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Social Movements 127

social movements is suffi ciently united and stable to develop coherent
political positions and common goals (Bennett, 2005 : 208). But forming
“ collective identity ” was never simple in social movements. It invariably
involved huge and often bitter debate across different perspectives, leading

to factions and conflicts that were irresolvable, not just intellectually but
personally, because they were embodied and emotional, for the people
involved. This is nowhere more evident in debates over identity in the
movements that came to be characterized as exclusively concerned with
“ identity politics ” in the 1970s and ’ 80s. It is not because feminists,
for example, agreed on the identity of “ women ” that the feminist move-
ment was so actively and creatively engaged in this issue. Nevertheless,
the fact that the feminist movement debated the question of “ women ’ s
identity, ” raising crucial questions about the relationship between
biology and destiny and the diversity of women ’ s lived experiences,
forged not only recognizably common reference points for those who

identified as feminists, it also brought the issues into public debate more
generally.
Della Porta argues that, diversity and individualism notwithstanding,
there is a concern with solidarity and how to achieve it in the global justice
movement. It is for this reason that dialogue across differences is so
important, as exemplified by the World Social Forum (WSF) set up to

facilitate debate amongst members of the global justice movement across
the world. Solidarity is a recurring topic at the WSF. It is self - consciously
pluralist according to the Principles of its Charter. Principle 1 states that
the WSF is an

open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, for-

mulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for
effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed
to neo - liberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form
of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed
towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the
Earth.

Nevertheless, debate over whether the WSF should produce a manifesto
or a declaration of purposes comes up regularly, leading, for example, to
the “ Porto Alegre Manifesto – Twelve Proposals for Another Possible
World ” in 2005. Similarly, ongoing debates on the Internet – easy to
access and to participate in – over what to call this movement, whether
“ anti - capitalist, ” “ anti - globalization, ” or “ global justice, ” are reminiscent
of debates concerning who “ we ” are, and what we stand for, of previous