| 'Criminal' Resistance This research examined the impact of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (CJ&POA) on social movement networks in Britain. It describes the relationship between the state and social movements in complex societies and demonstrates how the process of governance and the application of repressive legislation can create the conditions for the formation of antagonistic movements. This research suggests that the CJ&POA reconfigured the system of political opportunities and constraints encountered by social movement activists and cultural workers, and facilitated a cross-fertilisation of knowledge and resources between these groups. It further suggests that this process, amongst others, has encouraged forms of activism that surpass ‘single-issue’ protest thereby allowing social movement actors to develop a collective identity based around the concept of anti-capitalist resistance. A crucial development for the reconstitution of a viable resistance to the neo-liberal restructuring of capitalism. |