from the editors Socialism for Our Times

elcome to this issue of New Socialist. We are devoting A publication that looks in greater depth and breadth at Wthe entire issue to an exploration of the relevance and questions faced by people who want radical change will necessity of socialism in our times. be more useful in helping lay the groundwork for future mobilizations and the next new Left. We won’t be publishing This is a difficult time for people within the borders of this as frequently, but we hope you’ll find the analysis, strategic Canadian state who want serious social change. As Alan Sears thinking and vision in our theme issues to be worth the extra writes in the article that opens this issue, “the neoliberal wait. project of slashing social programs and deregulating the economy while increasing the repressive power of the If you’re looking for analysis of current events of the kind that state seems to be ideologically exhausted and increasingly New Socialist used to publish, we will continue to post reviews, unpopular. On the other hand, the possibility of any alternative reports, news, analysis and think pieces by socialists and other seems literally unthinkable. There is widespread cynicism radicals on our website. Please go to www.newsocialist.org. about the dominant ideas, yet virtually no discussion of other perspectives.” Wh a t Sh o u l d So c i a l i s m Me a n T o d a y ? Movements of protest and resistance have suffered real This issue of New Socialist looks at the politics of liberation setbacks in the last number of years. There are still some and transformation that are needed in our time and place. The determined and inspiring campaigns and struggles, but most of articles cover topics ranging from union activism to gender the Left is low on energy, hope and vision. and sexual politics to the struggles of indigenous peoples. The We at New Socialist want to contribute to the creative and articles move beyond local solutions to envision big projects non-dogmatic rethinking of radicalism today, drawing on for transforming the capitalist system and winning liberation the resources of feminist, queer, anti-racist Marxism. We are from all forms of oppression. This strategic approach is changing the magazine to better suit that role. necessary because, as Alan Sears writes, a single-minded focus on the local “ultimately means limiting the horizons of change” to mere tinkering, leaving the basic structures of this brutal system intact. But in affirming that the socialist transformation of society is both necessary and possible, the contributors to this issue certainly don’t dismiss today’s struggles. On the contrary, they share an understanding that even low-intensity resistance is important. Such resistance fosters the kind of counter-power from below that contains the seeds of radical change. We hope that some readers will use this and future theme , 1920 vu s , issues as resources for discussion groups (please contact us for information about discount rates on bulk orders). We encourage you to send us letters and other responses to what you read; we plan to publish these on our website. Also, if you have an idea about a future theme issue, let us ee, Ange l u s No u l K ee,

a know. We want New Socialist to be a resource for all who, P as Sebastian Lamb writes, “refuse to abandon the slogan Walter Benjamin was a Marxist Jewish refugee from the ‘Another World is Possible!’”. horrors of fascism who explored the complexities of finding a way through the present and into the future. This image Note to our subscribers: Since we are publishing less by Paul Klee called Angelus Novus captures Benjamin’s idea frequently, those with one year subs will be getting of the Angel of History looking intently towards the past, four issues, those with two year subs will be getting 8 yet about to fly off into the future. issues, etc.

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 Box 167, 253 College St. Toronto, ON M5T 1R5 416-955-1581 [email protected] www.newsocialist.org Issue #63 2008-1

NEW SOCIALIST offers radical analysis of SPECIAL ISSUE ON SOCIALISM FOR OUR TIMES politics, social movements and culture in the Canadian state and internationally. Our  Notes towards a socialism for the times ...... Alan Sears 4 magazine is a forum for people who want to strengthen today’s activism and for those  The necessity of socialism ...... Jeff Noonan 8 who wish to replace global capitalism with a genuinely democratic socialism. We believe  Gender, sexual, human liberation ...... Gabrielle Gérin & Sandra Sarner 11 that the liberation of the working class and oppressed peoples can be won only through  Indigenous traditions in freedom ...... Deborah Simmons 16 their own struggles. For more information about the publisher of this magazine, the  Book review: Dances with dependency ...... Tricia McGuire Adams 20 New Socialist Group, please see the inside  back cover. White, anti-racist, socialist practice ...... Sheila Wilmot 21

EDITORS  No borders on human freedom ...... Yen Chu 24 Sebastian Lamb Harold Lavender  Marxism, anarchism and liberation ...... Sebastian Lamb 25 Sandra Sarner Alan Sears  Socialist organizing today ...... David McNally 28 Deborah Simmons  Union activism today ...... Alex Levant 31 EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Richard Banner  Is culture our weapon? ...... Daniel Serge 33 Adam Barker Susan Ferguson  The fight against global warming ...... An interview with Ian Angus 36 Todd Gordon Alex Levant  Global justice against imperialism....Deborah Simmons with Salim Vally 38 Morgan MacLeod  Latin America ...... Phil Hearse 40 DESIGN Cover: Christopher Webb  Book review: The shock doctrine ...... Toby Moorsom 36 Inside: Sandra Sarner  Next issue...... 46 Signed articles do no necessarily represent the views of the editors or members of the  time to organize...... 47 New Socialist Group.

