ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the 'political' is constituted through protest. In a sense, activists are anti-politics. Politics and society are opposed, an opposition which allows activists to speak of the institutionalized 'political left' and the 'social left', the 'autonomous' left that takes to the streets. A 'counterpower', the social movement is often considered to be a movement of 'control'. If capitalist forms of power operate in global world by a tactic of liberalization that allows capital to move freely and to turn everything into commodities, resistance is a matter of preventing this free movement. Activists self-consciously resist and declare their 'resistance' to the world. There are many ways in which resistance and opposition are clearly articulated. Acting in solidarity with others is often considered the political act of a 'citizen'. Solidarity is 'an aspect of citizenship' as put by Jean-Claude Amara.
