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Ralph Miliband, 1924 - 1994 the Common Sense of Socialism NEWS Ralph Miliband, 1924 - 1994 The Common Sense of Socialism For anyone studying or teaching politics in the late 1960s and 1970s, the publication ofRalph Miliband' s The State in Capitalist Society in 1969 was a watershed. The 'pluralist' theories which had dominated the discipline, especially in North America, somehow never quite recovered from this exposure of the emperor's fatuous nakedness; and in the debates that ensued, 'the state' , with everything it implies about the concentration of social power, re­ emerged from behind the mystifications of 'the political system' and 'political behaviour' to become a, if not the, central theme of political studies. On the left in particular, the 'Miliband-Poulantzas debate' became a major preoccupation. It is still easy to remember the intellectual excitement generated by a whole new mode of Marxist discourse which had rescued the state and politics from the epiphenomenal, and to recall the force of Miliband's personality and conviction (not to speak of his humour) as he spoke, in public or private. But it is harder to recapture just what specific issues were at stake in that debate. Important divergences there certainly were between the main protagonists - not only concerning matters of theory but about the political practices of Stalinism, Maoism, Eurocommunism, and so on; yet in historical perspective, their differences seem incommensurate with the intensity of the debate, or at least the intensity with which post-graduate students then followed it. The political issues that preoccupied the left 'before the fall' seem very distant, and the differences between Miliband and Poulantzas, both in their various ways looking for a ground for socialism neither Stalinist nor social-democratic, may seem less significant in the face of the gulf that now divides Marxism socialist intellectual would claim, among other things, to be from a whole range of post- and anti-Marxist trends on the left. doing. Yet it would be very difficult to characterise, say, Althusser Nonetheless, even now one difference still stands out, and that is or Poulantzas (or today's post-Marxists and post-modernists) as the difference in intellectual style. speaking for the' common sense' of socialism. It was certainly not To say this is not at all to trivialise the issues. I now think that their aim to layout an intelligible and persuasive argument for the distinctiveness of Ralph Miliband's intellectual style has socialism which takes little for granted. The issue here is not always been essential to his substance and to the qualities that simply their scholastic opacity - though the contrast with have continued to be such a vital resource for the socialist left, Miliband's translucent clarity is striking enough. The point is also making his death such a serious blow. That style represented a that, even when they were talking about the same things, they project. It testified to a specific conception of the task confronting clearly saw the substance of their project very differently from socialist intellectuals. And it may be no exaggeration to say that Miliband. Whether their object was to reconstruct the this style and this project distinguish Miliband from all other epistemological foundations of Marxism or to translate the strategic major socialist intellectuals of his generation. debates of European Communism into theoretical terms, it was 'The ultimate purpose of counter-hegemonic struggles,' certainly not to argue the case for socialism, and even less to make Miliband wrote in 1990, 'is to make socialism "the common sense it 'common sense', in any meaning of that phrase. of the epoch".' This involves two things: 'a radical critique of the In fact, it is hard to think of anyone else who has taken on this prevailing social order', and 'an affirmation that an entirely task - a task perhaps less conducive to theoretical flourishes than different social order ... is not only desirable ... but possible'. are the intellectual enterprises of other social thinkers on the left, This may seem, on the face of it, no different from what any but nonetheless in many ways more difficult - with anything like 62 Radical Philosophy 68, Autumn 1994 Miliband's consistency, comprehensiveness and breadth, not to mention his commitment and lucidity. Marxist historians like E. Phenomenology and Politics P. Thompson have contributed greatly to the denaturalisation of capitalism, and to the affirmation of other human possibilities, by British Society for Phenomenology tracing its history back to its contested origins, to the confrontation Oxford, 15-17 April 1994 of capitalist principles with other, resistant practices and values. And some Marxist philosophers have laid a foundation for a Politics was on the agenda in more ways than one at this conference. socialist epistemology and ethics. But Miliband stands virtually Whether the theme of the gathering - 'Phenomenology and alone in his systematic effort to map the political terrain