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Send cheques to: new Socialist Box 167, 253 College Street Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R5 Supporting: Add $20 The end of 20th century Institutional and overseas international: $50 per year All prices in Canadian dollars socialism? Indigenous liberation Latin America Anti-Muslim racism & the veil Summer 2007 Issue No. 61 U.S. unions $4.95 www.newsocialist.org Palestine www.newsocialist.org editorial Blows to empire in Afghanistan and Iraq ontemporary imperialists speak the language of Bloodshed has not reached the astronomical levels of Iraq. human dignity, democracy and gender equality while But no one bothers to count the Afghan dead. Fifty-four orchestratingC devastating wars. The boots of racism and Canadian soldiers have been killed. Suicide bombings are neoliberal capitalist expansion crush basic rights. Recent escalating: two in 2003, 21 in 2005 and 136 in 2006. events highlight the hypocrisy and arrogance of occupiers in Meanwhile, repression continues against the narcotics Afghanistan and Iraq and open up space for the renewal of trade which provides one of the only sources of subsistence anti-war movements on the demand of Troops Out Now! for many impoverished Afghans. And, in this sea of pov- On April 2, speaking of Canada’s relationship with Af- erty and war, British writer Tariq Ali reports that corruption ghan security forces, federal Public Safety Minister Stock- grows “like an untreated tumour … The real estate market in well Day said, “We’ve got good confidence levels … We’re Kabul has reached unprecedented heights as the occupiers seeing an increased understanding and appreciation for hu- and the local enforcers buy up properties and flaunt their af- man rights.” On April 23, an explosive report by Globe and fluence under the protection of NATO forces.” Mail reporter Graeme Smith shattered Day’s cover-up of Harper’s Afghanistan debacle mirrors setbacks to Ameri- the torture and abuse of detainees handed over by Canadian can imperialism in recent years. His drive to push on with the troops to Afghan forces. project parallels Bush’s desperate adventurism. American elites Graeme interviewed 30 men captured in Kandahar. The as well as the US populace recognize Iraq for the disaster it is. report reads: “Afghans detained by Canadian soldiers and Against the Current reports: “Within a week of the ‘surge,’ US sent to Kandahar’s notorious jails say they were beaten, helicopters were shot down and a heavily fortified compound whipped, starved, frozen, choked and subjected to electric stormed by suicide bombers; horrific bombings in Baghdad shocks during interrogation.” Many of those interviewed markets escalated as the local militia, the only force providing have never been convicted of any crime. some security for the Shia community, went into hiding; at The report sparked a week-long festival of denial by the the same time, a Sunni woman told her story of kidnap and Conservatives, who initially held firm to the defence of their rape by militia-infested police—certainly not the first such Afghan allies. Meanwhile, there were calls for the resigna- incident, but the first victim to take it to Arab television.” tion of Minister of Defence Gordon O’Connor and Amnes- Iraq’s health minister admits that 150,000 civilians have ty International launched a court challenge to stop Canadian been killed and the British medical journal Lancet puts the forces from transferring detainees to Afghan jails. figure at 655,000. According to a report in the Indian journal Pulling a page from George W. Bush’s play book, Prime Frontline, “Some two million refugees have left the country; Minister Stephen Harper claimed: “The real problem is the almost an equal number have become refugees within Iraq; willingness of the leader of the Liberal Party and his col- over half of Iraq’s 4.5 million children are malnourished; and leagues to believe, to repeat and to exaggerate any charge unemployment stands at over 70 percent.” against the Canadian military as they fight these fanatics and Meanwhile, on May 4, American analyst Michael T. Klare killers who are called the Taliban. It is a disgrace.” reported that a US aircraft carrier is fast approaching the Soon, however, the Conservatives were forced to renego- Persian Gulf, “where it will join two other US aircraft car- tiate the detainee transfer policy, claiming that the new pact riers and the French carrier Charles De Gaulle in the larg- provides checks against torture and abuse. This exposure of est concentration of naval firepower in the region since the abuse by Afghan authorities is extremely important. But the launching of the US invasion of Iraq four years ago.” new deal is premised on the idea that Canadian – and other There is still time to prevent a war in Iran, and the deep- NATO – military contingents are benevolent forces who can ening and prolonging of the occupations of Afghanistan and be trusted to monitor human rights and democratic norms. Iraq. We must not depend on the Democrats in the US, or After five and a half years, the authority of the Afghan cli- the Liberals and the NDP in Canada. The acceleration and ent regime, and the NATO forces that defend them, barely widening of the anti-war movement at home is a necessary extends beyond Kabul. The Taliban control large areas of the part of the struggle to bring the warmongers to their knees. country as well as small parts of neighbouring Pakistan. Even The setbacks and debacles suffered in recent times provide in many non-Taliban-controlled zones, government officials new cracks in the imperial edifice that we must pry open, are resentful of the occupiers and sympathetic to insurgents. hopefully to bring the whole project crashing down. 

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 Box 167, 253 College St. Toronto, ON M5T 1R5 416-955-1581 [email protected] www.newsocialist.org Issue #61 Summer 2007

NEW SOCIALIST offers radical analysis of  Letters ...... 4 politics, social movements and culture in the Canadian state and internationally. Our magazine is a forum for people who want  future of the left to strengthen today’s activism and for those who wish to replace global capitalism with a The end of 20th century socialism? ...... Alan Sears 5 genuinely democratic socialism. We believe Why Ecosocialism today?...... Joel Kovel 10 that the liberation of the working class and oppressed peoples can be won only through Indigenizing revolution...... Na’cha’uaht 12 their own struggles. For more information Socialism, solidarity and indigenous liberation...... Deborah Simmons 15 about the publisher of this magazine, the New Socialist Group, please see the inside Strategies of the Left in Latin America...... Claudio Katz 18 back cover. Socialist politics and Israel’s “right to exist”...... Virginia Tilley 24 EDITORS Todd Gordon Clarice Kuhling  homefront  Sebastian Lamb Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions against Israel campaign...... Charuka Kirinde 28 Harold Lavender Sandra Sarner Quebec: Building a common social and political front...... Bernard Rioux 30 Deborah Simmons Multiculturalism and anti-immigrant racism...... Sheila Wilmot 32 Jeff R. Webber The veil and resistance...... Nadeen el-Kassem 34 EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Richard Banner Open letter to Clarence Louis...... Adam Barker 38 Adam Barker Neil Braganza Jackie Esmonde  international  Susan Ferguson Morgan MacLeod Labour struggles in the US and UK...... Sheila Cohen 40 Toby Moorsom Greg Sharzer Hamid Sodeifi  culture and reviews  Tony Tracy Book review: Another world is possible ...... Gabrielle Gérin 17 DESIGN Worth checking out...... Mini-reviews 27 Cover: Greg Sharzer Inside: Sandra Sarner Future of the family...... Nicole Dzuba 36 Cover photo: Egyptian strikers Book review: Cops, crime and capitalism...... Adam Barker 42

Signed articles do no necessarily represent the views of the editors or members of the  time to organize ...... 43 New Socialist Group.

New Socialist is a member of the CMPA. Printed at JT Printing, a union shop. New Socialist magazine welcomes letters. Please send to the address or e-mail address above. New Socialist magazine welcomes letters. letters Please send to the address or e-mail address on page 3

arrived. Their lives are not going to be myself around tables and in demonstra- normal ones. They will be constantly tions with people who hold diverse views watched, stalked, and harassed! Maybe at on the world—social democrats from the times they will get stabbed in the back by NDP and members of the Liberal Party, their own people, but that’s what it takes supporters of the existence of a Jewish Runners with a when you are “chosen”. state in Palestine and women who wear I hope I have shed some light on what the veil. I have never asked these folks flaming torch our children will be facing. It may sound what their opinion is about homosexual- like a burden and maybe at times it will ity, the rights of women or the rights of Edited exerpt of a letter from a warrior’s be. Just think about the big changes that workers as a condition for working in the mother to another they will make for their people and it will same movement. If we had to agree on a be all worth it. The Creator, the Grand- vast series of issues I fear we would not be Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Tecumseh fathers, and the Grandmothers will be able to do the work. In choosing speakers etc. I could go on and on making a list there watching and guiding them when – and those whose views I share – fight of all our warriors from the past, but the we can’t be there for them. for a balance between men and women list will never end. Today, warriors are still and for a diversity of political positions. In unity we stand fighting with different weapons and war- But it is not a condition for mobilizing to Piishew (Lynx) riors are yet to be born. get Canadian troops out of Afghanistan. from the Ojibway Nation They are like runners with a flaming You say, “We urge socialists to orient torch, passing it to each other as they get themselves independently …” Do you ad- tired, but the flame gets stronger with vocate a solidarity movement that is only knowledge they have learned. They are Unite all forces open to socialists? You say, “As social- not going into battle empty handed, for ists we cannot ally with religious bigots, all they have to know is who they are and against imperialism racists, homophobes and women-hating what has been done to us. thugs abroad.” What about at home? They are “chosen warriors” from the First of all, let me thank the six What litmus test do you use to determine Creator, Grandfathers, and Grandmoth- signers of the letter, No support to rac- with whom you ally here? Here and there, ers. It is a gift, not a curse. As Parents we ists, momophones, women haters (NS60 we need to unite with all those forces that have done our part also, passing down Spring 2007) in response to my article, can inflict a defeat on imperialism, what- our traditions, morals, and beliefs, mak- Resistance in Iraq and Lebanon: which ever else we disagree with them on. That ing strong warriors with our love. It will side are we on? (NS59 Winter 2006-07). unity in action is the best way to promote be torture for us as we don’t like watching It is important that socialists with differ- exactly what you call for: “national dig- our children suffer. All we can do is to ing points of view have the opportunity to nity and democracy.” love them more, pray with them, and pray exchange opinions. Your letter deserves a I hope this moves our discussion for- for them. reply and this is a brief effort at one. ward. It’s today’s world that “criminalize” our It seems to me that the authors fall into warriors with their laws. We as native a classic trap that turns honest militants Regards people have to bring back our laws, the into sectarians, sectarians with the best A. Soodanim law that was meant for our people. To- of intentions but sectarians nonetheless. I day’s law doesn’t work for our people, it would like to ask the comrades how their never has and never will. Just think about views are implemented closer to home. all the penitentiaries that are packed with I assume that they, like I, participate in First Nations’ people. These laws pollute various solidarity movements—against the air, poison the water, cut the trees, the war in Iraq, Canadian troops in Af- not realizing the ripple effect it has on ghanistan and opposition to the occupa- the environment and the living beings tion of Palestine. I support a broad united around it. Yet they have the nerve to say front approach to this work, where forces “what’s wrong with these Indians?” come together around a limited series of I remember the day when my daugh- demands and are free to hold their own ters told me their time of battle had views on many other things. I often find Hezbollah youth

 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 The end of 20th century socialism? By Alan Sears

t is possible to argue that the project of 20th century socialism in the Canadian state has basically Icome to an end. Socialism is currently so marginal within political and so- cial life that we are, in practical terms, starting over. Through much of the 20th century, socialism had a genuine presence

in political discussion and debate, in activist mobilizations, librar in cultural life, in the labour movement, in certain working- y

class neighbourhoods, in the media and through publica- and tions. Socialism was a real reference point, even for those who fought against it. archives canada Now, socialist ideas have little currency and socialists have very limited influence on the direction of struggles. The pres- ence of socialism has shrunk so much that there can be only the most limited continuity between the next Left and the last one. This situation poses two major challenges for those of us interested in revitalizing socialism. First, it is important Crowd outside old City Hall during the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike: Part of the international revolutionary wave of the early to ask how did we get to this point, and whatever happened 20th century. to 20th century socialism? Second, we need to discuss and debate the extent to which the next socialism should be built on the model of the last one. of working class self-rule. The revolutionaries divided out The focus here is on Canada outside Quebec as the inte- between Stalinists who defended the bureaucratic regime in grated struggles for national liberation and socialism have the Soviet Union, anti-Stalinists who argued that a coun- had quite a different rhythm within Quebec. Certainly the ter-revolution had removed the working class from power emergence of the left party Québec Solidaire indicates a there, and anarchists or left communists who argued that the somewhat different situation for socialist organizing in Que- Russian working class had never properly taken power as the bec at the present time. Bolshevik project was simply creating new forms of domina- tion. 20th Century Socialism The organizational and political forms established in The form of 20th century socialism gelled largely the wake of this revolutionary wave remained key reference in the aftermath of the revolutionary wave of 1917-26 that points for socialists throughout the 20th century. There were ended World War I. This wave included the first successful two more massive waves of struggle that swept across much workers’ revolution in history (Russia, 1917), as well as upris- of the globe in the 20th century, one in the 1930s-1940s and ings and insurgencies that spanned the globe, from Shanghai a second in the 1960s-1970s. There were some important to Winnipeg, from Berlin to Seattle. At this high point of changes over time, such as an emphasis on rural insurgency struggle, the key lines of demarcation between various forms that emerged in the Chinese Revolution and elsewhere in of socialism were clarified. the Global South. Still, many of the key navigational tools It is impossible to do justice here to the complex develop- used by socialists to make sense of the changing terrain of ment of 20th century socialism, so I will attempt only a very struggle in capitalist society through the 20th century devel- brief sketch. This period saw the socialist movement divided oped out of the revolutionary wave that began in 1917. between reformists, who sought change through the exist- Now the 20th century socialism that emerged out of ing structures of the capitalist state, and revolutionaries, who those historical experiences is close to disappearing as a po- sought to overthrow that state and replace it with new forms litical force in the Canadian state outside Quebec. While it is impossible to examine the state of global socialism more Alan Sears is the author of Retooling the Mind Factory and a broadly in the context of this article, I would further argue frequent contributor to New Socialist. that this marginalization of 20th century socialism is not

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 5 limited to the Canadian state, even if there is great uneven- The Politics of Full Citizenship ness in the bigger picture. Socialism thrived through much of the 20th cen- Socialism and the Infrastructure of Dissent tury as part of the infrastructure of dissent thrown up by a series of interconnected struggles through which working- One of the key accomplishments of 20th century class people and members of other excluded groups sought socialism, in the Canadian state and elsewhere, was to play to obtain basic social and political rights. These rights could a role in the development of an infrastructure of dissent be summarized as “full citizenship”, meaning not only formal through which oppressed and exploited groups developed enfranchisement (winning the right to vote), but also a wide their capacities to act on the world. The ability to dissent range of legal, workplace and social rights including national is built as the working class and oppressed groups establish liberation from colonialism, social services, legal collective new repertories of thought and action, both individually and bargaining and human rights protection. collectively. As mobilization happens, activists seek greater As the system of capitalist states emerged globally, most understanding of the way the world works to guide their of the population was excluded from any meaningful form of actions and establish new ways of organizing themselves to citizenship, including the right to vote and a variety of work- increase the effectiveness of their struggles. place and social rights. Most of the population was excluded A great deal of this dissent capacity builds up through the through the absence of democratic institutions, limitations rhythm of struggle, as militancy itself probes the fundamen- on the right to vote, the absence of worker rights in the tal power relations in society. One learns a great deal about workplace, the lack of any forms of social policy to connect the role of the state when the police attack your protest or picket line. However, there is a lot to learn as the working class moves from outrage to challenging for power, whether at the scale of a single workplace or a whole state. Activists One of the key accomplishments become hungry for deeper analysis of the way the world works and how change might happen. of 20th century socialism was to The infrastructure of dissent provides a means to develop play a role in the development of collective capacities for memory (reflection on past struggles), analysis (theoretical discussion and debate), communication an infrastructure of dissent. (outside official or commercial channels) and taking action. This does not replace the learning that occurs directly through personal experience of struggle, but complements it by adding citizens to the state and the brutal regimes of colonialism a breadth and depth that take us beyond our own horizons. that oppressed and excluded virtually the entire population In short, it means in every struggle we do not need to relearn of the Global South. from scratch the way the system works or how to fight it. It required tremendous mobilization for colonized Through the 20th century in the Canadian state, the in- peoples, workers, women, people of colour, lesbians, gays, frastructure of dissent has included everything from infor- bisexuals and transgender people, and others to win basic mal networks in neighbourhoods and workplaces through to rights. As these previously excluded groups fought their formal social and political organizations. Key components way in, they demanded a broader conception of citizenship of this infrastructure have included informal community that included certain human, social and workplace rights, groups in certain working-class neighbourhoods and in ranging from human rights protection to collective bargain- workplaces, radical oppositions within trade unions, various ing rights, from access to education to social programs in cultural activities, political organizations grounded in eth- such areas as health, housing and welfare. Struggles in the nic affinities, radical gathering places ranging from book- workplace for basic organizing rights, better conditions and stores to bars to labour temples, left-wing books, bookstores a shorter working week were connected to struggles for the and publications, women’s, queer, indigenous and anti-rac- franchise, access to education and improved social services ist groups, groups organized around national liberation and and benefits. various kinds of socialist organizations. The horizons of these great struggles were not limited by At the present time, this infrastructure of dissent is very the confines of fuller citizenship. Radicals often linked the weak. The movement for global justice in the late 1990’s and battle for fuller rights within capitalism to the struggle for a early 2000’s began to rebuild this infrastructure, but was cut socialist society. Reformists often saw the right to vote as a short by the political shifts since September 11, 2001. The fundamental precondition for a democratic transformation projects of rebuilding the infrastructure of dissent and revi- from a capitalist dictatorship over the economy to a more talizing socialism are integrally connected.

