Before we talk about Sardine, we should talk about social movements. What is a social movement? According to The Blackwell Companion to Social Movement, Social movements need to have three key features: collective action, change oriented goals and some degrees of organization and continuity. Social movements can be institutional or anti-institutional. The people who take part in manifesting with a social movements share the same change-oriented goal. There must be organization, meaning someone or a group of people who give directions in planning and organizing events or simply the next moves. Continuity means that the movement needs to be consistent over time, rather than making sporadic appearances. Sardine are a liberal, grass-roots movement aims to support civility and equality in Italy. They made their first appearance November 15th in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna. A massive group of people protested against their shared enemy: Matteo Salvini, the federal secretary of the right-wing party called Lega. The movement decided to show their dissent against Salvini, who was simultaneously having a meeting with his supporters at the Paladozza arena. It is important to keep in mind that they do not associate themselves with any political party.
How did Sardine plan their first appearance?
Giulia, Andrea, Roberto, and Mattia Santori are the founders of the movement. They created a Facebook event, which counted an increasing number of participants day by day, where they planned and directed their first appearance as Sardine. The participants identify themselves with the sardine logo while singing out loud the famous song called “Bella ciao”.
As argued by Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani, social movements have the feature of identity. This feature is not present in the case of Sardine, as they are a group of very different people of different age, cultures and ethnicities.
Do they have the characteristics of a social movement?
Another aspect of a social movement that is discussed by Della Porta and Diani is conflictual relations with an identified enemy. In this case the enemy is Matteo Salvini. They do have change-oriented goals because they want to change Salvini’s anti-migrant ideas and anti-European language by meeting in squares in each city where he plans to have a meeting with his supporters .They pursue this change by not only showing their presence in squares but also on social media. Their Facebook page has 280.000 followers who often comment under Salvini’s post and show their dissent towards his ideas. The leader Mattia Santori is often hosted in TV shows about politics, where he gives a voice to the movement he represents. Sardine show degrees of organization as they often plan events on Facebook guided by the leader Mattia Santori. To involve the supporters he creates events on Facebook that circulate thanks to the participants who share them on their Facebook feeds. Continuity is feature that is present but not as much as it was during the Emilia Romagna’s regional election.
Sardine are a social movement.
Information retreived from: https://www.fanpage.it/politica/sardine-lidentikit-del-movimento-civico-che-si-oppone-a-salvini/ https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.jcu.idm.oclc.org/lib/johncabot/reader.action?docID=239854 https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.jcu.idm.oclc.org/lib/johncabot/reader.action?docID=351505
Sardine 