of Politics' - was ever really confronted, however, remains an open capitalism, to chart a course for socialist struggle within it, and to question. In fact much remained an open question after the delineate the anatomy of class and state power in capitalist society proceedings had closed and the crowd dispersed, not least the - the barriers which it erects against a more humane and democratic question of what occurred at the AGM on the Saturday, during social order as well as the resources and agencies available to which the long-standing President of the convening Society, . overcome them. Alfons Grieder, was deposed and a new President elected in the This project was carried out in a whole series of books, after form of Simon Critchley from Essex University. Shameless Parliamentary Socialism (1961): not only The State in Capitalist eavesdropping revealed that the transition may not have been an Society, but also Marxism and Politics (1977), Capitalist easy one; the event was portrayed as comparable to the deposition Democracy in Britain (1982), Class Power and State Power of the ancien regime - a veritable revolution, so it was described. (1985), Divided Societies (1989), Socialism for a Sceptical Age If in no other sense, then, the theme of the conference was given (forthcoming), and many articles, as well as in his co-editorship substance in this episode. of the Socialist Register. While reading his measured yet deeply On the whole the meeting was a success -efficiently organised engaged critique of capitalism and his sober yet ultimately in beautiful surroundings with stimulating and lively discussion optimistic assessment of the possibilities of socialism, it is hard to throughout. Basil O'Neill's opening discussion of the Oedipus see how any thinking, reasonable and realistic person with a myth as a vehicle for conceiving a genuine encounter with the modicum of human decency could fail to be a socialist. Who else Other was by far the most thought-provoking and valuable of the writing today - when even the critique of capitalism is out of presentations. In adopting Irigaray's criticism of Levinas for fashion - can claim to have the same effect? offering an ethics of abstract humanity, however, O'Neill Miliband clearly believed, and even more so in recent years, introduced the spectre of abstraction into the proceedings that that socialism is an objective that cannot be achieved in a single haunted the remaining contributions. These ranged from John life-time. It should perhaps be seen, he wrote in his last book, Llewel yn' s paper entitled' Levinas' List' (a sometimes disturbing Socialism for a Sceptical Age (the proofs of which he lived to see consideration of the Holocaust, employing that fashionable but not to correct), as a striving toward a goal rather than the goal assortment of languages characteristic of the growing trend for itself. But against the background of recent history and mass turning philosophical communications into Babel) through defections from the socialist project, what is remarkable about discussions of Hegel, Hannah Arendt, Claude Lefort and this testament is not its hint of pessimism but its steady conviction Heidegger, to culminate in Richard Beardsworth's fearlessly that the goal is worth striving for and is finally attainable. radical attempt to demonstrate the relevance of deconstruction to The steadiness of Miliband' s commitment owed much to the the 'contemporary world'. unflinching clarity of his intellectual vision and the independence The tone of Beardsworth's paper was epitomised in such of his political judgment, which saved him from both mindless audacious declarations as 'All philosophy is already political'. If enthusiasm and abject despair, from both blind attachment to a the statement is no doubt true, however, nevertheless you might party and a loss of faith in socialism with declining party fortunes, be hard pressed to convince a disbeliever of that on the strength from both the certainties and the inevitable disappointments of of this gathering, for, despite the question of concrete applicability socialist determinism. Welcoming every sign of advance toward being raised more than once from the floor, the papers and democracy in the Communist world, he nevertheless showed a discussion remained at a high level of abstraction. This returns us prescient scepticism about the direction of reform. U nambiguousl y once again to the question of whether phenomenology ever did committed to a truly democratic socialism, he freely conceded the encounter politics in any real sense over the weekend event, and inadequacies oftraditional socialism in confronting the questions to the above mentioned coup, because there is perhaps something of gender, race and nation and accepted the lessons of the 'new to be learned about the phenomenology of politics from the fact social movements'; but he never lost sight of capitalism as an that, while the conference speakers were offering us quality over-arching totality or of class as its constitutive principle.
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