 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 just socialist society. Revolutionaries saw the potential in ev- the workplace in such industries as auto. Management used ery mobilization for new forms of struggle and a much more technological change and other forms of restructuring to cre- wide-ranging transformation. ate work processes that were less susceptible to direct action The standard story we tend to hear in school and through by workers on the shop floor. The 1940s shop steward often the media is that citizenship and social rights were granted acted as an organizer of direct action at the shop floor level, from above by enlightened policy-makers, such as Prime using slow downs or work stoppages to ensure problems were Minister Mackenzie King in Canada and President Franklin addressed. Over time, changes in production methods, the Roosevelt in the US. In fact, neither citizenship nor work- legal framework and union practices shifted the focus away place rights nor national liberation were granted without from direct shop floor action toward grievance procedures hard struggles that mobilized millions on a range of fronts, and collective bargaining. This happened at different paces whether that meant work stoppages, protests or armed in different industries. struggles. There were also important changes in working-class life, brought about in part by the improvements in the standard The Post-War Settlement of living associated with the union victories of the 1940s. Key In Canada, the 1930s-1940s were a crucial period in sections of the working class gained access to automobiles, the struggle for fuller citizenship. Basic collective bargaining suburban home ownership and new forms of leisure such as rights were recognized as industrial unions were organized television sets. Workers could move farther away from their in many key sectors (such as auto and steel). The foundations workplace, and so the old neighbourhoods and the (generally of many social welfare programs were established, access to masculine) forms of leisure such as taverns often associated education was increased and rudimentary elements of human with those communities began to fade. rights protection were introduced. The consolidation of these Struggles for fuller citizenship within an unjust and in- rights was partly made possible by the long boom, which equitable capitalist system often produced new divisions. created general conditions favouring capitalist profitability Certain sections of the working class gained a great deal from the 1940s through to the early 1970s. These conditions from these victories, while others benefited little. Women, of sustained profitability put employers in a position to grant for example, gained much less than men from new welfare workers concessions that are much more difficult to make in state programs that were based around an assumption of a situations of economic crisis. household based around a male breadwinner and a wife who The victories of the 1940s were won through tremendous did unpaid work in the home. Some workers won important mobilization, over a long period, from the 1930s anti-pover- gains in wages, job protection, vacation time and benefits, ty movements through to the militant struggle to win union while others gained very little. rights in the face of intransigent employer opposition. The At its core, citizenship itself is based on the exclusion peak of militancy in this period included strikes in Windsor of non-citizens and those with limited rights. The rights (1945) and Hamilton (1946) that inspired widespread mobi- of some must always be measured against the exclusion of lization and incredible solidarity in those communities. others – indigenous peoples, migrants, and others without In the wake of those victories came a rapid depolitici- full rights in society. Citizenship rights are therefore inher- zation of society. Some of the most powerful forces in the ently divisive, even if they are won through mobilization and working class won key demands that in effect made them full solidarity. They can reinforce lines of privilege and inequality citizens, through legalized collective bargaining, new social within the working-class movement. programmes and new access to the market as consumers due The ruling class mounted a counter-offensive against this to wage increases and job security. wave of radicalization, both contributing to and building on These gains were real, but they were distorted by the un- the depoliticization of the working class and other move- equal character of capitalist society. The genuine gain of union ments in the aftermath of key victories. The Cold War anti- recognition went along with a framework of legalized col- Communist witch-hunts were a key part of a counter-offen- lective bargaining that enhanced the bureaucratic nature of sive aimed at rolling back the radicalism of the working-class trade unions. New labour laws put union leaderships in the movement. In the name of “national security,” civil servants position of policing their own members. The automatic dues were fired for political activism, people perceived as lesbian check-off (Rand formula) that went along with these settle- or gay were hounded out of their jobs, and radicals were ments helped weaken the shop steward structure (stewards blacklisted out of any presence in popular culture. Within are workplace union representatives) that had been crucial to the unions, there was a parallel move to drive out the Left active mobilization in the workplace, as previously shop stew- and to strip dissidents of their rights. This weakened social- ards had been responsible for collecting dues from members. ist organizations and other elements of the infrastructure of The steward structure was also weakened by changes in dissent.

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 7 ible and many began to understand their position in society in political terms. The parameters of the political were ex- panded in this period, with such slogans as “the personal is political” which in its first incarnation meant that we could not overcome our everyday problems without combating the unequal power structures of the greater society. As after World War II, employers and the state met the mobilizations of the 1960s and 1970s with a combination of concessions and counter-offensive. This wave of mobilization saw many real gains, some of which were won as the rul- ing class counter-offensive was underway in the late 1970s or early 1980s. These included pay equity, broader human rights protection, paid maternity leave and the right to refuse unsafe work along with a substantial expansion of social pro- grams, health care and increased access to education Anti-World Bank, World Trade Organization graphic Counter-Offensive from the global justice movement of the late 1990s. The end of the long boom in the early 1970s ­contributed to spurring the ruling class into a counter-offensive. Em- The 1960s and 1970s ployers and the state went on the offensive to drive up prof- The impetus for the next great wave of mobilization, itability by clawing back worker rights and restructuring in the 1960s and 1970s, came largely from those who were production. The introduction of wage and price controls in still excluded from full citizenship: the Québécois, indig- 1975 was one of the key markers of the new ruling-class of- enous peoples, women, lesbians and gays, young people and fensive in the Canadian state. Despite impressive resistance, people of colour. It was crucially inspired by anti-imperialist including a massive one-day protest strike on October 14, solidarity with the people of Vietnam. 1976, the offensive began to have bite. It took many attempts This mobilization also ignited a new labour militancy, to a and a variety of strategies, worked out in Canada and glob- large extent radiating out of Quebec, where workplace activ- ally, to wear down the opposition and begin to remake the ism and the struggle for national liberation tended to come workplace and society. Ultimately, these strategies tended to together. The militancy of postal workers in Quebec in 1965 converge on ideas of neo-liberalism and lean production. played a crucial role in igniting the activism that would lead Lean production describes a process of reorganizing work- to widespread unionization in the public sector and new di- places around a less secure, more polarized and increasingly mensions of worker activism. self-disciplined workforce. Many of the key elements of lean The 1960s and 1970s saw a resurgence of socialist orga- production were developed in the Japanese automobile in- nizing that launched a new Left and revived elements of the dustry and generalized from there through the auto sector. old. The “New Left” was often highly critical of existing so- Now, these management strategies have spread much further called “socialist” societies, and brought with it a new emphasis than manufacturing, influencing the organization of retail, on democracy, participation and the liberation of previously office, health, social service and education workplaces. excluded groups including women, Québécois, people of co- The spread of lean production has included many features lour, students and young people, indigenous peoples, lesbians designed to weaken union activism and shop floor power. and gays. The “Old Left” that revived in this period included Team concept work organization and strategies of con- the pro-USSR Communist Party, the social democratic left, tinuous improvement are designed specifically to implicate Maoist and Trotskyist formations. workers in management, downloading certain responsibili- The old and new Lefts were not mutually exclusive. The ties to enforce new kinds of self-discipline. Many of the tem- New Left was often influenced by long-standing socialists porary and part-time workers in the increasingly polarized or by their offspring—“red diaper babies.” Some of the older workforce are not organized, leaving unions representing a Left, for example certain Trotskyist groups, were highly in- shrinking number of ever less-secure full-time workers. fluenced by the politics of the New Left. Neo-liberalism is the political twin of lean production, The militancy of the 1960s and 1970s repoliticized soci- using social policy to create the population required for con- ety. In workplaces, on campuses, in newly established queer ditions of lean production, oriented evermore towards the and women’s spaces, in militant anti-racist organizations, in market to meet needs and fulfill desires. The only way to music and in popular culture, radical ideas were highly vis- stay alive in a neo-liberal society is to sell your capacity to

 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 work in exchange for wages that can be used to purchase Finally, it is crucial to understand the ways that these pro- goods. Deep cuts to health, education and social programs cesses of restructuring are made to appear normal by divi- have reduced or eliminated supplements and alternatives to sions within the working class so that the marginalization the wage. Neo-liberalism has pushed commodification, the of some seems natural. People living in poverty, and particu- transformation of things, services and capacities into market larly those who need social assistance, have been stigmatized goods for purchase, ever deeper into our daily lives. and brutalized by neo-liberal social policy. This poor-bashing Neo-liberalism and lean production have rolled back only works because solidarity has declined to the extent that many of the social rights associated with winning fuller citi- many employed working-class people see their own needs zenship. However, we have not yet seen a repoliticization of and those of people living in poverty as counterposed. society. Indeed, it is a central goal of neo-liberalism to depo- The increasing polarization of the workforce has also been liticize society, making it seem that the market determines naturalized through racism and sexism. The most vulnerable everything and that politics is irrelevant. Of course, underly- sections of the workforce are disproportionately made up of ing this apparent market domination is a brutal use of state women and people of colour, and often specifically women of power in immigration controls, policing and imprisonment colour. The lack of outrage about increasing social polariza- to eliminate alternatives to wage labour (such as squeegeeing tion, increasing poverty, downloading of responsibility onto car windshields), stifle dissent and reinforce the vulnerabili- the household and the proliferation of insecure, low-wage ties of the disadvantaged. jobs is partly because the substandard condition of women At the present time, there is a remarkable political con- and people of colour is still widely accepted as inevitable. sensus about the inevitability of neo-liberalism and lean The Beginning of a New Socialism? production that ranges from the Tories to the NDP. Glob- ally, New Labour in Britain has been a pioneer in the re- The end of 20th century socialism is not just an or- engineering of social democracy to fit with neo-liberalism, ganizational low point resulting from a lull in struggles. It though apparently more radical formations like the African represents, at least in the Canadian state outside Quebec, the National Congress (ANC) in South Africa and the Workers’ exhaustion of a particular historical phase of socialist orga- Party (PT) in Brazil also fell in line. nizing oriented around a specific set of political coordinates This depoliticization of society and weakening of the in- (the Russian Revolution), emancipatory projects (full citi- frastructure of dissent produces a dumbing down of political zenship), regimes of work organization and ways of life for discussion and debate. With few issues of substance in play, working-class communities. the media tend to reduce politics to coverage of personali- The future of socialism is a genuinely open question, as it ties and empty soundbites. This does not begin with the me- is now in such a marginal state that sustainability is not a sure dia, but with the shrinking of the sphere of politics and the thing. It is a crucial time to investigate the extent to which weakening of collective means of communication, analysis the model of 20th century socialism fits the current ways and mobilization. of life, regimes of work, emancipatory projects and political Neo-liberalism and lean production have contributed to coordinates of the working class and oppressed groups. further changes in working-class life. The intensified com- The movement for global justice that was cut short in the modification associated with neo-liberalism has replaced wake of September 11, 2001 showed that radical renewal more community-oriented forms of leisure (concerts, bars, could lead to the development of new forms of infrastructure parks) with more privatized forms (each household member of dissent and raise new challenges for socialist organizing. having their own television, mp3 player, and computer). Pub- Coming out of this experience, there is every reason to be- lic space is being squeezed out by privatization, for example lieve that building genuine and effective solidarity between as shopping streets are replaced by private malls. An infra- the included and excluded segments of the working class will structure of dissent historically founded in part on informal be a huge issue in rebuilding radicalism, demanding a seri- networks and public space has less soil in which to thrive. ous integration of anti-racist, feminist and queer liberation- At the same time, overwork in paid and domestic la- ist perspectives into the project of revitalizing socialism. bour reduces the opportunity to participate in political life. Marxism provides crucial tools for making sense of the Many people are working longer hours in paid work while changes that shape the terrain of socialist organizing, helping the reduction of state services is downloading a great deal to clarify the continuities and discontinuities brought about of care-giving responsibility into the household. Hospital by processes of capitalist restructuring. These tools need to cutbacks, for example, dump people who are ill or recovering be used in a way that is open to the future, not assuming that into households where they need a great deal of care. This the key questions have already been answered, open to the increasing work time makes it harder for everyone, and par- past, not closing the door on the immense historical experi- ticularly for women, to make time for activism. ence of struggle of the past century. 

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 9 WHY ECOSOCIALISM TODAY? by Joel Kovel

omo sapiens has been contending Hwith its effects on nature since Pa- leolithic days and the first great extinc- tions wrought by hunting bands. But it was not until the 1970s that we began to talk about a great ecological crisis threat- ening the future of the species. The mod- ern environmental movement was born in that moment, with its Earth Days, green parties and innumerable non-gov- ernmental organizations signalling that a new, ecologically aware age had arisen to contend with the planetary threat. The optimism of those early years has now faded. Despite certain useful inter- What had happened was that environ- tion,” and is celebrated by ideologues like ventions like greater recycling of garbage mentalism had missed the point, and was Thomas Friedman as a new epoch of uni- or the development of green zones, it dealing with external symptoms rather versal progress borne on the wings of free is increasingly apparent that the whole than the basic disease. Thatcher did not trade and unfettered commodification. mass of governmental regulations, en- spell it out in detail but there is no mis- This blitzkrieg or bombardment simply vironmental NGO’s and academic pro- taking what she had in mind and stood overwhelmed the feeble liberal reforms grams has failed to check the overall for: There was to be no alternative to which the environmental movements pace of ecological decay. Indeed, since capitalism – to be exact, the born-again, of the 1970s had helped put in place in the first Earth Day was proclaimed, the harder-edged kind of capitalism which order to check ecological decay. And as breakdown in crucial areas such as car- was being installed during the 1970s in these movements have had little or no bon emissions, the loss of barrier reefs place of the welfare-state capitalism that critique of capital, they drift helplessly in and deforestation of the Amazon basin had prevailed for much of the century. a time of accelerated breakdown. has actually accelerated and even begun This shift was a deliberate response to a Thus it is time to recognize the utter to assume an exponential character. serious accumulation crisis that had con- inadequacy of first-wave environmental- How do we explain this grim fact, the vinced the leaders of the global economy ism’s basic premises and forms of organi- awareness of which should inspire the to install what we know as neoliberalism. zation. There is a certain urgency to this most vigorous efforts to go beyond the Thatcher was emblematic, along with US recognition, for nothing less than pro- limits of present-day environmental- president Ronald Reagan, of its political found and indeed unprecedented changes ism? Perhaps Margaret Thatcher should face. in human existence are forewarned by the be heeded here. In the later years of the Neoliberalism is a return to the pure ecological crisis. And that this path has 1970s, the very decade that was to ush- logic of capital; it is no passing storm but now opened before us can be attributed er in the environmental era, the Prime the true condition of the capitalist world to capital itself, which places us on a track Minister of the UK announced the rise we inhabit. It has effectively swept away to ecological chaos. While there are many of “TINA,” the acronym for her slogan measures which had inhibited capital’s complexities corresponding to capital’s re- “There Is No Alternative” to the given so- aggressiveness, replacing them with naked sponsibility for the ecological crisis, there ciety, and certainly no alternative of the exploitation of humanity and nature. The is but one overriding tendency: capital- sort envisioned by the first wave of envi- tearing down of boundaries and limits ism requires continual growth of the eco- ronmentalists. to accumulation is known as “globaliza- nomic product and since this growth is for the sake of capital and not real human Joel Kovel’s two most recent books are Overcoming Zionism (Between the Lines) and The need, the result is the continual destabi- Enemy of Nature (2nd edition forthcoming 2007, Zed) lization of an integral relationship to na-

10 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 ture. The essential reason for this lies in “first-epoch” socialisms of the last centu- transfer carbon to the atmosphere. Since capitalism’s distinctive difference from all ry is not merely terminological, as though “nature” is the interrelated set of all eco- other modes of production, that is, that for ecosocialism we simply need worker systems, production within ecosocialism it is organized around the production of control over the industrial apparatus and should be oriented toward the mending capital itself—a purely abstract, numeri- some good environmental regulation. We of ecosystemic damage and indeed, the cal entity with no internal limit. Hence it do need worker control in ecosocialism making of flourishing ecosystems. This drags the material natural world, which as we did in the socialism of the “first could entail ecologically rational farms, very definitely has limits, along with it on epoch,” for unless the producers are free for example, or – since we ourselves are its mad quest for value and surplus value, there is no overcoming of capitalism. But natural creatures who live ecosystemical- and can do nothing else. the ecological aspect also poses a new and ly, in communities – ecologically directed We have no choice about the fact that more radical issue that calls into question human relationships, including the rais- the ecological crisis portends radical the very character of production itself. ing of children, the relations between change. But we can choose the kind Capitalist production, in its endless genders and indeed, the whole spiritual of change, whether it is to be for life search for profit, seeks to turn everything and aesthetic side of life. or death. As Ian Angus puts it in his into a commodity. Only in this way can This article is far too brief to allow the listserve, Climate and Capitalism, the accumulation continuously expand. By development of the facts of ecosocialism. choice is simple enough: “EcoSocialism releasing us from the tyranny of private But from what has been said so far it or Barbarism: There is no third way” (To ownership of the means of production, should be apparent that in talking of eco- learn about and/or join this list, contact socialism, whether of the first-epoch va- socialism we are saying much more than Angus at [email protected]). riety or as ecosocialism, makes it possible that our economy or technology must This is a paraphrase of the great Rosa to interrupt the deadly tendency of can- change. Ecosocialism is no more a purely Luxemburg’s saying of the early twenti- cerous growth, which is effectively driven economic matter than was socialism or eth century, that the real choice before communism in the eyes of Marx. It needs humanity was between “Socialism or We have no choice about to be precisely the radical transformation Barbarism.” This is quite true. The failure of society – and human existence – that of the socialist revolutions (both imme- the fact that the ecological Marx envisioned as the next stage in hu- diately as in the case of Luxemburg and crisis portends radical man evolution. Indeed, it must be that if the Spartacist uprising in Germany, and change. But we can choose we are going to survive the ecological cri- later with the failure of the other social- sis. Ecosocialism is the ushering in, then, isms of the twentieth century, especially the kind of change, whether of a whole mode of production, one in those organized around the USSR and it is to be for life or death. which freely associated labour produces China), has been a condition for the pres- flourishing ecosystems rather than com- ent triumph of barbaric capitalism, with modities. its endless wars, nightmarish consumer- by the competition between capitals for Most definitely, this discussion of al- ism, ever-widening gap between rich and ever greater market share. But this leaves ternatives raises far more questions than poor—and most significantly, ecological open the question of just what will be it answers, which is itself a measure of crisis. So the choice remains the same, produced, and how, within an ecosocialist how profound the ecological crisis is. except that capitalist barbarism now society. What, after all, would life look like if we means ecocatastrophe. This is because the It is plain to see that production will stopped pouring carbon into the atmo- capacity of the earth to buffer the effects have to shift from being dominated by sphere and allowed the climate ecosys- of human production has become over- exchange – the path of the commod- tem to re-equilibrate, that is, be healed? whelmed by the chaos of its productive ity – to that which is for use, that is for How, really, are we to live fully human system. Any movement for social trans- the direct meeting of human needs. But lives in harmony with nature given the formation in our time will have to em- this in turn requires definition, and in the tremendous horrors built into our system phasize this issue, for the very notion of context of ecological crisis, “use” can only of society? There is no certainty of out- a future depends on whether we can re- mean those set of needs essential for the come. But there is one certainty we have solve it or not. overcoming of the ecological crisis—for to build: there must be an alternative.  For this reason, a socialism worthy of this is the greatest need for civilization as There will be a meeting to found an the name will have to be ecologically – or a whole, and therefore for each woman International Ecosocialist organization to be more exact, “ecocentrically” – ori- and man within it. this coming October 7th in Paris. ented, that is, it will have to be an “eco- It follows that human beings can only Please contact Joel at jskovel@earthlink. socialism” devoted to restoring the in- flourish in circumstances in which the net, or Ian Angus at ecosocialism@ tegrity of our relationship to nature. The damage to nature that capital has wrought gmail.com for further information.” distinction between ecosocialism and the is overcome, as for example, by ceasing to

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 11 Indigenizing revolution Restoring balance to our theories and strategies for social change

