns of the two opposing coalitions and the fifth analyses the electoral results. The final section concludes by discussing the denouement of the elections before looking forward.     

Anti‐Communism,Communism, and Anti‐Interventionism in Narratives Surrounding the Student Massacre on Tlatelolco Square (Mexico, 1968)

Shortly before the Mexico Olympics, on 2 October 1968, student demonstrators were shot by the military on Tlatelolco Square in Mexico City, thus ending the local student movement and its mass protests. This paper explores the government's use of anti‐communism to ideologically justify this massacre in the context of the Cold War. The student movement was presented as a foreign, communist intervention that threatened Mexico's sovereignty. The paper analyses the weaknesses and contradictions of this official narrative by contrasting public and confidential reports. Finally, the marginal role of communism in the movement and its internal divisions are also outlined.     

Women's Citizenship and Neopopulism: Peru Under the Fujimori Regime

This article argues that the increased participation of women in Peruvian politics in the 1990s and the advances made in some areas of their citizenship rights are connected to the strategies put in place by some sectors of the women's movement and to the openings provided by the Fujimori regime. Some of the impact of neopopulist rule on political institutions is shown to be positively related to women's increased opportunities during this period; yet the weak rule of law and the political use of the women's agenda by an increasingly questionable regime placed the women's movement in a complex political panorama. A disaggregated analysis of the politics of women's citizenship reveals that women from the popular sectors did not benefit from the same progress in their rights claims as women from the feminist movement or women in party politics.