New Socialist is a member of the CMPA. Printed at JT Printing, a union shop. New Socialist magazine welcomes debate. Letters will be printed on our website. We encourage readers to submit articles engaging with the ideas put forth in our pages for publication either in print or on our website. Please send to the address or e-mail address above. Notes towards ...

Mass struggle by left and indigenous forces shook Bolivia in 2005. We bb e r Je ff : photo A socialism for the times by Alan Sears

hese are strange days indeed for socialists and all those down to minor disputes about how to play it out. Twho fighting for a better world. The labour movement has reconciled itself with neoliber- On the one hand, the neoliberal project of slashing social alism and lean production (which uses just-in-time methods programs and deregulating the economy while increasing to eliminate “waste,” and new models of teamwork to make the repressive power of the state seems to be ideologically workers partners in productivity), with the deal between the exhausted and increasingly unpopular. On the other hand, Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the giant auto-parts the possibility of any alternative seems literally unthinkable. firm Magna standing as an important milestone in a long- There is widespread cynicism about the dominant ideas, yet term process of adaptation and partnership with the employ- virtually no discussion of other perspectives. ers and the state. Social movements are, in general, at a low The major parties in electoral systems around the world ebb, in most cases using only the most passive strategies to have completely aligned themselves with neoliberalism, with fight for the most realizable changes within the dominant only the smallest number of exceptions such as Venezuela, framework. Bolivia and Ecuador, where the parties in question are linked There is a remarkable consensus across the political spec- to insurgent social movements. trum around a set of ideas that is increasingly unpopular. The In the Canadian state, the NDP, Liberals, Conservatives results of 30 years of capitalist restructuring are in, and the and Bloc Québecois completely agree that neoliberalism is devastating toll is clear. Working-class people are living with the only game in town; the differences between them come ever-greater insecurity and more are facing poverty with ever fewer resources. On a global scale, people face greater bar- Alan Sears is an editor of, and frequent contributor to, New Socialist. riers to mobility while corporations and investments face

4 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 fewer limits. The environmental threats to our health and because they seem fixed and unchangeable. that of the planet are ever-increasing in this era of unbridled At the moment, for example, the US economy seems to capitalism. The attempts by Bush, Harper and others to con- be in recession and far worse times are likely in the near fu- vince us that our increasing insecurity results from “terror” to ture. From within the system, this seems to be the action of be combated by imperialist war in Afghanistan and Iraq has impersonal market forces shifting rather like a sharp change been highly unsuccessful. in the weather when a storm front approaches. It is futile “The Richest of the Rich, Proud of a New Gilded Age” to protest against a coming snow storm as it is not (at least was a headline in the New York Times on July 15, 2007. The in any simple and direct way) the result of human actions, article pointed out that the current concentration of wealth and therefore we cannot really change it. Daily life under in the hands of a tiny ultra-rich minority has not been seen capitalism convinces us that market forces are much like the since the late 1800s and early 1900s. Meanwhile, at the other weather, something that happens to us that is not the result end of the income scale we are living through a period of of human actions and not subject to change. appalling poverty and dislocation, marked by a shocking in- The economy, however, is very different than the weather crease in inequality locally and globally. in that it is made up of relations between people and inter- This sounds a lot like the world Marx described in the changes between people and nature. Ultimately, it is human Communist Manifesto, which was written in the mid-1800s activity within a particular framework of social relations that when class polarization was particularly visible. Many of the leads to economic upturns and downturns, even if the patterns working-class gains that might have created the illusion that are very complex. The huge bubble of subprime mortgages in class divisions were eroding – such as the welfare state, high- the United States, for example, was the result of financial in- er working-class wages and secure union contracts (at least stitutions trying to make big profits out of the housing needs for some) – have been swept away. of lower income households in an environment where the fi- Yet socialism is not, at this point, rising from the ashes. nancial system was bulging with cash from the mega-profits This is a time when the relevance of socialism seems almost of the very rich and state regulations were very lax. self-evident, and yet it is, in practical political terms, more Socialism provides us with a perspective that allows us to marginal now than at any time during the 20th century. We see the ups and downs of the economy as part of a system need to understand more about this contradiction. of human relations that can be swept away and replaced. If

