Tag: social movements

During the last phase of the USSR, a major accident took place in its nuclear plant in Chernobyl. This caused the death of a large number of workers in Chernobyl. But more important, it contaminated the atmosphere of a very large region including many other countries of Europe. Its effects created a new awareness among the people of the world about the danger of nuclear power whether for peaceful or warlike purposes.

Conflicts of national interest caused the World War II alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union to be replaced by a Cold War that lasted 45 years. Initially a dispute over the future of Europe, it grew to include confrontations around the world. A clash of very different beliefs and ideology capitalism versus communism each held with almost religious conviction formed the basis of an international power struggle with both sides vying for dominance, exploiting every opportunity for expansion anywhere in the world.

The nuclear arms race intensified after the end of Vietnam War as more and more countries competed with each other to stockpile nuclear arms. Companies which produced these arms (called the military-industrial complex) and the governments tried to create a war panic among the common people so that they support greater expenditure of tax payers money on nuclear arms. The USA and the USSR were the front runners in the nuclear arms race.

In the decades after it was established, the Russian-dominated Soviet Union grew into one of the worlds most powerful and influential states and eventually encompassed 15 republics viz Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. In 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved following the collapse of its communist government. With this ended the long period of Cold War and the constant threat of a catastrophic World War.

Vietnam was a largely forested and poor nation in comparison with their opponents USA and France. The Vietnamese used guerrilla warfare techniques to fight the war. The USA invented and used newer arsenal like chemical weapons including napalm bombs destroying entire villages.

Social movements are instrument of Social Change. Social movement is collective action of people either to promote or resist a change in society or group of which it is a part. Social movement is not sudden outbreak but an organised collective action followed by ideology behind the action.