Social Thought & Polic. Econ 491H - STPEC Focus Seminar I

If you cannot enroll yourself for this class, please email mmgarcia@umass.edu

STPEC 491H - 01 STPEC Focus Seminar I

Resisting Repression - Wednesdays 4:00-6:30pm

Understanding state repression of civil resistance movements and how to counter it.

Civil resistance movements, such as activism focused on civil rights, climate justice, or anti-racism, are popular reactions to prevalent injustices and problems in a society. All resistance, even if it is nonviolent and legal, leads to some kind of repression, for example fines, prison, threats, false accusations, etc. But repression also leads to countermeasures from activists trying to survive, mitigate or undermine powerful regimes. Together this creates a dynamic of different strategies and tactics that evolves over history, a dynamic process that will be the focus of this focus seminar.

Regimes with control of state power and finances have the advantage of access to overwhelming resources, sometimes even a monopoly of control (e.g., police and military). The weakness of regimes is often their reliance on elites, threats of violence, weak legitimacy, systemic injustices, etc., which fuels opposition and protests, something that always might lead to major rebellions. The means available to activists to counter repression are ultimately very different as they reflect the nature of the regimes. Despite these differences, efforts to counter repression always reflect the strengths and resources of social movements: people power and solidarity. Like all kinds of resources, these are not static but can be developed and made stronger through experimentation, learning and sharing.

By grounding itself in the dynamic relationship between state repression and social movement resistance, this course will investigate the means, types and strategies of repression against resistance movements, alongside the creative countermeasures developed by activists to survive and undermine repression. As the semester progresses, course students will choose their own focus on particular strategies for countering repression (e.g., mutual aid, satire/humor, self-defense, community building, etc.), case studies (e.g., Black Panthers, Palestinian rights, etc.), within historical or contemporary contexts. In addition to class discussions, this course will be based on active participation through course text, movies, student presentations and the writing of course papers.