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lUll .::l!IIILlil £1111 by, """"" lClfwreince')f At the height of the global financial toward dissent and sexual freedom meltdown last year, Barbara as were the right wing conservatives. Ehrenreich, in her inestimable And while we could recite the socialist fashion, issued a challenge in objective, there didn't seem much the pages of The Nation to "self­ point in common ownership of the identified socialists and their means of production, distribution progressive friends" to "re-imagine" and exchange if the authoritarian socialism. In their brief analysis, structures of the state remained she and co-author Bill Fletcher sketched the many ways in intact or, indeed, were strengthened. We had read 1984 and which the US brand of capitalism has failed: the spectacular Solzhenytsin's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. implosion of the "mystically abstract" instruments of Wall We were especially wary of people who considered Street; the apparently inexorable rise in unemployment and themselves our moral guardians and who appeared, without inequality; the flight of manufacturing, principally to China; consulting us, to have a plan which they considered "good and "a level of environmental destruction that threatens our for us". In the seething cauldron of ideas and postures that species, along with countless others." Quite a challenge. The defined the times, it was commonplace to encounter the ensuing discussion confirmed her observation that socialists humourless authoritarians who also laid claim to socialist do not have a "blueprint on how to organise society ready inspiration while bullying and berating those with whom to whip out or our pockets"-probably a good thing when they disagreed. They would not have been unhappy with the we think about the consequences of past efforts to impose current enthusiasm of governments of all stripes for video­ monolithic plans on unsuspecting populations. surveillance, stop and search laws and ASBOs (Anti-Social At a very early stage in my political journey when, like many Behaviour Orders, introduced early in the Blair government's in the late 60s, I was caught up in the chaos and excitement term, in Britain, presumably to cleal with bad neighbours, that was the New Left, I fell in with a group of student public drunkeness and loutish behaviour very controversial activists calling themselves "Libertarian Socialists". Before and the evidence is at best mixed, ndr), as to their that, I had no idea of the history of libertarian socialism or effectiveness. I mention these things to show that my political any of its philosophical roots. For that matter, socialism was philosophy, then and now, could hardly be considered a snug an alien concept to me, as it was to many young Australians; fit with the accepted tenets of socialism and that I would our political education was rudimentary and rarely probably be considered by Ehrenreich a "progressive friend". encompassed material from beyond our national boundaries. Perhaps that is partly why I quibble with the view that Most of us had never encountered the thinking of Marx, let ascribes to capitalism all the ills that beset us environmental alone Bakunin. For the most part, the visible contest of ideas degradation, a toxic obsession with materialism, widening in the 50s, when I grew up, was between an embattled and inequality and increasing state power and why I am less divided Labor party with modest egalitarian and materialist than confident that socialism, in one form or another, could ambitions and a Menzian conservatism more likely to put you be the remedy; such a formulation fails to ask the critical to sleep than on to the streets. But the growing carnage of the questions. What is it about us that we have for the most part Vietnam War and the mounting impatience of women and accepted the proposition that all the hard decisions should racial minorities with second class citizenship changed all be left to the market or to a handful of elected representatives? that. And why have we continued to accept the notion that there My interest in the "Libertarian Socialists" was almost are no limits to growth, including of the world's population, certainly spiked more by the "libertarian" adjective than despite mounting evidence that we are on a collision course the "socialist" noun. Many of the old left, including many with the limits of the planet? What interested me about the who called themselves socialists, seemed wedded to narrow contributions to The Nation's forum was the relative absence conceptions of women's roles and were as likely to embrace of thinking about how to come up with an environmentally coercive state interference and a censorious disposition sustainable way of life, with "steady state" models of the Australian Options Autumn 2010 23 economy, while addressing inequality - one of the challenges thrown up by Ehrenreich. I found myself agreeing with Bill McKibben (an ecologist,who is the author of a book called 'Deep Economy-the wealth of communitiesand the durable future' (Henry Holt, NY, 2007, ndr) that socialism, like capitalism, was at its most appealing as a political philosophy at "a moment when the problem was growth and how best to make it happen and share its fruits." The problems we confront now are not those of the 19th century; reductions in inequality, global poverty, social conflict and human rights abuses will not be achieved by measures capitalist or socialist based on the fantastic premise of never-ending growth. The planet simply cannot stand it. The big intellectual challenge is to reconcile the apparent contradiction between hanging on to a habitable planet and improving the wellbeing of those who are missing out. Fundamental to this task is a thoroughgoing understanding ................ I i of human behaviour and its wellsprings, something that often seem absent from political discourse, including amongst the progressive left. It appears to be assumed that people will recognise what is good for them once it is clearly presented to them by people of good will - and that they will act by Humphrey McQueen * accordingly, although there is a substantial literature on why this is often not the case. The "how to" ofjourneying from A deal of cheek is required to call oneself a socialist in identifying a public good to generating the necessary social 2,010. A hundred years ago, aristocrats announced: "We change is not explored. Without coercion, how do you get are all socialists now". Most meant no more than support people generally - and not just the activists to work together for municipal services. Yet, even that had been an advance. to identify the problems, craft solutions and then take part in Bertrand Russell grew up believing that poor relief was a sin. the change? The battle was not easily won. During the 1930s, local tories Some of the contributors to The Nation forum argued for a condemned the aged pension for sapping the national fibre. By "renewed sense of community", and a move away from the 1960, such views were not to be heard. We were all mixed­ hyper-individualism which is so marked in the United States. economy socialists then. Many of the suggestions about a "reimagined" socialism drew on recent experiments of left wing governments in South Even so, socialism had suffered a loss of moral authority. America, but appeared not to see that some communities, Among the sources for this decline were: especially in Scandinavian Europe, have already managed 1. the resurgence of capital during the trough of to craft relatively egalitarian and democratic societies which unemployment from the early 1940s, underwritten by cold place a premium on environmental protection and quality of war propaganda for "free enterprise"; life. Perhaps this is where we should look for inspiration and 2. the inability of the centrally-planned economies to supply eschew further imitation of U.S. prognoses and solutions, consumer goods, and their dictatorial regimes; although in some respects (including widening inequality, 3. poor service from government-run agencies in the West. growing materialism and environmental vandalism) we are now more like them than not. The United States has become Since 1989, real existing socialism has dissolved. one of the developed world's most unequal societies with the Not that anyone could say that capitalism has become a touchstone for the good, the true and the beautiful. inevitably detrimental effects on illness rates and premature Nonetheless, the current crisis generated more attacks on deaths, obesity, teenage birth rates, mental illness, homicides, "extreme capitalism" than calls for a socialist society. Mike educational performance, imprisonment rates, deaths from Moore's Capitalism - a love story dared to breathe the word drug overdoses, social mobility, trust, social capital, hostility, in the belly of the beast. He intends no more than European­ and racism. Its current state is a warning about the fate that style social democracy. "Socialism" still has next-to-no appeal awaits.us - and the planet - if we can't find ways to convince people and governments - to act on the understanding that to working people here. What is to be done? Nothing? Become a parasite on the planet can't stand business as usual. *Dr Carmen Lawrence is a former Premier 0/ WA., Director ofthe sufferings, struggles and successes elsewhere? I try to Centre/or the Study ()lSocial Change, UWA contribute in two domains: first, to our understanding of Marxian analysis; secondly, to our appreciation of socialist 24 Australian Options Autumn 2010.

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