By Na’cha’uaht

he idea of revolution and immediate “A true revolution is spiritual at its core; every single one of the Tchange is appealing, especially con- world’s materialist revolutions has failed to produce conditions of sidering the horrendous living conditions endured by a majority of indigenous peo- life that are markedly different from those which it opposed.” ple in this country. Yet despite the need for immediate action to better the lives of indigenous people, leaders of modern Identifying the core issue of ends- nance – that of the Indian band council. indigenous resistance movements find means consistency, Alfred calls for the These extensions of the federal govern- themselves – counter-intuitively per- employment of a variety of strategies, in- ment have ranged from ineffective lib- haps – facing the reality that substantive cluding what he calls non-violent creative eral democratic regimes that lack popular change will take a considerable amount contention. He further states, “A true legitimacy at the least, to unaccountable of time. Indigenous activists are refocus- revolution is spiritual at its core; every and corrupt authoritarian regimes at the ing their attention on local, fundamental single one of the world’s materialist revo- worst. Even communities that manage to issues, while attempting to remain true to lutions has failed to produce conditions liberate themselves from the confines of their indigenous philosophical roots. of life that are markedly different from the Indian Act and negotiate their own While classic socialist notions of revo- those which it opposed.” This critique self-government agreements are forced lution are appealing, like their liberal- can be seen not simply as abandoning all to accept democratic constitutions that democratic counterparts they are rooted the ideals of revolution, but perhaps indi- are not rooted in indigenous principles in Eurocentric political, social and eco- genizing them. or values. Taiaiake Alfred identifies the nomic worldviews. Indigenous resur- True indigenous resurgence is about mainstream strategies of political and gence is more than just the elimination of restoring balance. Any Eurocentric solu- legal engagement as “aboriginalism,” and poverty or the improvement of any num- tion, no matter how well-intentioned, is sets out a compelling case not only of their ber of the socioeconomic indicators. Yes, bound to fail. It is important to recognize futility, but of the very dangerous ways in indigenous people want to be healthy and certain unique indigenous worldviews which they promote assimilation. happy, but not at the expense of losing and philosophical perspectives here. Bear- Indigenous peoples must be able to who they are as a people. Of course, ideas ing in mind that indigenous communities choose how they govern themselves. For that conceptualize indigenous resurgence and cultures across the Americas are far indigenous peoples it is a fundamental are diverse, but most indigenous people from homogenous, there are some com- right, as well as a responsibility. This con- express a desire to preserve and perpetu- monalities that are worth mentioning. A cept of responsibility that places indig- ate their unique languages, cultures and common principle amongst indigenous enous people as stewards of the land has ways of living. peoples is that of interconnection; indig- largely been lost in the debates and nego- In his most recent book Wasáse: In- enous worldviews see all creation as con- tiations. Adopting the rhetoric of rights digenous Pathways of Action and Free- nected and interrelated. Recognition of and engaging with the colonial political dom, Kanien’kehaka scholar and activist this is manifested in indigenous ways of and legal institutions on their own terms Taiaiake Alfred calls for indigenous peo- living in balance with the environment. are a significant departure from indige- ple to move away from materialist and Co-optation nous worldviews and philosophies. This is individualist state-centric engagements, why narrowly focused, state-centric ini- and re-embrace their traditional values After a legacy of displacement, dispos- tiatives have proven largely unsuccessful. and principles. In dealing with the issue session, devastating diseases, and state- Politically, some argue that progress of violence, Alfred writes, “How you fight led attempts at cultural erasure and as- has been made. While the $5 billion determines who you will become when similation, indigenous people have had Kelowna Accord has been abandoned by the battle is over.” to deal with an imposed form of gover- the federal Conservative government, the provincial Liberals in British Columbia Na’cha’uaht (Cliff Atleo, Jr.) is the son of a Nuu-chah-nulth father and a Tsimshian mother. He is a former member of the disbanded West Coast Warrior Society and is currently attending the continue to move ahead with their $100 University of Victoria. million New Relationship initiative. Pre-

12 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 mier Gordon Campbell surprised many the Nisga’a Nation on a technicality, ab- ists struggle with how best to lead their with his about-face on “treaty” negotia- original law and rights rhetoric had found communities, often responding to the tions and unexpected efforts to accom- a venue—and a seemingly inexhaustible dire need for change with elitist revolu- modate First Nations in British Colum- supply of lawyers willing to take on cases. tionary ideas. In contrast, Nicole Cross, bia with a series of social and economic After the 1982 repatriation of the Ca- a 22-year old Nisga’a woman, believes policy shifts. nadian constitution and the inclusion of that the consciousness and awareness of But co-optation will not come easily. section 35.1, which recognized “existing the common people is where we must The community rejection of the Lheidli Aboriginal and treaty rights,” aboriginal focus our efforts. Consistent with Frantz Tenneh Final Agreement by a vote of law and its practitioners gathered mo- Fanon’s belief that action occurs most of- 123-111 on March 30 is sending shock- mentum that continues unabated. ten amongst those with nothing to lose, waves throughout the BC treaty estab- In cases like Sparrow, Gladstone, Mar- Cross advocates a broad community-cen- lishment. After 14 years of negotiations shall, Haida, Taku, and Delgamuukw the tered approach to organizing. Seventeen- and hundreds of millions of dollars of courts have been notoriously vague in year-old Dustin Rivers of Skwxwú7mesh accumulated debt, the BC Treaty Process their rulings about the nature and scope also believes that community resurgence has yet to produce a single ratified agree- of aboriginal title and rights. What they cannot merely be an elite-led process. ment – the Nisga’a negotiations predated have not been vague about is the unas- Jessica Wood, a young Gitxan mother, the formal BC Treaty Process and their sailability of Crown title and jurisdiction. believes that our politics must be more agreement was concluded outside its do- Delgamuukw, often heralded as a victory inclusive, suggesting that indigenous main. Two other agreements will soon for indigenous people, confirmed aborig- communities have become increasingly face community referendums: Tsawwas- inal title but only as a “burden” on Crown divided – especially on the basis of gen- sen and Maa-nulth. Both will face con- title. To top it off, Chief Justice Antonio der. Possibly one of the most devastat- siderable community opposition, espe- Lamer provided a veritable grocery list of ing and divisive strategies employed by cially in the wake of the Lheidli Tenneh reasons for “justifiable infringement” of colonial authorities was the implemen- rejection and overall dissatisfaction with aboriginal title that all but rendered the tation of the overtly sexist provisions of inflexible government mandates, ongoing recognition of it useless. Both negotia- the Indian Act. Prior to an amendment resource extraction, and continued com- tions and the courts have proven time- in 1985 that allowed for a limited recov- munity poverty. consuming, expensive, and have produced ery, the legislation granted “Indian status” Endeavours to obtain justice in the dubious results at best. to non-indigenous women who married Canadian courts have proven equally dis- A Community-Centred indigenous men, and stripped it from heartening. Aboriginal law and the con- Approach indigenous women who married non-in- cepts of aboriginal title and rights began digenous men. In many cases non-status to take shape with the Calder decision Political and legal efforts to achieve Indians were required to leave their home – the first modern recognition of the idea reconciliation are mostly disappointing communities and fend for themselves in of aboriginal title in Canadian common and somewhat esoteric to average com- urban centres often under conditions of law – in 1976. While the Supreme Court munity members. So what are the alter- isolation and poverty. The legacy of this of Canada ruled against Frank Calder and natives? Many young indigenous activ- community fragmentation is no more . org http :// wasase

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 13 evident than in the national disgrace that ternative, one is not deserving of a public not to surrender.” The Zapatista move- is the reality of Canada’s more than 500 opinion. Grassroots community members ment and its most recent incarnation, missing and murdered indigenous wom- often feel intimidated by the legal and the Other Campaign, epitomize a non- en. political jargon prevalent in current in- state-centric, anti-neoliberal approach If the restoration of balance is intrin- digenous politics and negotiations. With to indigenous community resistance and sic to community resurgence rooted in the immense pressure to plug-in, buy-in, resurgence. indigenous principles however, then re- go shopping, go to school, go to work, pay Are the Zapatista lessons relevant to storing balance to indigenous gender the bills, and “just do it,” and assimilate Canada? For the Zapatistas, their poverty relations must be a priority. After years into the Canadian state politically and is integral to their strategy. It is a weapon. of public and police apathy, community economically, many believe that for the In Canada widespread indigenous pov- activists and concerned family members time being it is enough to just say no. erty is a reality. But there is also a bur- have worked hard to focus attention on In this view, resistance precedes re- geoning indigenous elite that has grown the issue of violence against women, es- surgence. Uruguayan writer, Eduardo to lead the mainstream political and legal pecially in places like the Downtown Galeano writes in his book, We Say No, engagements with the state. Such a van- Eastside in Vancouver where countless “By saying no to the devastating empire guard-led approach, whether from the indigenous women have been lost and of greed...we are saying yes to another left or the right, will be problematic and forgotten by most. possible America...In saying no to peace susceptible to co-optation. A central theme of the Nuu-chah- Seeds for Tomorrow nulth Stop the Violence Movement is the restoration of hope. In May 2006, While addressing the For the time being perhaps it is enough a handful of young Nuu-chah-nulth most urgent needs of to say enough. Resistance may be the or- people, with the support of respected el- der of the day. But like all truly indigenous ders, embarked on a 10-day journey that today, we must also begin movements, the current movement must would take them to all 15 Nuu-chah- connect to the next movement, and the nulth communities on Vancouver Island. planting the seeds for next, and the one after that. While ad- Their concern was domestic violence, and tomorrow. dressing the most urgent needs of today, their message was simple: Indigenous we must also begin planting the seeds for people must stop the violence in their tomorrow. And here I am reminded of communities, a manifestation of anger without dignity, we are saying yes to the my nieces and nephews, and our future turned inward. Men and women need sacred right of rebellion against injus- generations. It is more than just a cliché. to stand together, restoring balance and tice…By saying no to the freedom of Cycles of violence, depression, poverty, bringing dignity again to the people. money we are saying yes to the freedom and cultural devastation are broken inter- Organizers worked outside the state- of people: a mistreated and wounded generationally. As we overcome our trau- sponsored band council system, choos- freedom, a thousand times defeated…a ma and grief through the generations, so ing instead to recognize the traditional thousand times arisen.” Indigenous activ- must we rebuild our strength and dignity Nuu-chah-nulth Ha’wiih (hereditary ists in Canada, while focusing their ef- through the generations. leaders), and when possible observe all forts locally, are mindful of allies abroad, My nephew Kashus will be two years pertinent cultural protocols. Given the and like their Zapatista brothers and sis- old in August. He is the son of my sister, a positive responses from the communi- ters in Mexico, also say “Ya Basta!” strong, compassionate, wonderful woman ties, organizers have decided to make the What is the future of indigenous resis- and her husband, a man of immense char- Stop The Violence Movement an annual tance, and why is resistance specifically, acter, respect and a true warrior at heart. event. This year participants plan to travel an important element to the overall proj- When Kashus was a few months old, my to all the major urban areas where more ect of indigenous resurgence? Perhaps sister sent me a photograph of him lying than 65% of Nuu-chah-nulth families Sub-Comandante Marcos, spokesperson in his crib with his right hand balled into reside to continue sharing the message of for the indigenous Zapatista uprising in a little fist raised in the air defiantly. I have love, concern, and hope. Mexico, states it most eloquently in Our the picture in a frame on my bookshelf Resistance Word is Our Weapon, “For everyone, ev- and every time I look at it I am reminded erything, nothing for ourselves.” of my commitment to him and my family. Community people young and old In explaining why the Zapatistas use Tsimshian/Cree activist and performer are saying, “no,” and “enough.” One of the weapon of resistance, Marcos further Skeena Reece is known to have coined the most common criticisms levelled states, “From the beginning of our upris- the phrase, “We must raise the next gen- at indigenous dissidents is that it is not ing, they have offered us everything to eration on truth.” In itself, this is an act of enough to merely say “no.” It is as if one is get us to sell ourselves, to surrender...But resistance and resurgence.  unable to articulate a comprehensive al- we chose not to sell ourselves, we chose

14 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 Socialism, solidarity, and indigenous liberation by Deborah Simmons tionaries seek to overthrow or seize the state, and thereby substitute one form of n Canada, a new radical movement of indigenous people is emerging that domination for another. Irefuses to be co-opted by the “aboriginalist” policies of the state. This move- “The idea of revolution is what I call ment aims to resist the destructive, corrupting and oppressive aspects of the ‘pushing the button,’” Day has said in an interview with Edmonton’s indie mag system that has been imposed on indigenous peoples since the arrival of the Eu- Vue Weekly. “If I could push the button ropeans. At the same time, the new radical indigenism reaffirms and renews the – and for starters, I wouldn’t – but if I positive aspects of the sovereign societies that existed on this continent before could, I’d expect that, the day after, some- colonization. Inherent in this strategy is a strong sense of autonomy. Indigenous body would start setting up a state, or a people are responsible for making their own revolution, in their own way. corporation, and someone else would say, ‘Those people with brown eyes aren’t as Given the undeniable fact of radical in- colonization and what he calls “affinity.” good as us; they should do the work for digenous autonomy, and given the often His examples of such projects include us.’ It would all begin again; it’s perpetual, shameful record of top-down versions of “asambelistas in Argentina, Landless Peo- it’s endless, and this is why the idea of the socialism that claim to have a monopoly ple’s Movement activists in South Africa, revolution is to be gotten rid of – it makes on solutions to the “Indian problem,” it Zapatista villagers in Chiapas, Mohawk us too lazy, because we think that domi- would seem that socialism has nothing warriors within/against North America, nation is done with, and it never will be.” to contribute to the project of indigenous squatters in London.” The “affinity” based A Contemporary Strategy for liberation beyond unconditional solidar- strategy builds upon the experience of the Social Change ity. This is the perspective promoted by global justice movement that crystallized Queen’s University scholar Richard JF in Seattle (1999), Montreal (2000) and Radical indigenous activists are now Day, whose book Gramsci is Dead draws Quebec City (2001). In contrast to Day’s critically reflecting on the history of so- on a certain anarchist tradition and on view, “vanguardist” strategies requiring an cial movements, and particularly indig- French philosopher Michel Foucault in elite minority that must win over the ma- enous movements and modes of gover- arguing that there is a kind of totalitarian impulse in all global strategies for social Radical indigenous activists are now critically transformation. reflecting on the history of social movements, and The example of indigenous movements is important for Day, since these move- particularly indigenous movements and modes of ments affirm alternative local modes of governance, in order to develop an effective strategy resistance that are truly “indigenous” to local history and culture, and thus exist for achieving social change. outside the box of any universal theories or strategies. Insofar as they are specific jority to their superior ideas, Day defines nance, in order to develop an effective to the diverse experiences, cultures and affinity as a “groundless solidarity” that strategy for achieving social change. The histories of the plurality of indigenous permits rebellion through a multitude special Indigenous Resurgence issue of peoples, Day would define these move- of perspectives, strategies and tactics—a New Socialist Magazine (#58) published ments as “non-hegemonic.” “decentralized network of alternatives.” last fall (available at www.newsocialist. Groundless Solidarity Day argues that the reform versus rev- org) represents an important contribu- olution debate among socialists is actu- tion to this discussion. Day more broadly celebrates move- ally imprisoned within a sealed logic of In their article, Taiaiake Alfred and ments that are rooted in autonomy, de- domination. Struggles for reform demand Lana Lowe point to the transience of the pan-indigenous Red Power movement as Deborah Simmons lives and works in recognition of individual rights from the Denendeh – the Northwest Territories. She state, and this demand in itself tends to a critical weakness. This is in contrast to is a member of the New Socialist Group. reinforce the role of the state. Revolu- the traditionalist warrior societies, which

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 15 are locally rooted. The latter strategy is Glen Coulthard asserts that the radical Socialism does not make history, people exemplified by the Stop the Violence indigenous Wasáse movement and New and social movements do. In fact, socialist campaign in Nuu-chah-nulth territory. Socialist “share in common the belief that ideas have repeatedly been shaken up by In the words of activist Chiinuuks, “We an essential challenge of indigenous self- the reality of the social movements that realized, through the help of many good determination is the question of how to spring from the struggles against capital- women and elders, that we couldn’t sim- stop, roll back and dismantle capitalism.” ist exploitation and oppression. We have ply ‘drop-in’ to communities, expect to We also share an understanding of the much to learn as history unfolds, and this adequately address a problem, and then need for autonomous organizing of op- learning will take place through activism, immediately move on to the next ‘issue’ pressed people, and the need for rooted- dialogue and debate. We owe a particular or community.” ness and long term commitment to local debt to indigenous peoples, who through- The editorial by Taiaiake Alfred and struggles. out the inhumane and environmentally destructive history of capitalism have shown that there are alternative ways of Is Gramsci dead? organizing society. This was the basis for Karl Marx’s fascination with indigenous The title of Richard JF Day’s book societies—in particular the society of the Gramsci is Dead refers to the purported Iroquois—during the last years of his life. death of the concepts of dominance or This egalitarian and democratic people “hegemony” and revolutionary “counter- provided him with insights into the con- hegemony” developed by the Italian crete possibility of a free society. theorist Antonio Gramsci. As a university Socialists should be absolutely com- student in Turin, Gramsci was stirred to mitted to developing, in both their theory political activity by the workers struggles and their activism, strategies that might he saw around him. He joined the Italian shed light on the long term possibility of Socialist Party in 1913, and became a radical social transformation—revolution. supporter of the workers councils that True, there is no push-button short cut spontaneously emerged during a series to this, and socialists will not be the van- of mass strikes in 1919 and 1920. He guard leading the unenlightened masses eventually became critical of Stalin in to victory. There is no fixed formula for 1926, but was imprisoned by Mussolini’s dismantling capitalism; neither is there a crystal ball in which a fixed model for a fascist regime in 1926. His health ruined by harsh prison conditions, Gramsci died in future revolutionary society is inscribed. 1937 after only three years of freedom. The socialist method is much more dif- Gramsci’s perspective was forged during a period of major social upheaval: mass ficult and complex, bringing analysis of strikes, the hope of radical social change represented by the early days of the Russian history and of systematic patterns at a revolution, the later betrayals of Stalinism and the brutal defeat of radical social global scale to bear on the shifting and movements by fascist reaction. The question of how to challenge the dominance of the diverse local realities of human resistance capitalist state (or in Russia, its mirror image the Stalinist state), was a matter of life and rebellion. This is the essence of stra- and death. tegic thinking, which moves beyond an- For Gramsci, solidarity is forged through the battle of ideas combined with the ger and spontaneous rebellion to carefully calculated long-term planning. experience of collective struggle. Far from being about the domination of the many by In this sense, our solidarity with radi- an elite few, solidarity involves intensive dialogue among the exploited and oppressed. cal indigenous movements is by no means According to Gramsci, “all men [sic] are intellectuals,” and no one has a monopoly on “groundless,” based on a merely conjunc- correct ideology: The mode of being of the new intellectual can no longer consist in “ tural affinity or instrumental convergence. eloquence, which is an exterior and momentary mover of feelings and passions, but in As Alfred and Coulthard put it, “Solidar- active participation in practical life, as constructor, organizer ‘permanent persuader’and ity is hard work. It requires a great deal of not just a simple orator.” critical self-reflection and commitment The concept of ideas forged through dialogue provides an important tool for to action.” Solidarity is both a strategy for understanding the ways that distinct social movements can develop an understanding winning battles against the depredations of their intersecting interests, and build strength through strategic solidarity in struggle. of capitalism, and it is a laboratory for the This is radically distinct from the systematic deceptions imposed upon us by the ruling longer-term goal of revolution. For social- classes and the capitalist state. Perhaps Gramsci is not dead after all! ists, solidarity is both a means and an end in the project to transform society. 

