Social movements share a desire for structural change, and a willingness to do something about it. This broad definition explains the actions of members of an Iron Workers local picketing a non-union construction site; Ukrainian Femen activists who, while visiting Turkey, stage a protest against sulfuric acid attacks on women and girls; 15-M public gatherings in Spain that protest the political power of banks and cuts to social programs; and, the series of revolts which began in Tunisia in December 2010, that spread in some manner to seventeen other countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Evidently, the domain of social movements varies from local to trans-national. As used here, social movements can include matters of politics, religion, ethnicity, labor, economy, and justice, among others.
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