Horizontalism: Reducing the Barriers for Activists and Foreign Interference
By: Miles Hession
On 10 December 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a public address in which he admitted fault and backtracked on policies introduced earlier that year regarding gas prices and minimum wage. It became the most viewed political speech in French history, with 23 million people having watched this rare admittance of defeat by Macron. This was a part of a series of concessions made to the Gilet Jaunes, or Yellow Vest, movement in France, whose decentralised protest style entered the zeitgeist once again and raised pertinent questions about the future of similar social movements, as evidence grows that other actors played a role in Macron capitulation.
What distinguished the Gilet Jaunes protests from other protests was not the demands, or the setting, but the internal structure of the movement. The Gilet Jaunes protestors had a horizontal structure, and the movement as a whole is a clear example of Horizontalism. Horizontalism is a term originally coined in Spanish as Horizontalidad, and emerged from Argentina in 2001 following public outrage over a bank withdrawal freeze by the government that had been instituted in response to a devastating financial crisis. Following the freeze, Argentinians took to the streets banging pots and pans demanding access to their money and a change in leadership within the government.
Unlike other movements, though, there was no single leader of these protests, and no single coordinating force deciding the protest efforts. Rather, there were pockets of individual groups that were in communication with one another, but who were also in control of their own efforts and own goals. This style of activism was revolutionary to social movement theory, as it opened the door to new possibilities for movements around the world. Horizontalism quickly emerged in new movements globally and has been persistent since its inception.
The key aspects of Horizontalism of course have to do with the structure of the movement. Instead of the hierarchical structure of movements like the Civil Rights Movement in America, with key leaders like Martin Luther King guiding the efforts, horizontalism instead is like a honeycomb, with no clear central unifying force and many individual, mostly equal, parts of one whole. Communication in a horizontal social movement is from person to person, group to group, rather than receiving information from one source—this creates disunified communication. Events are put on by these decentralised groups and protests are coordinated among them. With different layers, and different groups doing different types of activism, a horizontally structured movement is almost an autonomous machine, with many individuals propelling it. This can be very effective as it empowers many people from all walks of life to emerge as local leaders, but can also be dangerous when external actors begin to interfere.
The advent of social media has allowed for the emergence of horizontalist movements as the ease of communication has increased with traditional barriers falling. Facebook and other sites make the creation of localised groups easier than ever and connection between those groups allows for further coordination. However, this has also made it easier for external actors to influence these movements. Looking back at the Gilet Jaunes movement, although it seems clear that the origins were a natural consequence of dissatisfaction of French citizens with their government, quite quickly the Russian government used its media wing to help fuel the fire. Watchdog groups like the Alliance for Securing Democracy Abroad have unearthed that #giletjaunes was a trending hashtag for a group of Russian linked accounts. Accusations about the legitimacy of certain Facebook groups continues to be levied, and the purity of the Gilet Jaunes movement and other horizontally structured movements has been called into question.
Following Macron’s public address, the Gilet Jaunes movement slowly began to diminish. The major demands with regards to minimum wage and the fuel tax were granted, and media attention seemed to focus on new stories. With no source of reorientation, the movement continues to exist, but with abstract goals and even more abstract ways of achieving them. The legacy of Horizontalism, though, persists, with new movements adopting this egalitarian style. How external forces will continue to affect them, though, remains to be seen, as powers with self-interested intentions hone their ability to manipulate these movements for their own gain.