16 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 book review Uniting hearts and minds

Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism By David McNally 2nd edition, revised and expanded Arbeiter Ring, 2006 Reviewed by Gabrielle Gérin

n the course of my life, I have come ing the mobilization wave crashing on across a few books, poems and speech- the shores of 9/11, the repression that esI that have made me live intense mo- followed and the reconfiguration of social all refusals to comply passively with op- ments of intellectual excitement, with forces since 2001, McNally prepared this pression, exploitation or commodifica- my heartbeat accelerating, my eyes or revised edition to identify new challenges tion that provides the necessary fuel for ears opening wide and my mind racing. I and sources of hope for the Left. revolutionary struggle. This struggle must like to call the feeling in these moments McNally starts with a brilliantly popu- be built through a radicalization of minds “euphoria.” The words before me seem al- larized Marxist analysis of the globaliza- and the democratic empowerment of the most familiar, perfectly expressing an un- tion process. He places this process with- masses. McNally stresses the need for an derstanding I have felt as true but hadn’t in capital’s drive to violently commodify inclusive, revolutionary anti-capitalist vi- digested or translated into words. Grow- resources and labour power, reinforcing sion and mass-based, democratic organi- ing and learning as a young activist was its power through class exploitation and zation from below for these struggles to made possible by such moments; they gender and racial oppression. In doing develop their revolutionary potential. completed the consciousness of my heart so, he demonstrates that this process is In times like these when the radical with a consciousness of the mind. in no way natural and has always been left can feel isolated and pessimistic, the I first read David McNally’s Another met with resistance. History is not driven book reminds us that hope lies wherever World is Possible in 2005, after having by competing moralities but rather by there are struggles against oppression and participated in two events that radically struggle between social forces with op- wherever the vision of an alternative de- transformed me as a person and formed posing material—and human—interests velops. It also reminds us that, at heart, me as an activist: the 2005 World Social and needs. our task is to be providing empowering Forum and the two-month Quebec stu- McNally’s book is rich with much analysis, strategy and organization. Stra- dents’ general strike. It felt like eupho- needed references to peoples’ history (for tegic thinking cannot develop in an of- ria all along. In very simple and human example, the shocking account of the col- fice, outside of struggles. There, it is of language, the book helped me clarify onization of the Americas), providing the almost no use, loses touch with the real- my understanding of the world, which inspiration and references that are espe- ity and humanity of social forces at play I had felt a deep need for in the course cially lacking for today’s young activists. and faces the great danger of losing the of struggle, discussion and learning. My It is also incredibly rich with the words optimism that develops with the contact heart felt light because I knew the book of participants in struggles the world over of rebel hearts. would be an empowering tool, not only and throughout history. The thorough re- In a context where reformist institu- in making sense of the world but also in search into various struggles, helps us feel tions dominate social movements, when changing it. the pulse of contemporary global resis- struggles and demands appear frag- McNally’s book seemed designed for tance to capitalism. mented and when the new generation young activists like me who were born One of the book’s greatest strengths of activists born in the struggles of the out of “anti-globalization” struggles. See- is its thoroughly inclusive approach; it turn of the century seem more keen on speaks to all struggles and reaches to all a “lifestyle” type of activism rather than Gabrielle Gérin is a student at York University those engaged in them, whatever their on mass political organization, this book who is currently organizing the first Quebec level of political awareness and radical- gives us reasons for hope and calls us Social Forum and is also involved in Presse- ism. This is because McNally puts the to action. It is a powerful reminder that toi-à-gauche, a weekly Québécois left news radicalism of the heart at the centre of the history is made when hearts and minds website. analysis. It is this radicalism, expressed in unite. 

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 17 Strategies of the Left in Latin America by Claudio Katz

Editors’ note: This is a challenging theoretical text available for the first time in English. Claudio Katz’ interventions in the thriving debates on the future of socialism in Latin America have been much discussed in the magazines, journals and websites of the left throughout Latin America and Spain. In providing a translation of Katz’ most recent contribution, New Socialist is attempting to introduce to North American readers a taste of the character of discussions around building a socialism for the twenty-first century currently taking place on the ground in Latin America. The editors added the explanatory footnotes to the original text.

he call to build socialism of the 21st century has re-opened the strategic discussion on the Latin TAmerican left. Once again characterizations of socialism and courses of action are being analyzed to advance the socialist objective. This reflection includes six large themes: material conditions, relations of social forces, social subjects, popular consciousness, institutional frameworks and the organiza- tion of the oppressed. Maturity of the Productive Forces

The first debate takes up once again a classic con­ 2002 road blockade of the piquetero movement in Argentina. versy. Have the forces of production in Latin America ma- tured sufficiently to begin an anticapitalist transformation? Are the existing resources, technologies and qualifications through a phase of growth, increasing exports, and recom- sufficient to open a socialist process? position of business profits. One could object that in these The countries of the region are less prepared but more conditions, no collapse justifying anticapitalist transforma- urgently in need of facing up to this change than are the tion is foreseeable. developed nations. They endure nutritional, educational and However, the socialist option is not a conjunctural pro- sanitary disasters more intense than those in the advanced gram to overcome recessionary cycles and in this respect 2 economies, but have weaker material resources with which to strictly differentiates itself from Keynesianism. It aims to solve these problems. This contradiction is a consequence of overcome the exploitation and inequality that characterize the peripheral character of Latin America [within the glob- capitalism. It seeks to do away with poverty and unemploy- al economy – ed.] and its resulting agrarian backwardness, ment, to eradicate environmental disasters, to put an end to fragmented industrialization and financial dependence. nightmarish wars, and to stop financial cataclysms. On the Left there are two traditional responses in the face This polarization is taking place in the current Latin of this situation: to promote a stage of progressive capitalism American conjuncture. The increase in profits and consump- or to initiate a socialist transition adapted to the regional tion of the comfortable sectors contrasts with terrifying indi- insufficiencies. In a recent text we have expressed various -ar ces of misery. These calamities – that become more visible in guments in favour of the second option.1 the peaks of economic disaster – justify the battle for social- But another equally relevant debate centres on the oppor- ism. The situations of collapse do not constitute the only apt tunities of each course. After a traumatic period of economic moment to eradicate the system. The anticapitalist turn is an depression and banking collapses, Latin America is going 1 Claudio Katz, “Socialismo o Neo-desarrollismo” [Socialism or Neo-Developmentalism], available in Spanish at: www.lahaine. Claudio Katz is an economist at the University of Buenos Aires, a org, 1-12-06, or www.rebelion.org, 1-12-06. researcher with Conicet, and a member of Economistas de Izquierda, 2 Keynesianism refers to the reformist economic theory of John Economists of the Left, in Argentina. Maynard Keynes. It was most influential between the end of the Translation by New Socialist editor Jeffery R. Webber. Second World War and the 1970s.

18 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 No socialist revolution coincided with the economies. These regressive media give new life to the neces- sity of socialism as the only popular response to the new stage. zenith of an economic crisis. It is the only exit which can remedy the instabilities created by the expansion of global capital in a framework of nation The majority of cases erupted as a states, and in the face of tensions generated by the overflow- consequence of war, colonial occupation ing of financial speculation, imperialist polarization and the divorce between markets and technological advance. or dictatorial oppression. What is the Correlation of Forces?

The pre-eminence of relations of forces favourable open option for an entire period and can begin in whichever to the oppressed is a condition for socialist change. The pop- conjuncture of the cycle. The experience of the twentieth ular majority cannot prevail over its antagonists of the domi- century confirms this fact. nant classes if it faces a very negative balance of power. But No socialist revolution coincided with the zenith of an how do we assess these parameters? economic crisis. The majority of cases erupted as a conse- The correlation of forces is determined in Latin America quence of war, colonial occupation or dictatorial oppression. by the positions gained, threatened or lost by three sectors: In contexts of this kind the Bolsheviks took power (in Rus- the local capitalist classes, the oppressed masses and Ameri- sia), Mao imposed himself on China, Tito won Yugoslavia, can imperialism. During the 1990s a massive global offen- the Vietnamese threw out the United States and the Cuban sive of capital over labour was consummated on a global revolution triumphed. Most of these victories were complet- scale. The initial Thatcherite forcefulness of this broadside ed during the full postwar boom; that is to say during a stage has decreased, but it left behind an adverse general climate of record capitalist growth. No automatism links, therefore, for workers on an international scale. What happened in the debut of socialism with economic collapse. The miseries Latin America? that capitalism generates are sufficient to support its reversal, The capitalists of the region actively participated in this in whatever phase of the periodic fluctuations of this - sys attack, but ended up suffering various collateral conse- tem. quences from the process. With commercial opening they One objection to starting socialist processes highlights lost their competitive positions and with the de-nationaliza- the impediments created by globalization. It is argued that tion of the productive apparatus they gave up their defences the current internationalization of capital makes an anticapi- against their external competitors. Later, the financial crisis talist challenge in Latin America impractical. thrashed the establishment and took away their direct politi- But where exactly is the obstacle? Globalization does not cal presence. As a consequence the right has been left in a constitute a barrier for a project of universal scope, such as minority and centre-left governments replaced many con- socialism. The overflowing of borders extends the imbalances servatives in the management of the state (especially in the of capitalism and creates better objective bases for a socialist Southern Cone).3 The capitalist elite are no longer able to transformation. fix the agenda of the entire region with impunity. They have The presentation of globalization as a stage that makes been affected by a crisis of neoliberalism that could result in alternative models impossible is a tributary of the neoliberal the structural decline of this project. vision which proclaimed the inexistence of alternatives to The regional relation of forces has also been modified by the rightist model. But if one discards socialism for this rea- massive popular uprisings, which in South America pre- son it is also necessary to reject whatever Keynesian or regu- cipitated the fall of various heads of state. The rebellions in lated capitalist alternative. It is inconsistent to argue that the Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Venezuela have had direct totalitarianism of globalization has buried the anticapitalist repercussions on the dominant classes as a whole. They chal- project, but tolerates interventionist forms of accumulation. lenged business aggression and in many countries imposed a If it has shut out all options for socialism there are also no certain accommodation with the masses. openings for neo-developmentalism. The combative impulse is very unequal. In certain nations However, in reality globalization does not constitute the popular protagonism is visible (Bolivia, Venezuela, Argen- end of history and all alternatives remain open. It is merely tina, Ecuador), while in others an ebb in the tide prevails as that a new period of accumulation began, sustained by the a consequence of deception (Brazil, Uruguay). A new devel- recomposition of profits at the expense of the oppressed and opment is the awakening of worker and student struggles by transfers of major international imbalances to the weakest in countries that lead in neoliberal ranking (Chile), and in nations overwhelmed by social abuses and hemorrhages of 3 The Southern Cone refers to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 19 migration (Mexico). The correlation of forces is extremely varied in Latin America, but a general trend of popular ini- tiatives is reaffirming itself throughout the entire region. Bolivian miner At the beginning of the 1990s American imperialism working launched a politics of recolonization in its backyard through under brutal free trade and the installation of military bases. This panora- conditions: the ma has also changed. The original version of the Free Trade state-employed Area of the Americas (FTAA) failed because of conflicts miners have between globalized and dependent corporations in internal led important markets, clashes between exporters and industrialists and demonstrations extensive popular rejection of the project. The counteroffen- against the Evo Morales sive of bilateral trade agreements that the US Department of government State has launched does not compensate for this setback. demanding The international isolation of Bush (electoral collapse of that the mining the Republicans, failure in Iraq, loss of allies in Europe) has industry be closed the space for unilateralism and spurred the resurgence nationalized and of geopolitical blocs adverse to the United States (such placed under as the Non-Aligned countries). This American retreat is workers’ control. sharply reflected by the absence of military responses to the challenge of Venezuela. The correlation of forces has registered, therefore, various to play a more central role because of the place they occu- significant changes in Latin America. The dominant classes py in the vital branches of the economy (mining, factories, no longer count on the neoliberal strategic compass, the banks). Capitalists profit from the privations of all the dis- popular movement has recuperated its street presence, and possessed, but their profits depend on the direct labour force American imperialism has lost capacity of intervention. of the exploited and from profit which is made specifically Diversity of Subjects from certain activities. This centrality is verified in the current conjuncture of The actors of a socialist transformation are the economic revival, which tends to recreate the significance of victims of capitalist domination, but the specific subjects of waged workers. In Argentina unions are reclaiming their pre- this process in Latin America are very diverse. In some re- eminence in the streets, in comparison with the role played gions indigenous communities have occupied a leading role by the unemployed and the middle class during the crisis of in the resistance (Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico) and in other ar- 2001. In Chile the strikes of the miners are playing a leading eas peasants have led the resistance (Brazil, Peru, Paraguay). part, in Mexico certain unions are establishing a role, and in In certain countries the protagonists have been formal urban Venezuela the centrality of the petroleum workers since their workers (Argentina, Uruguay) or precarious informal urban battle against the coup attempt (in 2002) persists. workers (Venezuela, the Caribbean, Central America). The Problems of Popular Consciousness new role of indigenous communities and the weaker role of factory unions stand out. The multiplicity of sectors reflects The eradication of capitalism is a project entirely the differentiated social structure and political particularities dependent upon the level of consciousness of the oppressed. of each country. Only these convictions can direct a process of popular strug- However, this diversity also confirms the variety of par- gle toward socialism. ticipants of a socialist transformation. As the development of The primitive vision of this development as an inevitable capitalism expands the exploitation of waged work and col- transformation of history has lost intellectual consensus and lateral forms of oppression, the potential actors of a socialist political attractiveness. No pattern of historical evolution of process are all the exploited and oppressed. This role does this type exists. Socialism will constitute a voluntary creation not fall exclusively on the waged workers who directly create of the vast majorities or it will never arise. What occurred business profits, but to all the victims of capitalist inequal- under “real socialism” illustrates how terrible it is to substitute ity. What is essential is the convergence of these sectors in a popular determination with the paternalism of bureaucrats. common battle, which unfolds around ever-changing focal But the consciousness of the oppressed is a sphere sub- points of rebellion. Victory depends on this action against an ject to sudden changes and is conditioned by the experience enemy who dominates by dividing the popular camp. of struggle. Two opposing forces influence its development: In this struggle certain segments of waged workers tend the learning that the oppressed assimilate in their resistance

20 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 against capital and the dejection which is generated by sti- In any case the climate of disappointment was gradually fling work, anxiety for survival and daily alienation. replaced by an impulse to rebuild the emancipatory program. The inclination of waged workers to question or accept The advance of antineoliberal consciousness is illustrated the existing order stems from the variable results of this con- in the forceful rejection of privatizations and deregulations flict. In certain circumstances critical vision predominates (much greater than that observed in other regions, such as and in other moments resignation prevails. These attitudes Eastern Europe). A rebirth of anti-imperialist consciousness depend on many factors and operate on very distinct gen- is also taking place without the regressive components of erational perceptions of capitalism. For example, contrary to ethnicity or religion that prevail in the Arab world. the 1970s, the bulk of contemporary youth grew up without However, the anticapitalist connection is the great miss- expectations of better jobs or education, observing exclusion, ing link in this anti-neoliberal and anti-imperialist drive. unemployment and inequality as normal facets of the func- This deficiency has curbed until now the radicalization of tioning of the system. With this new outlook of the exist- popular consciousness and therefore it is important to de- ing order, the new Latin American generation has taken up bate the socialism of the twenty-first century, a discussion again the bellicosity of its predecessors. initiated by the Bolivarian process (in Venezuela). This ideo- But specifically socialist consciousness does not depend logical reconstruction is possible because of the presence of only on the predominant image of capitalism. On this level many features of continuity on the left, which has suffered conclusions drawn from the class struggle and the impact fewer fractures than in other regions. Neither the collapse of provoked by key international events are more important. the historic political identity of the workers or the distanc- These milestones determine the extent of certain “average ing from the left that occurred in various Eastern European degrees of socialist consciousness,” that translate into levels countries is notable. of enthusiasm toward or disillusion with the anticapitalist The Constitutional Framework project. The victories achieved in Russia, China, Yugoslavia, Vietnam or Cuba brought about a positive socialist percep- The Latin American left faces a relatively new stra- tion that was not shattered by the numerous defeats that also tegic problem: the stabilization of constitutional regimes. occurred in those periods. For the first time in the history of the region the dominant The current Latin American generation did not come of classes manage their governments through non-dictatorial age as did their parents in a context marked by great tri- institutions, in almost all the countries and after a signifi- umphs. This absence of a successful anticapitalist reference – cant period. Neither economic collapses or political crises or close to their immediate experiences – explains their greater popular insurrections altered this form of government. spontaneous coldness toward the socialist project. The return of the military is for the most part a discarded The biggest differences between the current period and hand for the hemisphere’s elites. In the most critical situa- the era of 1960-1980 are situated more on the level of po- tions presidents are replaced by other leaders with some type litical consciousness, than on the terrain of the relationships of civic-military interregnum. What is discarded for now of social forces or change in popular subjects. It is not the is the reinstallation of dictatorships to fight fragmentation intensity of social conflicts, the disposition of struggle of the from above or rebellion from below. oppressed or capacity of control of the oppressors which has The current regimes are not real democracies but rather changed substantively, but rather the visibility of and popular plutocracies in the service of capitalists. The institutions of confidence in a socialist model. this system have served to perpetuate social abuses which The collapse of the Soviet Union caused a crisis of inter- many dictatorships would not even have dared to suggest. national credibility of the socialist project which has con- These aggressions diminished the legitimacy of the system, ditioned the action of the left. Latin America was not an but did not lead to a popular rejection of the constitutional exception, but the effective scope of this impact has been regime equivalent to that suffered by the old tyrannies. more limited in the region. The Latin American left had al- This change in the rule of capitalist domination has con- ready traveled a great distance from the Soviet model before tradictory effects on the action of the Latin American left. the collapse of the “socialist camp” and its dejection was due On the one hand it amplified the possibilities of political ac- more to the inheritance left behind by the dictatorships, the tion in a context of public freedoms. On the other hand the failure of Sandinismo or the blockade suffered by the Central stabilization of parliaments, parties and functionaries offered American insurgency.4 Also on this level, the survival of the capitalists more political security and growing confidence in Cuban revolution functioned as a counterweight. their business affairs.

4 Sandinismo refers to the ideology and practice of the Sandinista revolutionary government of Nicaragua, in power 1979-1990. The Central American insurgencies referred to here were the unsuccessful revolutionary guerrilla wars waged in Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s.

