Introduction

The previous three chapters in Part II looked at the role of education in enhancing the life chances (LCs) of individuals. This chapter focuses on social justice movements concerned with specific groups rather than individuals per se. The groups featured are made up of people the majority of whom are disadvantaged by virtue of their gender, social class or race; this triad is one of the most prominent topics in sociology and in the social movement (SM) literature. When social disadvantage, inequality and social problems such as poverty persist, people turn to institutional politics (elected officials and political parties) or to civic actors (non- government organisations or NGOs). If these are found to be inadequate, they form social movement organisations (SMOs) that are more independent than NGOs.

The chapter explains how SMs work, their effectiveness compared to parliamentary parties and NGOs, why they are necessary and why they need to manage their relations with the state, especially in the social justice campaigns discussed in the chapter. The question of whether Australia is evolving into a SM society is discussed along with the related issue of movement success. In the Beveridge Report of 1942, a reforming government in the UK committed its resources to tackling ‘five giants’ of social misery, all of which exist today, albeit in different forms and what I have called the ‘four giants’ of inequality. Class-, gender-, race- and species- wide relations are the socially constructed social problems that have designated movements and organisations defending their constituents’ interests; it is also suggested that these ‘four giants’ are linked as ‘entanglements of oppression’. I focus on young people's experiences of class relations, a topic featured in Chapters 5 and 6. The gender issue of violence against women and the response to it by the feminist movement are discussed. Race relations in Australia are predominantly about the plight of our first peoples and their resistance to racism, a difficult, if not a futile struggle, without the commitment of the state to improve the LCs of the most disadvantaged Australians. Finally, the much- neglected species- wide relations, particularly affecting non- human animals, is briefly discussed as a prelude to a more comprehensive treatment in Chapter 8.