State repression of dissent solidifies community solidarity and legitimates even lethal internal enforcement

Evidence

Speaking of Soweto, political ethnographer Adam Ashforth comments on the grim violence of that repertoire: … In the political struggles of the late 1970s and 1980s, the heavyhanded response of the state’s security forces solidified the sense of community among people living in Soweto. Although many of the older generation of residents were disturbed by the unruliness of the youth in their political struggles during those years—especially when comrades turned against suspected informers, imposed “stayaways” and boycotts on hard-pressed workers and consumers, or spurred conflicts with the migrant workers from rural areas living in hostels—virtually no one in Soweto doubted the justice of their cause or the necessity of standing together against the hated and brutal “System.” Even the “necklacing” of informers (izimpimpi) with petrol-filled tires, though appalling to most people, was understood as an unfortunate but necessary community defense against the secret agents of the evil system of apartheid. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 539

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the south_africa regime-capacity question — heavyhanded state response to subordinate-group contention backfiring, and community discipline (necklacing informers) as repertoire innovation. Connects to the reader’s asymmetry hypothesis about dominant-group politicization. — connects to: Civil society makes state repression livable yet also feeds resistance to it; Negative sanctions and repression typically precede and provoke collective political violence — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4357; Cooperation is enforced through community expulsion of those who deviate — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1743 (+8 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: Ashforth’s account shows lethal violence toward co-ethnic informers legitimated as community defense — does Tilly’s regime-capacity framework capture intra-movement discipline as part of repertoire, or only state-subject contention?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 539

Broader Connections

• Negative sanctions and repression typically precede and provoke collective political violence #corroborates (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4357
• Repressive sedition laws aimed at one group unite otherwise unsympathetic groups against the state #corroborates (0.83) — Julia Stephens, The Phantom Wahhabi, 137
• Civil society makes state repression livable yet also feeds resistance to it #expands (0.82)
• State execution manufactures the martyrdom that then amplifies dissent #exemplifies (0.82) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 339
• Government repression can push fringe individuals into violent opposition by blocking legitimate paths #corroborates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4129
• Brutal state repression of a peasant revolt fueled regional nationalism #exemplifies (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 40
• Cooperation is enforced through community expulsion of those who deviate #exemplifies (0.78) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1743
• Siege regimes criminalize opposition and cross-societal solidarity as treason #corroborates (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 677
• Repression can convert a political rival’s exclusion into a durable power network #corroborates (0.75) — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 103
• The local community functioned as an individual against the state #exemplifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 682
• A state can defuse revolt by denying radicals the repression that mobilizes masses. #complicates (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 105