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 21 A system which reduces and at the same time consoli- to creating instruments of an anticapitalist transformation, dates the power of the oppressors represents a great chal- since without their own organisms the exploited cannot ini- lenge for the left, especially when this regime is for the most tiate an alternative project for society. part perceived as the natural mechanism for the functioning Movements and parties constitute two forms of contem- of any modern society. porary popular organization. Both options perform an es- This last belief is encouraged by the right – which has sential role for the development of socialist convictions. They grasped the usefulness of conducting their political activity reinforce confidence in self-organization and develop bases within the constitutional context – and by the centre-left of collective functioning of popular power for the future. – which preserves the status quo under progressive masks. Movements sustain immediate social struggle and parties Both stoke false electoral polarizations in order to present fuel more developed political activity. Both instances are the simple alternation of figures in power as meaningful necessary to facilitate direct action and electoral participation. change. However, this complementariness is frequently questioned. The current example of this complementariness is the There are exclusive advocates of movements and of parties. “modern and civilized left” that arrived in government with But these objections only invalidate the actions of certain Lula (Brazil), Tabaré (Uruguay) or Bachelet (Chile), in order parties and not the general function of these structures, to perpetuate the supremacy of the capitalists. However, which are irreplaceable for acting on the political level. No other situations are more problematic because institutional emancipatory project can progress exclusively on social terrain, continuity was broken with fraud (Calderón in Mexico) or or dispense with the specific platforms, the links between presidential resignations (Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina). demands and strategies of power, which party organizations In certain situations these convulsions concluded with provide. These groupings contribute to overcoming the the reconstruction of the bourgeois order (Kirchner in Ar- limitations of a spontaneous rebellion. The party facilitates gentina), but in other countries the crisis resulted in the un- the maturation of an anticapitalist consciousness, which does expected entrance to government of nationalist or reformist not emerge abruptly from protest action and which requires presidents, who are rejected by the establishment. This is the differentiating struggle for improvements under capitalism case of Chávez (Venezuela), Morales (Bolivia) and probably and the battle for socialist objectives. Correa (Ecuador). These results have been the consequence The disqualification of parties is as inadequate as the of the non-institutional character the crises and insurrec- vice of superiority that some organizations on the left still tions in these nations initially assumed. exhibit. They maintain the old vanguardist conception, act In these processes the electoral terrain has shaped up with iron verticalism and reward themselves with permanent to be an area of struggle against reaction and a point of self-proclamation. This cult of the organization leads to support for coming to terms with radical transformations. sectarian practices and a quest for hegemony in all social This conclusion is vital for the left. For example, since movements. 1998 all of the elections deepened the legitimacy of the This form of political action feeds itself from the small- Bolivarian process in Venezuela and transferred to the ballot group caudillista tradition, or the tradition of strong-man, box the defeat dealt to the right in the streets. The electoral top-down leadership. In some countries this behaviour also sphere and the victories of mobilization complemented one expresses persistent bad habits from an organizational culture another. built during decades of clandestine action and antidictatorial The constitutional setting significantly altered the frame- resistance. In the current framework of public freedoms and work of action of the left, which for decades had been accus- party competition the confused character of this conduct is tomed to confronting a dictatorial enemy. The battle within patently obvious. Those who maintain these practices can these systems is not easy because institutionalism functions thrive, but they will never lead a socialist transformation. with permanent pretences of reproducing the existing order. Reform and Revolution Therefore it is necessary to combine direct action with elec- toral participation. For this path, times of arising popular Material conditions, correlation of forces, social power – which every revolutionary process requires – and subjects, popular consciousness and popular organization the maturation of socialist consciousness – which to a certain shape the hexagon of themes that surround the strategy of degree is processed through the constitutional arena – com- the left. The postulated programs connecting action, convic- plement one another. tion and proposals in a socialist sense depend on these six Movements and Parties foundations. However, rarely are these components coincidental. Some- Popular consciousness translates into organiza- times the maturity of material conditions does not converge tion. The grouping together of the oppressed is indispensable with the correlation of forces, with the protagonism of social

22 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 subjects or with the aptitude of the political context. Less years various circumstances of this type without any social- common still is the connection of these elements with the ist result. Crisis of hegemony or authority of the dominant level of organization, consciousness and popular leadership classes (loss of consensus and leadership capacity in Grams- required for an anticapitalist project. The strategy of the left cian terms) converging with the revolt of the subaltern class- is a search for paths to overcome these discordances and the es is not enough.6 Socialist maturity requires a prior process analytical distinction of six great questions aiming to facili- of learning which is not improvised in the expeditious path tate this analysis. toward power. That preparation includes social achievements The biggest problem is situated in the links that connect and democratic conquests that are obtained through reforms. these pillars. The routes to follow are extremely varied because This last term is not a bad word, nor is it situated inthe the universalism of the socialist program is not synonymous antipodes of revolution. It is a useful instrument to gradu- with uniformity. The experience of the twentieth century has ally develop the revolutionary leap forward, building bridges illustrated how the bases of this process combine together in which move the oppressed closer to the socialist goal. differentiated forms in each country. It has also been con- A combination of reform and revolution can enable the firmed that the temporary nature of a socialist debut differs link between immediate conquests and radical ruptures with significantly between accelerated insurrectional conclusions capitalism. The first type of achievement is indispensable for (Russia) and prolonged confrontations of dual power (Chi- creating popular power and the second for defeating an en- na, Vietnam).5 There are two grand responses—traditionally emy that will not renounce its privileges. counterposed—to the dilemmas created by this disconnect To connect reform with revolution is the way to adapt the between components of socialist change: reform and revolu- correlation of forces and popular action with the possibili- tion. The first path promotes combining the disarticulated ties of anticapitalist transformation in each country. But it elements through a progression of social improvements that is necessary to replace the old counterposing of both roads reinforce the positions of the workers and consolidate their with their confluence. political weight, institutional presence and organizational Optimism and Reason force. But these reforms – which are feasible under capitalism To discuss strategies presupposes searching for a – do not accumulate and are not irreversible. Sooner or later guide for inspired action in past experiences, but always re- their consolidation (or deepening) clashes with the rule of maining open to new circumstances and experiences. This profit and suffers employers’ abuse which provokes major inquiry includes unprecedented hypotheses and no simple conflicts. In these circumstances the consequent popular re- calculus of models to repeat. sponse demands advancing toward socialist change. The strategy of the left includes a liberated dimension Reforms are only valid as a link in the struggle for social- that cannot be found in other political formations. It raises ism. The absence of this perspective leads to the abandonment humanist objectives associated with a communist horizon not only of an anticapitalist future, but of the improvements which no bourgeois current can offer. But the credibility of themselves. It’s incorrect to attempt first the “resolution of these goals depends on the behaviour of its organizers and immediate problems” in order to “discuss socialism later.” If this conduct presupposes an attitude of spontaneous resis- capitalism could structurally solve those problems socialism tance to inequality and intuitive rejection of injustice. would be unnecessary. The function of strategy is to transform indignation in the The second idea of socialist change promotes revolution face of misery and solidarity with the oppressed into rational and rejection of reforms. It calls for overcoming the discon- projects. And this development demands intellectual bravery nection between objective and subjective conditions through to face up to the thorniest and most unpleasant problems. If action which articulates the peaks of the crisis of capitalism there is no disposition to tackle the difficulties, the roads to with the disposition of struggle of the masses and socialist socialism will invariably remain blocked. convictions. However, this connection is not so easy, even The current Latin American conjuncture invites renewing when there occur conjunctures close to the Leninist model strategic controversies on the left with frank, open and re- of a revolutionary situation (“those from above can no longer spectful debates. It is the moment to adopt the achievements continue dominating and those from below play a leading and weigh the limitations with an enthusiastic and critical role in a historical eruption”). attitude. Both positions contribute to forging reasoned opti- In South America we have observed in the last several mism which the battle for socialism demands.

5 Dual power refers to an unstable and unsustainable period of a revolutionary situation in which popular institutions of the exploited and op- pressed emerge alongside and in opposition to the existing institutions of the state. 6 Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist who developed the most influential Marxist theory of hegemony.

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 23 Socialist politics and Israel’s ‘right to exist’ Probing a strange alliance by Virginia Tilley

n all its variations, socialist theory has an inherent advantage in analyzing Ithe conflict in Israel-Palestine. Yet this strength can become a disadvantage. Its principal strength is its concern with global capitalism, which makes easy what other perspectives find difficult: that is, identifying the conflict’s glaring imperialist and settler-colonial character. The history of Israel-Palestine is in- political Zionism. We see this confu- deed a veritable pageantry of neo-co- sion especially in their striking failure lonial and imperialist western inter- to recognize and endorse the only so- ventions, from the nefarious Balfour lution that is both consistent with so- Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agree- cialist ideals and capable of creating a ment through the “special relationship” stable peace: a unitary democracy. between the US and Israel today (with Instead, the majority of leftists still ongoing European complicity). Much of endorse “the vision of two states, Israel the obvious racism associated with the and sovereign, independent, democratic fr eepal conflict can also be understood through and viable Palestine, living side-by-side this lens, which clarifies how its geo- in peace and security” (to quote the odi- Jerusalem, January 2007: life under Israeli politics reflects a Western Orientalism ous Road Map) on the confused prem- Apartheid that serves imperialist agendas. Today, ise that this “balanced” position is both classic Orientalism has evolved into fair and consistent with progressive so- neo-colonial arguments about an East- cialist values. When they are confront- citizenship to the native people? Within West “clash of civilizations” or phantom ed with the obvious obsolescence of the the orbit of leftist thought, “the Jews will enemies like “Islamo-fascism.” But the two-state solution – Jewish settlements never accept it” is as nonsensical as “the spirit and goals of this new rhetoric are and the Wall running rampant across whites will never accept” black rule in the same as the old: conquest, oil, trade the West Bank countryside, reducing South Africa. One does not ask settler- routes, manipulation of compliant local the Palestinian state to a chopped-up colonists whether they want to share their elites and military hegemony. Bantustan – we find leftists holding to state with the native people; one explains Still, this lens does not explain much the two-state solution anyway, partly by to them that they must do so and then about the internal character of the reiterating the standard, knee-jerk ob- tries to further and smooth the inevitable conflict: for example, it doesn’t explain jection to a one-state solution, “the Jews path to democracy. Yet, regarding Israel- why Zionist doctrine mandated ethnic will never accept it.” Palestine, many leftists have inexplicably cleansing of the Palestinians rather than This unique leftist passivity to “Jew- privileged Jewish rejection as enjoying allowing what was, originally, a mostly ish” views (demonstrably not held by all some mysterious moral standing that western settler movement to incorpo- Jews) is bewildering precisely because excludes Israel from such universal stan- rate the indigenous people as a cheap leftist sensitivity to imperialism is so dards of justice and equality. native labour force. And indeed, too keen. Where else do leftists routinely Many explanations for this exceptional many leftists remain cloudy about how accept, as an immovable political fact, treatment can be offered. I discuss several to understand the ethnic nationalism of the wishes of a settler society to deny in my book, but I will just point out two obvious ones here because they are more Dr. Virginia Tilley is a US citizen and former professor of political science, now working as a senior specific to socialist politics. The first is researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa. She is author of The One- the ambivalence about ethnic national- State Solution: A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock (2005) which ism that is endemic to socialist political explains why the one-state solution is inevitable and argues why it is feasible. She can be reached theory. The second is the thoughtless ac- at [email protected]. ceptance of the long-standing yet entire-

24 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 ly fictional notion that Israel is indeed, itself. For example, leftists may deride state. The Holocaust narrative and the at root, a progressive, socialist or proto- first-world nationalisms as the “mere deeper history of Jewish suffering from socialist society, with which the left is in tool of the whole committee of the Christian-European anti-Semitism here solidarity or at least sympathetic. [national] bourgeoisie” or view the na- casts Jews as the colonized, stateless The Left and Israel: Ambivalence tion-state as a hegemonic global system people, warranting their “decolonization” and Ethnic Nationalism launched and defended by global (i.e., through self-determination and creation non-nationalist) capital in the name of of an “independent Jewish state.” Thus a The problem of ambivalence stems its own ruthless interests. Yet, they may settler-colonial project has seized the le- from an inherent weakness in leftist pol- also endorse third-world nationalisms gitimacy of the colonized. itics regarding the politics of culture and as the essential (if hopefully temporary) It is not so surprising that a settler ethnicity generally. Ethnic politics have anti-imperial instrument for the libera- society would do this. European settlers always been problematic for leftist move- tion of oppressed peoples from precisely in North America and South Africa did ments because they arise and persist from those global imperialist forces. In these the same, in claiming a divinely granted social forces that have only conditional struggles, liberation movements adopt indigeneity (Chosen People doctrines) in relationships to class and that, in their the terms of the oppressor to redignify order to assume the mantle of a libera- behaviour and tenacity, often contradict and mobilize the oppressed identity and tion movement as they expelled or killed the class-centric assumptions and predic- develop a liberating discourse. For ex- the native peoples. What is notable, re- tions of leftist theory. Rather than deal ample, African decolonization struggles garding Israel, are leftist failures to iden- seriously with this conundrum, however, were celebrated as black liberation from tify and denounce a manoeuvre so trans- leftists have too often resorted to insist- parently specious. Aside from anti-Arab ing that ethnic identities are mere spin- racism (always a problem), this error can offs of class dynamics – e.g., inventions It has become unacceptable, be traced to the failure to differentiate by capitalist classes to preclude work- in today’s world, to create a between ethnic liberation and the politi- ing-class solidarity or false consciousness cal exigencies of territorial statehood. instilled in the masses by their own self- state that legally privileges one Today, the “nation-state” formula does serving ethnic entrepreneurs. not assume that each ethnic nation has, In trying to coordinate with indigenous ethnic group over others. or should have, its own territorial state. movements in Latin America, for exam- The world has thousands of ethnic groups ple, leftist ideologues were infamously and obviously each of them cannot have slow to recognize the specifically cultural global capitalist exploitation, but they its own state. Moreover, the late-nine- needs and agendas of native peoples, were also assumed to be admissible pri- teenth century notion that nation-states tending to insist on the primacy of work- marily as an essential stage in the epic represent nations defined by a common ing-class alliances well into the 1980s. progress toward world socialism, which ethnicity (culture, race, spirit) fell to ruin Openly challenged by the wave of in- would culminate ultimately in the dis- in World War II, when ruthless projects digenous mobilizations in the 1980s and solution of all states. Even pan-Arabism, to craft mono-ethnic states resulted in 1990s, whose intellectuals denounced the under Egyptian President (1956-1970) dreadful sins: ethnic cleansing, ethnocide, clear inadequacy of a purely class-based Gamal Abdel Nasser, could be celebrated forced population transfer, even geno- approach to indigenous dilemmas, leftist as anti-imperialist and redemptive. cides. Hence the “nation-state” formula progressives eventually came to see eth- As a result, it is possible for leftists to after World War II shifted to assume nicity as a potentially liberating identity see Israel simultaneously as the nefarious that everyone within a state’s territory discourse through which cultural groups tool and ally of western colonialism and comprises its nation and all citizens must could mobilize, reclaim power and con- as the essential expression of “the na- be accepted as equal nationals. In France, struct a new politics of equality. Hence tional liberation movement of the Jewish for instance, every citizen is “French” by ethnic nationalism – in which peoples people.” In this dualistic view, a Jewish virtue of his or her citizenship, no matter identified by race and culture seek to liberation movement has been led astray his or her religion or ethnic background. seize their own state from imperialist or only by global forces, while Zionism’s Of course, the real picture is more colonial ethnic others—can be endorsed abuses of the Palestinians are tragic ac- complicated. All nation-states grapple by leftists as liberating, even if the ethnic cidents of geography – i.e., one national with ethnic notions and problems of premise itself is considered fundamen- liberation movement happened to con- assimilation, difference and prejudice. tally flawed. flict with another in the same territory. Complications arise especially from the This contingent view of ethnic nation- The solution is to provide both “peoples” tension between genuine democratic de- alism – it is okay as long as it is lead- with states. The essential legitimacy of mands and the rights of minorities. That ing to socialism – has been linked to an Zionism, in this model, is not ques- is, states may legitimately develop laws ambivalent relationship to nationalism tioned, as Jews are deemed to deserve a designed to represent the cultural inter-

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 25 ests of most citizens – e.g., by inscribing its location in a “sea” of reactionary Mus- cial-nationalist leadership of Ben Gurion the majority religion into the constitu- lims). and the Jewish Agency, who entrenched tion or basic law – but not in ways that This myth takes its kernel of truth ethnic cleansing of “Arabs” as a pillar of create bias against other citizens. (For from an atypical thread of early Zionist modern Zionism. Not that these vision- example, the United Kingdom is legally history. In the early twentieth century, aries disappeared entirely. The formation associated with the Episcopal Church, of some socialist Jews of the Second Ali- of Israel required an uneasy deal with which the Queen is the head; yet Brit- yah brought their dreams for a utopian progressive-liberal Jews, Orthodox reli- ish law prohibits legalized bias against socialist society to Palestine by invent- gious Jews, militarized nationalists, and non-Episcopalians and other religions ing experimental communist commu- refugees from European pogroms, wars, are practiced freely.) nities. These efforts obtained much of and Nazi genocide to consolidate the es- Many nations retain tensions about their allure by fusing socialist utopian sential nationalist coalition. But the result sustaining their ethno-nationalist char- visions with Judaic enlightenment values. of this deal was not a progressive social- acter (as France’s notorious obsession This socialist element never represented ist society. It was a state that assumed a with the French language attests) and more than a tiny fraction of Zionists in righteous liberal veneer as it continued may express this nervousness in immi- Palestine, but over time, the concept of the Zionist program of the 1940s: expul- gration and naturalization policies. But a politically progressive Jewish mission sion of the native people, ethnic prejudice, once people become citizens, they are le- became important both to justifying and military aggression and a myriad of sins gally equal. And no state today seeks to to denying Zionist projects of ethnic (torture, extrajudicial imprisonment, ram- defend its ethnic character to the point cleansing. pant censorship, land expropriation, crop of excluding whole portions of the terri- For instance, the Sabra ethos, which destruction) associated with war and the tory’s native population from citizenship. imagines the native-born Israeli Jew as military occupation of Palestinian land. Except Israel. the robust gun-toting socialist, combines Glaring Contrdications In short, it has become unacceptable, the Jewish idea of escaping the earlier, in today’s world, to create a state that passive Jewish stereotype of urban ghetto Many Israelis sustain the conceit that legally privileges one ethnic group over or east-European shtetl with the Soviet- the progressive veneer is the real Israel, others. What was formerly considered socialist ideal of the “New Man,” freed of despite these glaring contradictions of romantic nationalism is now called “rac- stultifying old-world cultural and mental modern Israeli life. Some believe Is- ism.” And Jews have no more right to an strictures and restored through manual rael went tragically wrong only in 1967, ethnic state than anyone else. Jews may labour to a liberating and purifying re- when it occupied additional territories. work to create a state in which the laws lationship with the soil. This national- The ethnic cleansing of 1948 and 1967 are favourable to values and practices un- liberation icon then makes both ethnic is either forgotten entirely or justified derstood as “Jewish,” but they cannot cre- and socialist sense of a militarized Israel, by the exigencies of wars cast as arising ate a state in which non-Jews lack rights which defends Jews and progressive val- from irrational Arab hostility. But the to practice different social values or have ues as a package. actual existence of Israel was built from equal access to the state’s resources, like Similarly, the Jewish “light unto na- prejudice and through mass cruelties. Its land and public funding. Especially, a tions” biblical concept, cynically appro- dilemma is becoming increasingly com- Jewish state cannot legitimately expel priated for Jewish state-building in order parable to apartheid South Africa: op- and exclude the native population of the to attract western-educated Jews to the pressive, secretive, surviving on censor- country. Certainly, it should not be sup- Zionist enterprise, became fused with ship, repression, while lying to its own ported for having done so. “vanguard” notions of an ideal socialist citizenry, under siege in a hostile region The Myth of Israeli Socialism society that can demonstrate progres- and suffering from crumbling morale. sive democratic values to the world. This Is this the state that has a “right to ex- The second error is the assumption that enlightened (and foggily divine) mission ist”? Is this the liberation movement of Israel itself is somehow a leftist-liberal then serves Zionism by explaining the the Jewish people that must command democracy, whose success in consolidat- otherwise confounding fact that Israel re- the world’s respect? Is its survival es- ing peaceful existence is therefore a sym- mains in a permanent state of hostilities sential to peace in the region – or is its pathetic goal for leftist progressives. It is with the Arabs. Rather than offended by survival the guarantor of continuing war? one of the marvels of the Israeli-Pales- settler-colonial brutalities, Arabs are just No ethnic state has avoided the pitfalls tinian conflict that Israel has successfully innately hostile to progressive values, so of ethnic cleansing and oppression. No projected the entirely unsubstantiated Israel is only fulfilling its “light” or “van- matter what bundles of myths and ra- idea that it is actually a socialist society guard” mission by holding them at bay. tionalizations are deployed to defend its driven to militarism and nasty practices This entire picture is, of course, a gal- exceptionalist claim to ethnic statehood, like torture and censorship only by its loping myth. Leftist visionaries were Israel will not escape that trap just be- tragic geographic circumstances (that is, quickly eclipsed and absorbed by the ra- cause it was set up for Jews.

