Movements for social change are products, producers and resolvers of conflict.  By joining together to bring about change, their members affirm the positive, creative role that conflict can play in calling attention to injustices, applying pressure to support needed social changes, reinforcing progressive values, halting censorship and retaliation, and resolving the chronic, systemic sources of social conflict.  Yet these same movements are often plagued with their own internal conflicts, which are routinely handled in negative and socially regressive ways.

Internal conflicts in social movements are commonly resolved using a range of highly destructive methods, including avoidance, apathy, accommodation, screaming, suppression, enforced silence, personal insults, mass resignations, gossip, ostracism, unnecessary splitting, sectarian behaviors, angry denunciations and public humiliation, none of which maintain unity, encourage principled opposition, or demonstrate an ability to solve larger social problems.

The emotions that occur naturally in the course of these conflicts are frequently repressed — partly in deference to a higher goal, political ideal or principle, or immediate practical priorities; partly out of disrespect for subjective weakness, which can be seen as a form of political vacillation; and partly out of a fear of cooptation and capitulation.

Personal needs are then equated with selfishness and self-indulgence; or a lack of commitment, or identification with opposing political interests, so that toughness and insensitivity can come to be regarded as positive attributes, and essential accommodations to the rough-and-tumble of political activity.

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Tags: internal conflicts, Mediation of Politics Movements, Movements for Social Change, social change, social movements