Paper short abstract:

Peace negotiations after decades of internal war in Colombia and the Philippines entail a political opportunity for armed revolutionary movements. How do the “old” revolutionaries fit into of today’s progressive movements? What remains of the ideas of the 20th century?

Paper long abstract:

When Arturo recently argued that today's social movements owe many of their visions and aspirations to the older left movements of the 1960s and 1970s a question arises: What happens when the two worlds collide? Recently the ongoing peace negotiations in Colombia and the Philippines have opened a new opportunity for the armed revolutionary movements of these countries to participate and perhaps even transform traditional politics. Both countries have had a complex history of civil strife so that today there are groups that already in the 1990s have made their peace with the political establishment and others that are currently negotiating a peace deal while others still aim at a revolutionary victory.Doing fieldwork on both the new social movements and the armed social movements during peace negotiations we intend to give an insight of how members of (former) revolutionary groups influence, oppose, participate in today's social movements - Which forces drive them to do what they do, what are their dreams, their nostalgias, their utopias and/or dystopias.