26 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 class theme. In “Cat and Mouse,” Buddy worth checking out learns a valuable lesson about solidarity from Lefty who tells him, “We are many, Mini-reviews: on this page, you will find suggestions for good reading, listening and Buddy, they are few … They’ll tell you watching. This time, we present recommendations for a book and a music CD. lies to make you doubt your fellow man, like cats and mice just can’t get along. It vilification campaign provides covering fire: soothes the bosses, Buddy, and it serves Democracy at Risk known falsehoods are circulated through them fine ‘cause it keeps us working folks the national and international press, from being strong.” In this parable, Buddy Bush vs. Chavez: Washington’s many of which are disproved by internal (also known as red cat) is a cat and Lefty ar gainst enezuela W A V documents of the U.S. government which is a mouse and the two pop up in songs By Eva Golinger Golinger obtained through the Freedom throughout the album. In Spanish. Not yet available of Information Act. in English. “Strike!” tells about a miners’ strike for Caracas: Monte Avila Editores, A particularly revealing instance of the better pay and safer conditions and their 2006 ingenuity and cynicism of the anti-Chavez confrontations with police. And since the campaign examined by Golinger concerns cops have been ordered to “get all the Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez should the claim that Chavez is linked with drug reds off the street,” red cat ends up in jail be the most politically secure head of traffickers. Throughout the Chavez years, along with the miners. The comic song “J state in the Western hemisphere. He Venezuela has had an impressive record of Edgar” tells about a pig who “hoovers” has held office since 1998, having won seizing illegal drugs. But it became apparent up everything on the farm, the moral of three presidential elections by impressive in 2005 that the U.S. agency “assisting” the the story being that no-one is safe from “J margins; thousands of his supporters Venezuelans in the control of the drug Edgar Hoover.” risked their lives to reverse a U.S.-backed trade was in fact sabotaging Venezuelan coup in 2002 and he easily triumphed in a So if you like American roots music anti-drug operations. The Chavez recall referendum in 2004. including blues, bluegrass and gospel government understandably expelled the sounds – some serious, others However, as Eva Golinger shows with agency and the unsurprising result was an lighthearted – I highly recommend this sobering and devastating detail in Bush vs. increase in Venezuelan drug seizures. The album.  Chavez, the Bush Administration exhibits astounding U.S. government response was Reviewed by Sandra Sarner neither scruple nor restraint in its iron to denounce the expulsion of its saboteurs determination to destroy democracy as evidence of Venezuela’s lack of co- and socialism in Venezuela. Through the operation in the war against drugs. National Endowment for Democracy, The advances towards popular democracy, the U.S. lavishes cash and counsel on socialism and regional integration in Latin thoroughly discredited opposition groups America in the past decade have been obsessed with restoring traditional impressive and encouraging. Golinger’s oligarchic dominance. Through the ill- work reminds us that every inch of the named Albert Einstein Institute, the U.S. political terrain is constantly contested supplies direction and likely arms to by a powerful, resourceful and pitiless Colombian paramilitaries who cross the empire. Venezuelan border to kill campesinos Reviewed by Roger Milbrandt (farmworkers) who have incurred the University of Alberta wrath of anti-Chavez oligarchists and to plot the assassination of Chavez himself. The current U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela openly champions the independence of Redcat and Lefty the oil-rich prefecture of Zulia, leading My name is Buddy Golinger to speculate plausibly that the by Ry Cooder U.S. military buildup in the neighbouring Music cd: Nonesuch Records, 2007. Dutch island of Curacao may be a prelude to the occupation of Zulia and This concept album by American guitarist singer-composer Ry Cooder is set in the the eventual invasion of the country. As Redcat as Leadbelly these machinations proceed, a relentless dust bowl era and has a clear working-

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 27 COALITION AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID

launched a consolidated call for a global Boycott! campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) targeting Israeli Apart- heid. The call was made in response to Divestment! the progressively deteriorating situation in Palestine. It is the most significant document issued by the entirety of orga- nized Palestinian resistance, represent- Sanctions! by Charuka Kirinde ing major organizations of Palestinians living in the 1948 and 1967 occupied territories, as well as in exile. une 2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the Palestinian population – with Cana- The Toronto-based Coalition Against JApartheid Israel’s 1967 war of aggres- dian government complicity – continues Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) was formed in sion and subsequent military occupation unchecked as poverty and unemploy- January 2006 in response to this call. The of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the ment reach unprecedented levels. After Palestinian anti-Apartheid movement is Syrian Golan Heights. The assault con- the imposition of sanctions on the Pal- a growing, global movement supported solidated the Zionist movement’s hold estinian Authority, one of Israeli Prime by networks of activists, trade unionists, over the whole of historic Palestine and Minister Ehud Olmert’s main advisers, political parties, regional governments, its total control over the region’s indige- Dov Weisglass, noted that the sanctions faith organizations, environmentalists, nous population. Backed by a steady flow regime is: “… like an appointment with cultural workers, academics, student of US tax dollars, Israel has continued to a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot groups, and other long-standing Pales- brutalize the Palestinian population and thinner, but won’t die.” tine solidarity organizations. The move- deny it the fundamental rights to self- Call for a Global Campaign ment has spawned strong campaigns determination, sovereignty and the right from South Africa to England, Ireland of return – with a system of Apartheid In the summer of 2005, over 170 and Palestine. similar to that in South Africa prior to Palestinian civil society organizations In Canada, CAIA (pronounced the early 1990s. In 2006 alone, 700 Palestinians were killed. There are currently 10,000- Pal estinian political prisoners incarcerated within a sprawling network of Israeli military prisons where torture is routine- ly practised. Since 1967, over 600,000 Palestinians have passed through these jails, torture and detention centres. In the same period, over 12,000 Palestin- ian houses have been demolished by the Israeli military, leaving over 70,000 homeless. Millions more are ghettoized in their towns and villages, surrounded by settlements, checkpoints and the

ever-expanding Apartheid wall. Another r obe r

five million refugees – the world’s largest t allison refugee population – are literally locked out of their homeland without the pos- sibility of return. Pasted smile intact as she tried to appear unshaken, Heather Reisman resorted to shutting down a recent event featuring Ralph Nader at the flagship Indigo store in Since the election of Hamas in January Toronto when CAIA activists challenged her on her support for the Israeli military. 2006, a policy of deliberate starvation of Reisman refused to answer questions and, surrounded by her entourage, abandoned Charuka Kirinde is an activist and a member the meeting she was hosting. For video coverage of this event and more on the of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. Chapters-Indigo boycott campaign, see www.caiaweb.org.

28 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 “kaya”)—has developed into a wide net- CAIA recognizes Israeli Apartheid Hartman, who heads the marksmanship work of concerned individuals and orga- as one element of a system of and sharpshooters division of the Israeli nizations spread across Toronto. This has global Apartheid and stands in military. This shameful association of inspired similar organizing in other cities, Chapters-Indigo with one of the world’s including Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria solidarity with all oppressed peoples most atrocious militaries has a very frag- and Winnipeg. CAIA recognizes Israeli across the world, with a particular ile base of public support. These ties must Apartheid as one element of a system emphasis on struggles for indigenous be exposed to those genuinely concerned of global Apartheid and stands in soli- with human rights and social justice. darity with all oppressed peoples across sovereignty here on Turtle Island. Controversy is steadily intensifying the world, with a particular emphasis on around Canada’s Israel-Palestine policies, struggles for indigenous sovereignty here with government support for Israel—and on Turtle Island (indigenous name for informational pickets have been orga- rejection of Palestinian rights—far out of Canada). nized outside Chapters-Indigo stores in step with popular opinion. Whether or Currently, CAIA is mobilizing in sup- Toronto. Similar pickets have been es- not the shifts in Canadian government port of the most recent call issued by the tablished in other Canadian cities. policy toward overt pro-Israel partisan- Active Steering Committee of the Pales- Lone soldier supporters ship can be consolidated, there is no tinian BDS campaign to mark the 40th question that there will be a backlash anniversary of the occupation this June. Besides Schwartz and Reisman, Hes- against Chapters-Indigo for its role in A national Day of Action has been or- eg’s board of directors also includes noto- this partisanship. ganized on June 9th, targeting a boycott rious Israelis holding high-ranking posi- Boycott, divestment and sanctions of the Chapters and Indigo bookstores tions in the Israeli military. Among these formed a critical part of global efforts whose majority shareholders, Heather is Major General Doron Almog, who in to end South African Apartheid. They Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, actively 2005 narrowly escaped arrest in Brit- were an expression of popular refusal to support the Israeli military. The June 9th ain as a war criminal thanks to a tip by participate in and sustain the structures action is a continuation and escalation British officials. Almog was in charge of of racial discrimination and oppression. of the boycott campaign against Chap- the Israeli Military Southern Command It was widely seen as morally repugnant ters and Indigo initiated this past fall. when a one-ton bomb was dropped on a to be openly associated with South Afri- The aim of the boycott is to force- Re house in Gaza, killing 14 civillians, 9 of can Apartheid. Today we have an oppor- isman and Schwartz to cut all financial them children. tunity to once again be part of a global ties to “Heseg—Foundation for Lone Other notable figures on Heseg’s board movement for justice. This open support Soldiers.” include Shabtai Shabit, former head for one of the ugliest vestiges of overt, The Heseg Foundation distributes of the Israeli foreign intelligence, the colonial-era racism in the guise of liberty three million dollars in scholarships to Mossad, and Lieutenant Colonel Mike must be ended. former Israeli “lone soldiers.” These are individuals who have no family in Israel, but decide to travel there to join the Is- raeli military. At any time there might be 5,000 “lone soldiers” in the Israeli military, working in various capacities including in ideas for radical change combat units. As soldiers, they partici- Subscribe today pate in a military that operates check- points that restrict Palestinian freedom Canada US of movement, enforces the occupation of 1 year $20 $25 Palestinian land, and has a documented 2 years $35 (save $5) $45 (save $5) history of human rights violations. 3 years $50 (save $10) $65 (save $10) CAIA is using the boycott as a regular Supporting Add $20 education tool around Israeli Apartheid. Institutional & overseas international $50/year Raising awareness about the nature of Israeli Apartheid and about how people ALL PRICES IN CANADIAN DOLLARS contribute to it by buying products from SEND CHEQUES TO: New socialist Box 167, 253 College Street Chapters-Indigo is crucial to CAIA’s Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R5 work. Working with allied groups, such as the Jewish Women’s Committee to www.newsocialist.org End the Occupation ( JWCEO), weekly

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 29 Quebec: Challenging the rise of neoliberal parties Building a common political and social front

By Bernard Rioux

uebec’s popular and working classes have faced several defeats through- ests leads to the trade union movement’s Qout the past few years. The Canadian capitalist class, helped by federal- incapacity to really take on the demands of the unorganized sectors of the popu- ist and nationalist politicians in Quebec, has succeeded in imposing free trade lation. Moreover, the latter can witness agreements and increasingly aligning Canadian politics with those of the US the weakening of the trade union move- government. The Conservative Party’s victory has allowed the latter to raise ment as well as the poor results obtained military expenditures, to engage Canada in imperialist adventures such as the by its collective action. This is why the one in Afghanistan, to reduce environmental policies to close to nothing by union movement does not appear as an attractive reference anymore for other withdrawing support for the Kyoto Accord, and to launch an attack on wom- layers of working people, including the en’s organization. middle class. This situation has opened In Quebec, Charest’s Liberal gov- Despite numerous mobilizations a considerable terrain for a neoliberal ernment has opened breaches in trade and important mass actions organized politician like Mario Dumont of the union rights by adopting laws that put against policies put in place by the Cha- Action Democratique party [now the new obstacles in the way of unionization rest government, the trade union move- official opposition in Quebec’s National attempts; it has imposed working condi- ment has not used strategies that could Assembly – NS] who, assisted by the tions that intensify work in the public have forced the government to back off capitalist mass media, has offered dema- sector; it has encouraged privatization and business to stop demanding cut- gogic solutions to the problems experi- and public-private partnerships in the backs. enced by the unorganized sectors of the population. education and health sectors; it keeps Strategic Breakdown for the trying to develop the energy sector in Union Movement Reconfiguration of a polluting way while hiding its real in- Class Relations tentions behind false pretences. The trade union movement is experi- More dramatic even, the manufactur- encing a strategic breakdown: its organ- The redefinition of the party structure ing sector is paying the price of a sav- ic division between a great number of in Quebec hence mirrors a political re- age and unbridled globalization process. competing organizations makes it dif- configuration of class relations, includ- Entire segments of the production ap- ficult for the latter to build their unity ing with the Canadian capitalist class. paratus that workers have put into place through action. Furthermore, the trade This process is far from complete, and its are being destroyed, while workers are union movement has no relay on the evolution will largely depend on the pos- forced into unemployment. Trade unions political terrain and has been living, for sibility for Québec Solidaire’s political are weakened while the bosses try to decades now, in a state of dependence left [Québec Solidaire is the left-wing impose their agenda by any means; it is towards the Parti Québécois, while the party formed in February 2006; see cov- now frequent to see big corporate bosses PQ has evolved towards increasingly erage in issues 56 and 59 of New Social- demanding wage cuts and the deteriora- clear neoliberal positions. With the ist at www.newsocialist.org] to engage tion of health and safety conditions at PQ’s crippling drift towards the right, it in a vast debate with social movements: work. is now more than ever time to put an this debate must address the pertinence end to this dependence. of building a large militant party, present Bernard Rioux is a member of Québec This internal division and the absence not only on the electoral terrain but also Solidaire and Gauche Socialiste. of a political party capable of clearly and on that of social struggles of all scales, Translation by Gabrielle Gérin. autonomously expressing workers’ inter- in order to oppose a common social and

30 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 csn Members of the Quebec labour federation, Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux

political front to the pernicious effects of of hierarchical principles will serve as opening of a large debate involving all of the globalization process within the ter- foundations for a new politics. these social forces. This is why we think ritory of Quebec. Québec Solidaire’s electoral campaign Québec Solidaire must favour the convo- To speak of the relationships between has allowed it to use many electoral tri- cation of a large convention of reflection the political left, social movements and bunes to present progressive options and and orientation, called on the initiative the workers’ movement, to determine alternatives to the politics of business, the of trade union organizations and other what part each must play, to underline dominant class and the governments that representative social movements. the connections they must develop and serve them. We can only take our hats off This convention should help us feel maintain: these are the debates we must to this constructive campaign, which has the pulse of the present situation, devel- engage in now. Social movements (the not finished producing significant effects op a relatively common understanding women’s movement, the environmental on the Left in Quebec. of it, and act as a political interlocutor movement, the student movement, the A large convention? in a society where the urgent task is to anti-war movement, the global justice move beyond present divisions in order movement, etc.) and the trade union But the trade union, feminist, youth to group all progressives into a constant movement are facing a new phase of the and popular movements are already orga- and irresistible force. A first moment in neoliberal offensive. It is therefore ur- nized on a massive scale in Quebec: most this collective reflection is right ahead: at gent for these movements to go beyond of these structures have existed for a long the end of August (23rd-26th), the first fragmented and immediate struggles and time and are recognized as legitimate or- Quebec Social Forum will take place in to define more clearly than ever their ganizations by non-dominant social sec- Montreal. Organized by a large coalition transition to political action – where the tors. The construction of an alternative of social movement organizations and respect of every movement’s autonomy, political party therefore must acknowl- activists and supported by Québec Soli- democracy from below, and the rejection edge such a situation and facilitate the daire, this event is an opportunity for the radical Left to open a large debate on the necessary politicization and unification The trade union movement has not used of social movements from below.  For coverage in French, see these websites: strategies that could have forced the www.lagauche.com; www.pressegauche.org www.québecsolidaire.net; government to back off www.forumsocialquébecois.org

