What's Left? an Exploration of Social Movements, the Left And
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What’s Left? An exploration of social movements, the Left and activism in New Zealand Today. By Dylan Taylor A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Sociology Victoria University of Wellington View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ResearchArchive at Victoria University of Wellington 2008 Abstract Surveys of the situation and prospects of the contemporary Left over the past three decades have frequently underscored themes of fragmentation, decline, even terminal demise. This thesis explores the question of the contemporary Left through interviews conducted with participants in New Zealand social movements. The general theoretical literature around the Left and social movements has consistently highlighted a number of social changes and challenges facing the Left today: the split between old and new Lefts following the rise of the new social movements; economic transformation (for instance, post-Fordism), and changes in class composition; the rise of neo-liberalism, and the dislocating effects of globalization; intellectual challenges, such as the demise of Marxism and the rise of post-modern philosophy; challenges to the state, and the arrival of a “post-political” condition. Analysis of the New Zealand literature around the Left and social movements shows congruent arguments and themes, as well as suggesting Antipodean specificities. To examine these contentions, a series of interviews were conducted with participants in “Left” social movements. These interviews suggest both congruence with some of the arguments in the literature and complexities that do not confirm these generalizations. In particular, the suggestion that a third phase of the Left is emerging, characterized by the joining of culturalist and materialist emphases, appears somewhat confirmed. In addition, a number of the challenges signalled in the literature were singled out by interviewees as pressing—for instance, neo-liberalism and the mediatisation of politics. With respect to the modes of action of social movements connected to the Left, there was here too some confirmation of themes from the literature—for instance, the importance of networking. On the other hand, the widespread theme of the wholesale decline of collective actions was put into question by those interviewed. While no definitive conclusions can be drawn from such a study, the interviews suggest the Left may be entering a period of renewal. Acknowledgments I wish to acknowledge and thank those people who contributed to this thesis: Dr Chamsy el-Ojeili, for taking my interest in writing a thesis “on something to do with resistance” and helping me shape it into the topic explored in the following pages. From the time of my writing a proposal, to the final full stop in the conclusion, his help has been instrumental in the production of this thesis. His own work and vast knowledge has served as a source of great inspiration. Dr Sandra Grey, who seemed to always have time for the endless torrent of drafts and questions I barraged her with. Always able to unpick the problems I found myself tangled in, and never short of motivating words and thoughts, her help and supervision were invaluable in my reaching the end of my thesis. Erin Taylor and Mark Derby for proof-reading draft copies, your suggestions, advice, and most importantly friendship, have been of great value to me. Dr Robert Deuchars, who generously shared advice and ideas, and productively distracted me with long afternoons in the Staff Club when I was showing signs of stress. My house mates, Glen Maw, Laura Callaghan, Kriyavidya, Robert Larson and Tyagmurti for taking the walking shadow who entered the house each evening and giving it nourishment. Anna Taylor, your love and support bore the emotional weight of my Masters with grace, I am eternally grateful to you. My parents and sister, without family support I imagine everything in life would be harder. Catherine Benland, Barbie Cole, Nicky Hager, Torrance Hodgson, Matt McCarten, Robina McCurdy, Frans Muter, Simon Oosterman, Keith Orr, Nandor Tánzcos, Teanau Tuiono and Philip Vincent, for generously sharing your time and opinions with me—I hope I have done you all justice in my work. - 2 - Contents Introduction: Renewal or Decline? 