Social Movements, 1768-2008 by Charles Tilly Lesley J. Wood

Author:Charles Tilly, Lesley J. Wood [Charles Tilly, Lesley J. Wood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Social History, Political Science, Public Policy, Social Policy, Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781594516115
Google: TDRqPQAACAAJ
Publisher: Paradigm Publishers
Published: 2009-01-15T03:50:34+00:00

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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ENTER THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

In May 2007, local activists in southern China who were fighting the construction of a chemical plant in the city of Xiamen sent text messages from their cell phones. The local government “is setting off an atomic bomb in all of Xiamen,” they read; it will cause “leukemia and deformed babies.” The message continued: “For our children and grandchildren, act! Participate among 10,000 people, June 1 at 8 a.m., opposite the municipal government building! Hand tie yellow ribbons! SMS [Short Message Service] all your Xiamen friends!” (Asia Sentinel 2007). Construction had begun in November 2006 of the Tenglong Aromatic PX Co. Ltd. factory in Xiamen’s Haicang district, which has a population of 100,000. In March 2007, Zhao Yufen, a local researcher at the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University, organized a petition to the Beijing parliament calling for the plant to be relocated away from residential areas. “Paraxylene is highly toxic and could cause cancer and birth defects,” said Zhao in an interview with the Chinese newspaper China Business (Qui 2008). Zhao’s message was taken up by bloggers. Lian Yue posted Zhao Yufen’s critiques of the project on his blog and argued, “Environmental protection officials who can’t protect the environment, What are the people of Xiamen supposed to do! [sic],” prompting national debate.

According to news reports in the Asia Sentinel, Sydney Morning Herald, and others, the text messages against the project then began to circulate. The Sentinel reported that by 29 March, the message was blocked amid claims it had reached a million people. Blocked words reportedly included “benzene,” “demonstration,” “atomic,” and “leukemia.”

Nevertheless, on 1 June, tens of thousands of Xiamenes marched against the project and the company’s pollution record in the region. Wearing yellow ribbons that read “people’s livelihoods, democracy, people’s rights, harmony” and carrying banners, the crowd progressed through the streets. As the protesters proceeded, they uploaded photographs, video, and text messages onto blogging sites. Reports noted that local residents were bringing water to the demonstrators and that people were singing traditional local songs. When they reached the government offices, they chanted “serve the people” and then broke through the police line, singing the Chinese national anthem. The march continued the rest of the day. Blog sites recorded thousands of hits, and when one site was blocked, another blogger picked up the information and distributed it further. The government began to counter the protesters with their own messages. One blogger reported receiving this message: “If you go through normal channels to give the government feedback, we guarantee we’ll share your opinions and suggestions with environmental experts.…Source: 09599 Voice of China Mobile.”In December 2007, the Chinese government announced that the plant would be moved to Guangzhou (Kennedy 2007).

Three months later, in March 2008, residents of Guangzhou and other nearby towns staged three days of protests against the decision to move the plant to their area. Imitating the Xiamen residents, activists in the region went door-to-door handing out pamphlets (Cody 2008). On

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