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 31 Multiculturalism, racism and horny young men: can you make the connection? by Sheila Wilmot Quebec, March 2007: Teammates walked off the ately there’s an ebbing and flow- pitch in disgust ing panic in mainstream press and with the referee publicL discourse that’s tying together and in solidarity cultural identity, religious freedoms and, with Asmahan well, horny boys ogling women in body Mansour (back row, suits. Such is the xenophobic paranoia centre) when she these days that all of these things have was ejected from become so ridiculously yet often threat- a soccer game for eningly intertwined. wearing her hijab. Ultra-orthodox Jewish leaders at a Montreal synagogue not so long ago had a dust-up with the YMCA next door to that day. Even more recently, five young in under a concern for the apparent ex- it. The “problem” was that women exer- women in Montreal were kicked out of cesses of multiculturalism. cising were being seen by young men in a tae kwon do tournament for the same Multiculturalism has had differ- their place of worship. The initial main- reason. And yet another young Muslim ent forms throughout the West in the stream debate centered on whether see- woman in Montreal, who also covers, is past four decades. Canada has a posi- ing women on the stairmasters infringed not going to be allowed to continue at tive global reputation for having a par- on “religious freedom” rather than on the her job—her employer fired her when ticularly inclusive, welcoming version question of why, these boys who couldn’t she refused to de-scarf. of the ideas, policies and practices that stay away from the windows, are differ- At the end of the day, all these events define the multicultural reality. Some ent from any other boys of their age, in are publicly getting linked together of this reputation is deserved as the terms of their sexual curiosity and their through the general topic of the “prob- form it took it the 70s and 80s did cre- apparent lack of need to learn any social lem” of multiculturalism for immigrant ate some breathing space—emphasis on responsibility in how they express it. “integration” and, more specifically in some—for people of colour from racism. Apparently linked (in the mainstream Quebec, “reasonable accommodation” But much of this reputation is part of a press and public conversation) to this of so-called minorities. If I have to link national mythology, creating a race rela- “minority rights” issue is that of the these three incidents at all, I would say tions piece that fits lock-and-key with young hijab-wearing soccer player who it’s more of a “majority-rights issue”— the apparent Canadian national identity got booted off the pitch in Quebec for that is, that of women’s freedom to work of a kinder-gentler-peace-keeping-po- her head scarf. It was a discretionary and play without individual men and/or lite-aren’t-we-nice country. decision of the referee, who said her male-dominated organizations getting What is this ‘thing’ called multicultur- clearly form-fitting scarf was “unsafe,” in our faces, monitoring and controlling alism these days? From the start, multi- and sent her off. Never mind that the what we wear—whether it’s too little, or culturalism has been just as much about international soccer umbrella organiza- too much. Since women are the global food, dance and apparently living in tion FIFA has no such rule. Never mind majority, an anti-racist feminist perspec- harmony through these cultural pursuits, that we’ve been through this before with tive would bring something interesting as it has been about facilitating business Sikh men and their right to wear tur- to the discussion of these issues. access to global commercial relations. bans. Also never mind that her whole At the end of the day though, in pub- It’s supposed to be something for every- team – hijab-less as they were – walked lic discussion, while there’s a sensitivity one. It tends though to be, at the end of off the field with her. This 11-year-old to the orthodox leaders at the synagogue, the day, not so much about bringing the “minority” was not going to play ball the gym-going women’s individual rights kind and gentle, rainbow of Canadian and freedoms prevail. But, why not so people together, as it is about specifi- Sheila Wilmot is an organizer and writer in for the soccer-playing women? Because cally categorizing people of colour into Toronto. a racist analysis is prevailing, smuggled designated groups, reifying cultural and

32 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 social distinctness, and thereby structur- sue with other people choosing to do so, tegrity of Canadian society than this ally separating a brown “them” (whether I don’t attend over-priced ball games. In multiculturalism thing is the multi-lay- they are recent migrants or not) from fact, I don’t buy tickets for any of those ered reality of racism. It comes in both an implicitly white “us.” Such structural big business money-making activities. generalized and specific forms for people separation includes very material limita- Not only is it expensive, it just isn’t my of colour of various (real or perceived) tions to basic needs such as decent, af- thing. origins. It is deployed on the street, in fordable housing, and sufficient, safe -em Instead, I hang out in my largely white the press, in the workplace, and through ployment. neighbourhood, doing my own thing. an ever-evolving array of state, market Currently, two thirds of Canada’s pop- You can find me eating samosas, making and other institutional practices, policies, ulation growth comes from immigration mole con pollo, or reading and writing regulations and laws. It is the air that and it is projected to be the only source on Saturday nights when well-integrated people of colour and indigenous people by 2030. The ruling class peddles this fair Canadians are at the theatre, sportsplexes, must breathe; it is the social obstacle nation to migrants as the place to come clubs or wherever they/we are supposed to course they must traverse. for jobs and the good life knowing full be to demonstrate being well integrated. While many progressive white folks well some will be primarily filling part- I can live as a home-grown white Anglo- are aware of the social problems of rac- time, low-waged service jobs. This hy- phone with a decent paying job, here in ism and whiteness, we are still marinated pocrisy extends to requiring such landed my own urban enclave, somewhat a fail- in white supremacy, the legacy of the immigrants to have post-secondary edu- ure at mainstream social integration. And White Canada policy and practice of a cation, professions, high level English or no one thinks I’m going to blow them up. hundred years ago. We are inculcated French language skills, and money. Being Or that my reclusive pursuits and occa- with a potent mix of ideas, images and cheated in the immigration process, then sionally odd social behaviour are a threat values about how right whites are to be not having sufficient work or adequate housing – I’d call those major systemi- cally imposed barriers to integration. I’d From the start, multiculturalism has been as call that very unreasonable and not ac- commodating at all. But that’s not the story we’re getting much about facilitating business access to global from the mainstream press and many politicians. In parts of white Quebec so- commercial relations as it has been about food. ciety, there’s a veritable hysteria around how reasonable the society must be in its accommodation of “minorities”. Yet, to world security. I just have to navigate running things. This happens through that’s the reasonability test for white an increasingly individualized, privatized the laws and practices deployed by Citi- Catholic Francophones who make up and profit-driven society that allows few- zenship and Immigration Canada, and it almost the whole 1,350 population of er and fewer socially-sanctioned options happens in our union locals and commu- Herouxville and whose city council has on how and who we are to be. And, while nity agencies. banned stoning, female genital mutila- detesting this, I just get to be; I just get to It’s hard for the positive bits of multi- tion and the hijab! be left alone. culturalism to withstand the creep of the The Globe & Mail is also onside with Never mind our historical and ongo- anti-terror hysteria that is seeping into the idea that this ‘thing’ called multi- ing failure to integrate with the diverse every crack of social life. But, if we want culturalism is to be blamed for allowing societies that were on this land before us all to get integrated, it’s probably not immigrants to isolate themselves in “eth- our ancestors appeared: without a trou- the pros and cons of this complex set of nic enclaves”, thereby preventing “them” bling ethnicity and with a pre-approved, ideas and practices we need to focus on from integrating with “us”. Further, dominant Canadian identity, I am inher- primarily anyway. Instead, we need to while playing soccer and doing tae kwon ently integrated. And this has just about take serious aim at racism, by stopping do would seem to be pretty good tests everything to do with racism and the flip the ignoring, silencing, suspicion of ter- of Canadian-ness, immigrants are still side of the coin, the perverse social privi- rorism, angry treatment when ‘they’ get apparently failing to integrate by not at- lege I’m given through whiteness. It’s ‘our’ jobs, cultural romanticization of tending ball games and other similar so- about the ongoing white domination of people of colour, etcetera. And we need cial activities. When you are categorized the running of society, of who gets to just to do this both as individuals and in an as “them,” I guess you just can’t win. be and who must be forced to figure out organized way, white folks, people of co- What if we apply some of these inte- some way to ‘integrate’, to become one lour and indigenous people, continuing gration standards to “us?” Say, for exam- of ‘us’. the hard work mainly non-white people  ple, to me. While I’ve got no general is- So, much more worrisome to the in- have been doing for decades.

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 33 The veil and resistance Muslim traditionalism, western imperialism and the Left by Nadeen El-Kassem

n October 2006, British House of Commons Leader and Labour Party claiming that these rules pose a threat member, Jack Straw, sparked a worldwide debate on the niqab, the full veil to Britishness – although apparently thatI exposes only the eyes, which is worn by some Muslim women. Straw re- very different, are coming from the same vealed in a newspaper article that he had asked a Muslim woman wearing the perspective. Both positions characterize Muslims, specifically Muslim women, as niqab to uncover her nose and mouth during a meeting at his constituency one homogeneous group, with one un- office in Blackburn. He went on to say that full veiling can “make community changing set of rules by which they live. relations harder” because he could not communicate with someone when he Racism has long been a key tool used could not see their face. Prime Minister Tony Blair echoed Jack Straw’s senti- to justify and perpetuate colonialism and ments when he commented to the BBC that veils are a “mark of separation” imperialism. White, privileged males that “make people from outside the community feel uncomfortable”. are treated as the norm from which all others deviate (and thus are “deviant”). Interestingly, Jack Straw’s position in Since September 11, there has been a the Muslim community in Britain was sharp rise in anti-Muslim racism. Re- not always one of a right wing, reaction- cently this racism has manifested itself ary politician making anti-Muslim racist most dangerously in the form of the on- remarks. In the 1980s, Jack Straw was a going Iraq war. Muslim culture is char- vocal spokesperson for the right of Mus- acterized as one which is not only inher- lim and Orthodox Jewish schools to opt ently different from Western culture, but out of the state school system and still poses a direct threat to it. receive public funds. Like his comments Muslim Women and Resistance on the niqab, his position in support of fully-funded religious education sparked The primary architects of the war in great controversy. At the time he argued Iraq, George W. Bush and Tony Blair, that people were opposed to his view- have both claimed that one of the out- point because of their ignorance regard- comes of this war will be the liberation ing the position of women in Islam. He of Iraqi women from oppressive, patriar- highlighted the fact that Muslim women chal Arab and Muslim traditions. Their were entitled to property rights centu- British Labour party MP, Jack Straw: assessment of Iraqi women as helpless ries before European women. Ironically, racist remarks a turnaround from earlier and passive victims of an inherently pa- his arguments then parallel the criti- viewpoint. triarchal society does not do justice to cisms that are being launched against the reality of a long, diverse and rich him now. history of women’s movements and re- Anti-Muslim Racism post-September 11 and the resulting sistance in the Muslim world. barriers to integration of marginalized To take the example of the women’s The change in Straw’s approach to groups into white, middle-class Britain. movement in Iraq, despite all odds, the Muslim community highlights two Second, the two positions taken by women have been consistently involv- important points. First, it illustrates the Jack Straw – one defending the right ing in organizing to oppose the regime. great change that has occurred in the of Muslims to practice their faith ac- Women’s involvement in oppositional perception of the Muslim community cording to their own rules, the other activism even goes back to the 1920 revolt against the British occupation of Nadeen El-Kassem is a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Iraq when women were involved in ac- Studies in Education. Her specialization includes women’s NGOs and women’s movements tive combat. in Iraq, Kurdistan and Palestine. She has worked in the Kurdish Human Rights Project legal department on women’s issues. She is also involved in community activist in her hometown, When Saddam Hussein came to pow- Toronto. er, there was a crackdown on all oppo-

34 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 sitional activism. The only official voice of Iraqi women was the General Fed- Since September 11, the veiling of Muslim women has become eration of Iraqi Women (GFIW), whose one of the central symbols in the battle being fought between activities were strictly controlled by the regime. Despite this strict control, many western imperialists and dominant Muslim voices. women continued to organize against the regime. Many paid a heavy price for their activities – numerous women were imprisoned and tortured and many fled to other countries, where they continue to organize today. The women’s movements in the Mus- lim world encompass a wide variety of viewpoints depending on context and history, ranging from religious to secular, right wing to left wing, capitalist to com- munist. It is impossible to lump Muslim women into a single homogenous cat- egory. Muslim women as a whole are neither victims of Muslim and Arab pa- triarchy as portrayed by Jack Straw and others today, nor more liberated than their Western counterparts, as Straw portrayed them in the past. Politics of the Veil

Western imperialists frame Muslim imperialism and anti-Muslim racism. tance for Muslim women can be. Both women’s resistance as consisting of chal- Western imperialism and certain pro- white, privileged males and privileged lenges to Arab and Muslim patriarchy. gressive voices in the West see unveil- males in positions of authority in Mus- On the other hand, dominant voices in ing as the acceptable means of resistance lim communities are complicit in limit- Muslim communities worldwide (and to Muslim patriarchy. Neither position ing the kinds of resistance that are open their “progressive” supporters) see Mus- grants a voice or legitimacy to women to Muslim women. lim women’s resistance as consisting of who do not fit within these boundaries Hearing other voices challenges to western imperialism. In or do justice to the diversity of Muslim reality, many Muslim women organizers women in either the Muslim world or in Many believe that the veil is not a nec- do not fit either of these models. This is the West. As is illustrated above in the essary aspect of Muslim women’s dress especially evident when it comes to the brief description of the women’s move- from a religious standpoint. Yet, framing politics of the veil. ment in Iraq, these images conceal the the veil as the ideal symbol of anti-impe- Since September 11, the veiling of diverse and rich history of feminist, left- rialist resistance has further entrenched Muslim women has become one of the wing, secular, anti-imperialist, anti-capi- it as an essential component of Muslim central symbols in the battle being fought talist women’s movements that have their women’s identity. This approach, which between western imperialists and domi- roots in women’s struggles throughout has been widely adopted by progressives nant Muslim voices. The type of veil that the Muslim world, and that have carried and imperialists alike, is not helpful in forms this symbol depends, of course, on over into Muslim Diasporas. understanding the depth of the impact of regional, historical and socio-economic Muslim communities continue to en- anti-Muslim racism in Muslim commu- contexts. In some Muslim communities, gage in complex debates about what the nities and the diverse forms of resistance wearing the veil is the ultimate symbol of veil does or does not represent for the against it. Rather, we must seek out those a woman’s “Muslimness”. Unveiled Mus- Muslim woman. The debate has moved voices that have been marginalized by the lim women, both secular and practising, beyond the confines of determining portrayal of the Muslim community as a are not seen as authentic Muslims by whether or not it is proscribed by Islam. homogeneous group, rather than the rich certain members of their communities. What these dominant images do il- and diverse community that it is. Dominant voices in the Muslim com- lustrate are the boundaries and barriers Try as he might, Jack Straw – whether munity see veiling as the only acceptable created by dominant male voices, which speaking from the left or the right - can- means of women’s resistance to western dictate what acceptable forms of resis- not speak for Muslim women.

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 35 The end of the traditional family?

By Nicole Dzuba

he “traditional family” has been put “woman found herself obliged to look common for men to be the primary care Tto rest. And we should not mourn for a wage and to knock at the factory givers or to take on household tasks of its passing. door.” Many of these women were mar- cooking or cleaning. The pro-family pundits that lament its ried and had no relief from the domestic These are certainly improvements on demise are almost certainly referring to duties at home. They carried the crushing the “traditional family” of past, but sex- the stultifying male-breadwinner family double burden of full days in the factory ism and women’s oppression has not end- of yore or some more recent variation followed by evenings of housework and ed. As women enter the workforce, they thereof. This male provider/female care- mothering. become less dependent on men. Even giver form of family came to life about The New Family though this has made it more possible to 200 years ago with the birth of capital- leave or avoid oppressive situations, vio- ism. Following the Second World War and lence against women remains widespread To be sure, it was not completely new. emergence of women’s liberation strug- in our homes and on our streets. This is It carried forward patriarchal character- gles, the male-breadwinner institution especially true for indigenous women in istics of earlier societies. Men remained went into decline. In its place, a variety Canada. The effects of colonization, rac- in charge. But rather than being the of family forms have emerged. Many ism and poverty make indigenous women bosses of household production, they be- couples often avoid marriage altogether, five times more likely than other Cana- came the family provider. Men went out living common-law or as single parents. dian women to die of violence. to work for wages and women were con- Gay men and lesbians have challenged Women continue to carry the double fined to the domestic duties of the home. oppressive heterosexual norms and are burden of work and home. This is espe- The work of women was unseen, unpaid more out as families and parents. Many cially true as cuts to health care, child- and outside of socialized production. The women are choosing not to reproduce at care and education force women to take result was women and their labour were all. There are also significant attempts by on more unpaid work in the home car- devalued and their oppression was rein- men and women to break with old gen- ing for children, the ill and the elderly. forced. der patterns. For example, it is not un- Women continue to earn less than men, This patriarchal family unit served capitalism well. It was tasked with the responsibility of raising children. The next generation of workers was deliv- ered free of charge to the capitalists. It provided a place where men could have some degree of control over their lives. This helped to compensate for the lack of control they had in the workplace. The family maintained women’s oppression in the home, and this oppression was repro- duced in the workforce. Women could be used as a cheap and temporary source of labour when shortages arose, and could be employed to do the low paying jobs that were deemed ‘women’s work’. By the early 20th century when Rus- sian socialist Alexandra Kollontai was writing about the family, the “breadwin- ner’s” wage had proven to be insufficient WEL-NSW to meet the needs of the family. The

Nicole Dzuba is a member of the New International Women's Day, Sydney, Australia, 1980: Women’s and gay and lesbian Socialist group in Winnipeg. liberation movements of the 1970s challenged traditional ideas about the family.

36 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 making only 80 percent of men’s wages By claiming the monopoly This is especially true in times of drastic for work of equal value. This economic on “caring, sharing and cuts to social services. The family picks factor plays big in decisions about who up the pieces, reinforcing its status as the will stay home to care for children when loving,” the family made sole provider of love and affection and childcare is not an option. it less possible to enjoy in turn blinds us to its important role Even in its more liberated forms, the in maintaining exploitation. It’s not sur- institution of the family is not thriv- meaningful relationships prising then that the working class sup- ing. It is becoming increasingly difficult beyond its walls. ported the institution. for the family to provide members with Building Alternatives emotional and material support. A recent Statistics Canada study indi- sense, both capitalism and the privatized As we respond to the struggles of cated that working parents are spending family were seen as obstacles to women’s families today we should be mindful of less time with family now than they were liberation. these contradictions. Movements for 20 years ago and that this decline can By claiming the monopoly on “caring, change would not do well to attack the clearly be attributed to more time spent sharing and loving,” the family made it family, but should instead be part of a in the workplace. The entertainment in- less possible to enjoy meaningful rela- long-term commitment to social trans- dustry and a spiritually empty array of tionships beyond its walls. Its isolating formation that will provide alternatives commodities often becomes the substi- effects inhibited collective organizing outside the family. By actively building tute for family interaction. and limited people’s capacity to fight for up other ways in which people can meet As the challenges for families inten- change. The solution, as feminists of the their needs, the family becomes less nec- sify, so does the pro-family discourse. women’s liberation movement saw it, was essary. This means continuing to fight for The religious right for example would to transform all areas of society and cre- more and better health services, housing have us believe that the social problems ate more liberating ways of organizing options and childcare facilities that cel- of our time are the result of the decline relationships and raising children. ebrate collective life. of the romanticized female caregiver Second wave feminism also inspired Important to this process will be to family. Their solution is to have it rein- utopian visions like Marge Piercy’s Wom- expose the resistance of the ruling class stated. Such regressive tactics will not in an on the Edge of Time, which allows us to to providing any sort of meaningful relief any way relieve the disparities that wreak imagine what human relationships could for families, despite their rhetoric to the havoc on society today. It is clear that be like in a radically democratic, egalitar- contrary. Stephen Harper and his conser- pro-family politics such as these should ian world. The world she describes is one vative government’s recently announced be fought on all fronts. where gender differences are eliminated “family-friendly” budget provides a good Critique of the Family along with unneeded gendered language. example of this. Their “Working Families “He” and “she” was replaced by “per” for Tax Plan” is a promise of financial sup- But at this juncture, with overburdened person. Homosexual and heterosexual de- port for families. Yet the plan provides families looking for support and pro- sires were viewed no differently from one relief only in cases where taxable income family crusaders rallying the troops for another. Parenting was done in groups of is high enough to make use of it. While a return to “‘tradition”, it seems critical three co-mothers, made up of both men high-income Canadian families will en- for the left to dust off its critique of the and women. Children were not raised in joy some benefit from these measures, family. Frederick Engels blew the whistle a protected sphere of childhood. Instead, those with low-income will end up with on it 120 years ago in his book The Ori- they spent their days engaged in a variety only impressive words that do nothing gin of the Family, Private Property and the of meaningful activities, where they made but affirm their right to continue to take State. He showed that there was nothing important contributions to the common care of themselves. natural about the family and that instead good and cultivated their capacity for The future of the family is yet tobe it should be seen as an evolving product self-regulation and decision-making. determined. But the struggle of women of changing historical circumstances. It Such critical analysis of the family has against oppression has left us with a was not God-given; it was just one of the faded to the point where the legitimacy clear sense that true liberation cannot many ways in which relationships could of the institution is seldom questioned. be delivered by the family. This can only be organized. This is not because it has overcome its come through radical changes in the way The radical liberation movement with- failings; much of the critique still applies. we organize our relationships and meet in second wave feminism built on this The problem is that alternative ways of our needs. As Michèle Barrett and Mary conclusion. They determined that the organizing our relationships remain un- McIntosh put it in their account of the oppression they experienced in the fam- derdeveloped. This leaves the family as The Anti-Social Family, the way forward ily and in society at large was inextricably the only place where people can expect should seek to “transform not the family, linked to the rise of capitalism. In this to give and receive affection and support. but the society that needs it.” 