4 Chapter One: From Old Left to Empire 7 Anti-Systemic Movements, the Old Left and its Divisions 8 1968, the New Left and New Social Movements 10 Changes to the Economy 12 Changes to Politics 15 Changes in Theory 18 Contemporary Challenges to Capital 19 A Rejuvenating Left? 25 Conclusion—the Path Ahead 29 Chapter Two: A Brief History of the Left in New Zealand 31 From Early Settlement and its Discontents to Labour in the 1950s 32 The Turn—New Zealand in the 1960s 35 The Peace Movement 37 The Environmental Movement 39 The Anti-Apartheid Movement 41 The Maori Protest Movement 43 The Women’s Movement 47 Labour, the Left, Neoliberalism 49 Interim Summary 52 Methodology 53 The Participants 55 Analysis 57 Chapter Three: The Left in New Zealand Today 58 Issues for Considering a Contemporary Left in New Zealand Today 58 New-Unionism and the Continued Saliency of Class 69 Conclusion 76 Chapter Four: Extra-Parliamentary Politics in New Zealand Today 78 Post-Politics and ‘Mainstream’ New Zealand 78 Effective Action 81 Organisational Issues and the Activist Strata 87 Intentional Communities and a Constructive Programme for the Left 91 Conclusion 97 Conclusion: Renewal 99 Bibliography 102 - 3 - Introduction: Renewal or Decline? Is the Left today in a state of decline or renewal? Perry Anderson famously stated, at the turn of the millennium, that “the only starting-point for a realistic Left today is a lucid registration of historic defeat,” with there being “no collective agency able to match the power of capital…on the horizon” (2000: 16/17). His pessimism followed a decade that was marked, for Anderson, by the uncontested diffusion and consolidation of neoliberalism, a decade that had opened with the fall of communism and Francis Fukuyama’s (2002) assertion that liberal democracy and free market capitalism marked the end point of humanity’s ideological evolution. Yet, in the same year Anderson wrote of defeat Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri unabashedly wrote of the “irrepressible lightness and joy of being communist” (2001: 213). From their position, global capital’s ascendancy through ‘Empire’ was threatened by the ‘multitude.’ The rise of the alternative-globalisation movement—a networked body of resistance stretching from the global South to anti-capital groups in the North—gave some credence to Hardt and Negri’s optimism, indicating renewal might be on the horizon. Questions of decline and renewal in the Left appear throughout this thesis, reflecting, in part, what I view as the Left’s passage through three broad transitive phases. The first phase is characterised by intense divisions between anarchists and Marxists over the state form. A second phase arose when a ‘New Left’ challenged the Old in the 1960s and ‘70s, with the Left’s energies taking a variety of paths through various cause-focused social movements (against the Old Left’s universalist critique of capital). The third phase of the Left, I suggest, is the contemporary one, in which Old and New Left themes may be converging. My thesis will explore the contemporary phase, especially within the context of New Zealand. No definitive answers are sought. Despite Fukuyama’s attempt, history cannot be closed to prove an argument. It is “open ended” (DeLanda 2008), as I consider the third phase to be. Therefore the following pages do not seek to predict where this phase leads, rather they will explore major themes in the literature around the situation of the Left today, and use information from interviews conducted with New Zealand activists to explore these themes. - 4 - “The Left” in these pages is conjectured to be a very broad category. I find David McKnight’s notion of it including “supporters of Labour, Democrat and Green parties, the unions and community groups and unaffiliated progressive opinions” (2005: 15) to be a suitably broad point from which to begin. Another incredibly broad theoretical category is that of “social movements.” Irreducible to a single group, a social movement is composed from a number of actors who retain their autonomy while engaging in sustained action towards a common goal (Della Porta and Diani 2006). My interest is in social movements from the Left, although it is acknowledged social movements exist across the whole political spectrum (Klatch 2002). Throughout the three phases of the Left, social movements have been the vehicles in which the values of the Left are carried towards the greater populace. My work focuses on the wider context of social movements and the Left, rather than on the technical details of social movements. Chapter One approaches social movements and the Left from a broad theoretical and historical perspective: encompassing the rise of the Left and antisystemic social movements in the mid-nineteenth century (the first phase of the Left); the 1960s and ‘70s, when the Left fractured with the rise of new social movements (the second phase); through to the contemporary era (the third phase). I survey the literature on the challenges and changes (economic, political and theoretical) since the 1960s, as a background to the analysis of the interview data. Chapter Two explores the literature around the Left and social movements in New Zealand. Attention will be given to the development of the country’s peace, environmental, anti-apartheid, Maori protest and women’s movements. I underscore some of the particularities of the New Zealand context—such as the resistance to colonialism, the near absence of the first phase of the Left and the role of the state.