The Class Dynamics of New Social Movements: LGBT Movement in Turkey

Since the 1960s, the world has been the scene of “new” social movements that consist of “new” issues, demands, classes, participants and organizational structures. these movements differ in many respects from the “old” movements, but also share continuities with them. various issues and demands that have mostly been seen as insignificant or secondary within the big issues of old social movements and clamped into the old organizational structures, have been the focus of new social movements. in this context, class has started to lose its visibility in its traditional definition, and this has led to the misconception that class has ceased to exist or has been trivialized. however, proletarianized new middle class has become the main actor of the new social movements. this new middle class is becoming active in new social movements that contain struggles on issues such as identity and life style that appear to be independent of class, rather than making demands about the relations of production directly and in a usual way. accordingly, one of the social opposition movements has developed throughout the world -and in turkey- is the lgbt movement which entails the urbanized, educated, new/proletarianised middle class at the center. after discussing theoretical approaches on new social movements and class problem, this study aims to look more closely into the lgbt movement in turkey in the scope of new social movements.