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 37 Open Letter to Clarence Louie In danger of mimicking colonial voices by Adam Barker

hief Clarence Louie, you certainly I can see why many Canadians find your Care making a name for yourself. You are not only an elected chief of the position admirable – those are the same Osoyoos band in the Okanagan Valley, you are also the band’s Chief Executive lessons I was taught growing up about Officer. Under your direction, the band has financially prospered – a vineyard and how to be a “good citizen.” winery, and a golf course and ski resort in a popular tourist area will do that – and you have gained massive attention all across Canada, delivering fiery speeches work extra hours. I can see why many Canada? Why copy Canada’s failures? to groups of aboriginal people from the Canadians find your position admirable Even those lucky enough to succeed in 49th parallel up to the Arctic. – those are the same lessons I was taught the market environment pay a dear price. You have even been written about in growing up about how to be a “good citi- North Americans work harder, longer, The Globe and Mail, which practically zen.” with fewer vacation and holiday days gushed about how your band has risen I wonder if you are aware of how lack- than anyone else in the world (yes, even up from bankruptcy to financial self-suf- ing in compassion and understanding fewer than in Japan). Oh, there are some ficiency in five short years under your your position is, considering your advice ultra-wealthy individuals who are mak- guidance. You have been lauded for tell- to dissenters is to “Get over it... Get some ing out quite well from all this, but let us ing indigenous peoples to get off welfare, counselling.” It’s not as easy as all that to be honest: we cannot all be at the top of get in touch with reality, and work hard overcome the structures of indigenous the pyramid in this system. Most of us to break free of poverty. You have “ar- oppression. Little has changed since the spend our lives labouring for the wealth rived.” days of small pox blankets, missionaries, of others, and get stress, social discon- Far be it from me, a settler Canadian, and violence at the hands of the North nect, and poor personal health in return. to tell you how to run your affairs. I be- West Mounted Police – except that the I have to ask, Chief Louie, do you want lieve that indigenous peoples can and oppression is normalized and thus less this for your people? will solve their own problems, and that obvious. Do you ever consider why it is that we settlers need to clean up our own The Price of Capitalism your message is so well-received by the messes if we want to help. But I just can- people who run national newspapers and not shake the feeling that you are miss- Participating in the dominant economy powerful businesses? Perhaps it is be- ing something in the path you have de- does not guarantee any freedom from the cause they see in you the sort of thing fined toward self-sufficiency. You sound ill-effects of an increasingly violent and that colonial elites have been pursuing too much like the colonial voices that nihilistic society. For all the “wealth” in for years: a man with indigenous heri- have worked so hard to push your people Canada and the United States, have we tage and a powerful position among his down. not become some of the most unhealthy people, who ultimately wants indigenous Chief Louie, you urge indigenous people on the planet? Does it not say peoples to cooperate and obey the same people to work hard and compete in the something disturbing that the much-ma- government and corporate systems that cut-throat world of finance and econom- ligned reserve conditions are not so dif- murdered, raped, and stole from indige- ic development. You want indigenous ferent from the urban social decay that nous peoples for centuries – and in many people to get a job, show up on time, and is so apparent in the United States and ways, still do. In your speeches you tell other indig- Adam Barker is a settler academic from Haudenosaunee territory; he now lives and works in enous leaders to stop running around WSANEC (Coast Salish) territory. He is a recent graduate of the MA in Indigenous Governance fighting hundred-year-old battles. What Program, University of Victoria, and is an active writer and alt-media junkie. about the little matter of a golf course

38 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 and a burial ground in Oka back in Most of us spend our lives labouring for 1990? How about the corporate clear- cutting on Nuu-Chah-Nulth territory in the wealth of others, and get stress, social Clayquot Sound? Or perhaps the illegal development on Haudenosaunee (Six disconnect and poor personal health in Nations) land that has resulted in stand- offs and police brutality over the past return. I have to ask, Chief Louie, do you year? Are these wrongs recent enough for you? Or should the young men and want this for your people? grandmothers who were handcuffed and beaten on the ground in Caledonia go get counselling, as you suggest for the ity that so many of us carry, there is just and using that land to turn a profit. Your “twenty percent” of indigenous peoples not enough critical analysis and honest strategies participate with and enable who disagree with you? reflection in your words for your perspec- those goals, ignoring the connections to Blaming the Victims tive to serve as a useful plan for the future. land that previous generations fought It is true that your land, in the beautiful and died for, and that many indigenous Chief Louie, of course you are well-re- Okanagan, can support a vineyard and people still fight for today. I cannot see ceived because your message plays right winery (to say nothing of making money this as a winning strategy; I can only see into the desires of Canadian colonial from alcohol, which is such a widespread capitulation and collaboration. elites. You wipe the slate clean of the problem in so many communities), and a Most indigenous peoples have been history that makes sense of the present, golf course and ski resort (I do wonder if exiled to lands either remote from the and in so doing legitimize the authority your ancestors can recognize their land rest of Canadian society, or engulfed by of the Canadian state, the hegemony of underneath those manicured greens). So rampant (sub)urbanization. For these exploitative economics. You justify the it might be easy to see the capitalist sys- communities, the lands of the Osoyoos belief that the problems in indigenous tem as full of hope and opportunity. But band might as well be fictional. Oth- communities stem from the stereotypes who does this opportunity benefit? ers simply cannot conceive of becoming of lazy, regressive indigenous politics. Is it enough to take over the role of absorbed into the capitalist system. It is You blame your own people for their on- colonial governors and merchants and environmentally toxic, personally drain- going oppression. commodify your own peoples’ lands for ing, socially isolating and oppressive, and You see, Chief Louie, while your “pull sale, regardless of the consequences? disrespectful towards both the land and yourself up by the bootstraps” message Colonialism has always been about two the communities which are ultimately certainly appeals to the colonial mental- goals: acquiring land for the colonizer, dependent on the land for survival. Perhaps the so-called 20 percent (which you might be understating) of indigenous peoples who disagree with you do not need counselling, and are not simply lazy. Perhaps, like you, they see the value in hard work but do not see the value of assimilation and scant lip-service to an indigenous identity. Perhaps this 20 percent is not obsessed with ancient wrongs, but are grappling with continu- ing, contemporary issues that you seem all too ready to gloss over. There are many indigenous people – young and old, of all genders, with or without education, from the cities and from the reserves – who see that the master’s tools have never dismantled the master’s house, and would rather sacrifice the benefits of economic development for the hard yet ultimately more reward- Osoyoos Indian Band: participating in the dominant economy. ing work of cultural and social resurgence against oppression. 

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 39 labour struggles in the US and UK Anything in common? Any lessons? Sheila Cohen, author of Ramparts of Resistance, a recent history of US and UK shaping labour movement strategy. trade unionism, looks at what lessons might be learnt from the last couple of decades There are, of course, less positive les- of struggle, victory and defeat. sons from the last two decades—other- wise every strike would have been won, S and UK? An odd pairing. But the Paper workers in length, numbers and Thatcherism would have been crushed, working class in struggle in both sometimes desperation. Yet by the end and we would not now be lumbered with countriesU has had more in common than of the decade, an impressive upturn sig- the surreal absurdities of “New Labour” you might think. In Britain, where even nalled by the Pittston miners’ strike of or the murderous ineptitude of the Bush the horrors of Thatcherism have failed 1989, which mobilized workers across cabal. So why did they lose? Leaving to entirely destroy a residual class con- the US, showed predictions of an “end aside the huge inequalities in class power sciousness, the American labour move- of history” of workplace struggle to be (no small matter), the answers are a mix- ment is rarely perceived as anything but premature. ture of leadership cowardice and stupid- a bastion of business unionism; while for And yet, once again in both coun- ity, rank and file reformism, and the spe- Americans the British labour movement tries, the 1990s brought similar long cific morality of the working class within is about as invisible as the British prime and often unsuccessful struggles like capitalism. minister, for all his ineffectual claims to the Decatur “war zone” (Firestone tire Learning from Heroic Defeats a non-existent “special relationship.” plant strike) and Detroit newspaper Yet in my research for Ramparts—not strikes in the US, Timex and the Liver- Take the two seminal losses of the to mention my own activity within the pool dockers in the UK. Indeed, as the mid-1980s, the miners’ strike in Britain US labour movement—I discovered a 20th century turned into the 21st, the and P9 in the US. Ramparts shows clear- very different story. American workers, ly that in the first case, the strike could once caught up in struggle, are prin- have been won on at least two occasion: cipled, creative and above all energetic, Two key watchwords, a simultaneous dock strike in July 1984, with a kick-your-ass combativity lack- and two only: class and the pit deputies’ action that autumn. ing in the more moralistic atmosphere In the first case, the union leadership of British social democracy. And for any independence called the strike off at the first hint of North American readers of this article, I and union democracy trouble by strikebound owner-drivers; in would humbly solicit greater awareness the second, while government chicanery of the brave, committed and continuing easily ensnared the semi-managerial pit struggles waged in the pit of New La- pattern could be summed up in almost supervisors, there seems to have been no bourism by an honourable band of Brit- monotonous terms of defeat (Detroit) attempt by the miners’ union leadership ish rank and file trade union activists. followed by victory (UPS! Seattle!), ap- to persuade them to hold out. parent lethargy (mid-to-late ‘90s) fol- With the 1986 struggle of meatpack- Uncanny Parallels lowed by scorching challenges to the ers’ P9 local in Austin, Minnesota, the scars run deeper. After refusing to sup- So what, on both sides of the Atlan- newly-elected Blair’s policy of “fairness, port the P9 strike against wage conces- tic, have the last two decades taught not favours” for unions. sions on the grounds that it broke union us? The 1980s saw uncanny parallels Monotonous, however, it isn’t. Turning “solidarity”—in other words, other locals between Britain and America in terms to the lessons, perhaps the most crucial had been forced to accept pay cuts, so P9 of a series of long, brave but ultimately has already been pointed out: that there should too—the leadership of the United unsuccessful strikes. Mass struggles like is never, despite appearances, a perma- Food and Commercial Workers even- the British 1984-5 miners’ and 1986 nent lull in class struggle. Shown histori- tually placed the P9 in trusteeship and printers’ strikes echoed those of the cally over and over, this truth is not only informed the company that the strikers US “P9” meatpackers and International encouraging, but deeply significant for would be restarting work. If this is not an Sheila Cohen is the author of Ramparts of Resistance: Why Workers Lost Their Power and example of the classic bureaucratic “sell- How to Get it Back, recently published by Pluto Press. She is currently working on an update out,” it’s hard to know where else to look. of her 1998 pamphlet, What’s Happening?? The Truth About Work...And the Myth of “Partnership.” So the first “lesson” is, yes, good old bureaucratic betrayal. It’s hard to deny

40 NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 that the leadership of the movement, in Reasons for Hope contain within them, routinely, the seeds its continuing anxiety to cosy up to capi- of union atrophy. Ramparts presents what is ironically talism rather than confront it, has played It may seem bizarre to present the les- a more hopeful perspective in arguing some part in draining the strength from sons of mass struggles and defeats like that working-class consciousness more rank and file resistance. those of the 1980s and ‘90s in terms often bespeaks the absence of a coherent Yet by no means do all the problems of the apparently parochial issue of ac- ideology than an ardent commitment to lie with the leadership. Those involved countability to union members and their reformism. This leaves a space in which in the kind of struggles which can trans- interests within the workplace. But that, the experience of struggle can promote form lives and consciousness tend – un- essentially, is what trade unionism and, breaks and leaps in consciousness. derstandably – to believe in the justice of yes, what class struggle is about. And this As regards the recent history of the their cause to an extent which can ob- crucial principle – member-led direct de- labour movement, the lesson might be scure the vicious tenacity of the enemy. mocracy within the union – stands side that gut-level resistance amongst previ- As Women Of The Waterfront, support- by side with the equally crucial require- ously “non-political” or even conserva- ers of the Liverpool dock strike, wrote, ment of class independence. Despite all tive workers contains the potential for “We firmly believe that we will win this the bravely-fought battles of the 1980s a sharper class perspective than is often fight because morality and human justice and ‘90s, it was deference to manage- allowed for by even the most left-wing are on our side.” Yet this assumption is, ment mantras of “competitiveness” and leaderships. Simply building on what is unfortunately, part of the lack of class adherence to forms of co-operation and already there – the kick of resistance to clarity associated with many defeats. “partnership” which undermined the gut capital—is not a matter of abandoning This is a difficult criticism, as is the resistance from the roots to the attacks socialist ideals but of generating activ- further analysis of working-class reform- of capital. ity which can fuse such broader politi- ism contained in Ramparts. Here the So, two key watchwords, and two only: cal awareness with everyday strategy and central point that reformism (politics class independence and union democ- tactics in workplaces. which seek no more than reforms within racy. If it’s that simple, why haven’t we So what goes wrong? This is where the capitalist society) is pervasive across the done it? A major component in the an- a complex analysis of “trade union bu- labour movement, from the most mili- swer is neglect of a crucial constituency: reaucracy” can come into play through tant steward to the most hardened bu- the already-existing layer of committed examining the process behind the well- reaucrat, raises the depressing issue that activists within the movement. trodden path from militant to bureau- militancy alone is not enough to achieve This army of shop stewards, depart- crat, which constantly removes union lasting gains. mental reps, branch (local) secretaries and representatives from their class roots. the like are already in place. Not only are The institutionalization inher- they in unions, they help organize them. ent in trade unionism gener- Not only do they look after their mem- ates the tendency for even the bers, they are the members – they work most militant of worker repre- alongside those they represent. Not only sentatives to put the needs of do they lead struggles, large and small, “the union” – the structure of against capitalism, they are often aware organization and negotiation and supportive of broader social move- – before those of the members. ments – yes, really. Such dynamics, and the as- It is this layer of activists that hold the sociated “blame the members” key to putting the lessons of the last two syndrome, are only too familiar decades – and those before them – into within the movement. But they effect. Workplace activists are the clos- In 1995, 2,000 members est we’ve got to a leadership which is not of the Newspaper Guild only an advanced section of the working of Detroit went out on class, but is actually a part of that class. strike to protect their And it is this in-class leadership which union contract. Workers can most benefit – and most benefit the fought long and hard but rest of us– by learning the lessons of class did not have the support independence and trade union democ- oit of their union for the racy. det r , tactics necessary to halt Maybe that way, we’ll have a non- production and win the “treacherous” leadership in place when battle.  jim west jim the next upsurge comes around.

NEW SOCIALIST Summer 2007 41 book review does not engage with the experiences of colonialism that fall outside his theoreti- cal framework (such as indigenous ex- Police actions: who is periences with missionaries, who were often in competition with both govern- ment and business for the “souls” of the targeted, who benefits? community). Further, while Gordon demonstrates one goal of capitalist production – to Cops, Crime and Capitalism create a predictable, orderly, sober, hard- working population – has been increas- by Todd Gordon ingly reflected in state actions, it’s unclear Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, whether he is claiming this is an essential 2006 element of the state, and as such, if en- Reviewed by Adam Barker forcement of capitalist oppression is an essential duty of the police. While his ar- gument holds for Canada, similar police “If you have done nothing wrong, and military repression in both pre-capi- then you have nothing to fear.” This pa- talist and later communist or totalitarian tronizing response to an ever increasing states raises the question: is capitalism police-enforced ordering of Canadian the problem, or is the issue a deeper, hi- life is all too familiar. Thankfully, Todd erarchical drive for domination that can tem. Policing, he writes, “has evolved his- Gordon in Cops, Crime and Capital- be manifested in many regimes? torically into the key means by which the ism engages seriously with this shallow Regardless, Gordon’s identification of state produces the working class and re- thinking and returns a raft of questions. the interrelation between the desires of sponds to its day-to-day struggles against Through a theoretical reframing of capital production and the power of the social order.” the state and capitalist economics and state is prescient in the Canada context. Gordon notes that Foucauldian predic- a shrewd analysis of applications of law, Perhaps the strongest sections of Gor- tions of widespread, technological polic- Gordon identifies who benefits and don’s book are his in-depth analysis of the ing that treats all people equally and gen- who is targeted by police action and economic history and correlated rise of a erate docile, self-policing subjects, while anti-crime legislation in Canada. He law-and-order agenda in Canada, United reducing the role of the state in maintain- explodes accepted notions of police as States and Britain. His portrayal of eco- ing order, have never existed. It’s almost good guys who catch criminals, law as nomic dynamics is balanced, well docu- possible to hear him scratching his head, something that protects citizens, and the mented, and he is relentless in criticizing wondering what world these theorists are liberal lie that everyone is equal before the powerful in their drive to take ad- discussing. Perhaps the “techno-fetish- the law. vantage of working classes. His detailed ism” he identifies as informing such the- Gordon begins his analysis by moving look at how the law affects immigrants ory blinds some of its proponents; more past simplistic or reactionary critiques is particularly refreshing. 9-11, he notes, likely, the racial and gender groups most of the “failure” of the law to illuminate “does not represent a watershed in policy directly affected wield a similarly small a deeper motivation behind the clashes implementation. More accurately, it expe- amount of power in the Ivory Tower as between police and groups like squee- dited processes that were already under- they do in the court room. gee kids and indigenous communities. way.” These processes include the use of Parts of Gordon’s analysis are some- He argues the Canadian state and the fear tactics and selective immigration. what problematic; for example, while logic of exploitative capitalist econom- This is one more reason why books acknowledging the state exists in a dy- ics are inseparable; state mechanisms for like this are incredibly important for namic relationship with challengers to law creation and enforcement are guided Canadians: they remind us how our po- established order, he discusses indigenous by overarching support of capitalist ac- litical and economic privilege is founded experiences of law and order in Canada cumulation, necessitating repression of upon state-sanctioned oppression, co- almost exclusively from an Open Marxist both workers who threaten profits, and ercion and exploitation of indigenous perspective. While he is correct in noting problematic “others” who defy the sys- peoples, women, immigrants, and even indigenous peoples provided challenges the panhandlers and squeegee kids who Adam Barker is a settler academic and recent to the state and capitalism – and acquir- simply want to live life differently than graduate of the MA in Indigenous Governance ing indigenous land and labour have been the way prescribed by capital and state Program, University of Victoria. key goals of colonial expansion – Gordon rationale.

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