Ambiguity and Contradiction in a Radical Popular Movement

Bibliographic Data

ID23213883
AuthorsJeffrey B Rubin (corresponding author), Jeffrey Rubin
Year2018
Pages141-164
Publication date2018-10-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueCultures of Politics/politics of Cultures (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780429501135-8
OpenAlexW2904427284
ISBN9780429501135
LanguageEN
Citations received7

The ambiguities and contradictions within Coalition of Workers, Peasants, and Students of the Isthmus (COCEI) show how characteristics praised by new social movement theorists such as internal democracy, nonviolence, and participation by women appear in complex interaction with other, less obviously praiseworthy attributes. Along with its "threads of violence", COCEI adopted a militant public posture that engendered considerable criticism on the part of some middle-class and elite sympathizers as well as opponents of all classes. One of the primary sources of COCEI's power was the way in which COCEI leaders and the movement itself were consistently viewed, across classes, as having grown from within the pueblo. The chapter demonstrates that COCEI leaders repeatedly chose to advance a dogmatic political ideology and to maintain hostile public and private stances toward leftist political parties, outsiders, and local priistas. Such a practice contrasts with the more tolerant and open stance attributed to contemporary popular movements generally and indeed exhibited by some.

Aesthetics · Ambiguity · Contradiction · Epistemology · Linguistics · Movement (music) · Sociology · Philosophy · Political theory and Gramsci

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