Wh y Do e s So c i a l i s m Ma t t e r ? we take the limits of capitalism as the horizons of possibil- ity for human experience, then we see these ups and downs One response to this contradiction would be to say that as the product of market forces that are not subject to hu- socialism is over and will not be relevant to future freedom man decisions. Most ways of looking at the world, includ- struggles. But there is a lot to lose if we casually write social- ing many that are critical of social injustices, take capitalism ism off. Socialism points beyond capitalism, towards another for granted and therefore seek change within that dominant way of organizing human life based on unleashing our cre- framework. ative capacities through genuine democratic control of the Right now, when socialism is highly marginalized, many key productive resources of activists and theorists sug- society. The compass of so- The rich get richer gest that freedom struggles cialism shows the way to Those in the top one percent of U.S. households made an average of $1.7 million should concentrate on find- another possible world, even in 2001. They also got about 15 percent of total income. ing solutions at the local scale, if it is way over the horizon Share of income earned by wealthiest one percent of Americans. leaving aside any big projects and invisible from our pres- for transforming the system. ent location. This ultimately means limit- This orientation beyond ing the horizons of change the current power structure to what is possible within means that socialism pro- capitalist social relations, as vides a unique perspective for this power structure will be mapping capitalist society. It there until it is deliberately allows us to see the everyday overturned. world we are familiar with Similarly in Canada ... The in dramatically new terms, top 5% control over 25% of bringing to light aspects of the wealth and their share is life, work and politics that increasing. we usually take for granted Statistics Canada

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 5 Socialism provides tools for unlocking our dreams of real freedom by connecting our activism and our analysis of in- justice to an orientation towards other possible worlds. It allows us to connect these dreams to a map of the power structure of capitalist society that reveals the ways it can be overturned. Specifically, its map reveals that the people who labour every day in factories, offices, schools, mines and a variety of other settings have the potential to collectively and democratically seize control of their workplaces, which taken together make up the key productive resources of society. This vision of socialism rests on the conception of over- turning the capitalist system through the active and demo- cratic mobilization of the mass of the working class, rather than liberation being the act of some small elite. This per- spective highlights strategies for change that challenge the dominant power structure through building counter-power Workers in Spanish Revolution of 1936: we must from below. not “casually dismiss the experience of 150 years of This counter-power is necessarily built within capitalist struggle for freedom.” society, fighting for immediate improvements and reforms, yet is always oriented towards the creation of new forms of democratic participation that challenge the limits and, ulti- Socialism thrived as part of these struggles for full citizen- mately, the existence of existing institutions. The orientation ship, both in the limited form of winning the vote and in towards building a counter-power makes a big difference in the wider form of gaining access to certain legal and social the way we conduct ourselves in everyday freedom struggles rights, such as formal freedom from discrimination and ac- in capitalist society, which at key insurgent moments flow cess to certain health, education and social programmes. together to open the possibility of a broader social trans- The limited form of democracy and citizenship that was formation. Rather than simply signing petitions, appealing won from below is important, but we must also be aware of through the courts or voting for someone to represent us, we how narrow it is. As long as a small minority continues to build a counter-power when people become active in their have dictatorship over the key productive resources in soci- own cause: occupying, striking or taking demands to the ety, democracy and equality will be limited and formal. We streets. have no real democratic control over what is produced, how Underlying this conception of building a counter-power is it is produced, how work is distributed or how knowledge is a great confidence in everyday people, the mass of the work- disseminated. Further, citizenship is necessarily exclusion- ing class and oppressed people, to act creatively in defining ary, granting limited rights to some while stripping others and fighting for their interests, ultimately taking power with of any rights. their own hands. Too many emancipatory theories are ulti- Building a counter-power requires that we commit our- mately dismissive of the mass of the population, seeing them selves to a far richer, more active and more inclusive form of as bought into the system or merely passive, to be liberated democracy. There is a very real democratic process that takes only through the activity of a heroic minority. place when people mobilize and take the streets, picket or oc- This orientation towards building a counter-power that cupy. This kind of democracy is often dismissed as “mob rule” is ultimately capable of overturning capitalism means chal- or “violence” by defenders of the system who would confine lenging the dominant ideas of democracy within capitalist us to voting once every four years and occasional polite, sym- societies. Capitalism is not inherently democratic, but on the bolic and legal protest. Socialists should value every little bit contrary is based on monopolization of the key productive of freedom that struggles from below have managed to eke resources in society and the exploitation of the majority by out of the capitalist system, yet point to much richer under- the small minority in control. The whole system of govern- standings of democracy grounded in collective activity. ment is distorted towards keeping this minority in control The orientation towards building a democratic counter- and meeting their insatiable need to profit from the labour power to challenge the fundamental basis of the capitalist of workers. system also means that socialism has a universalistic under- Democracy was not a gift from above, but was won from standing of emancipation, potentially bringing real content below through hard struggles by workers, people of colour, to the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all.” People women, lesbians and gays, indigenous and colonized peoples. seeking freedom have often been drawn to this conception

6 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 that liberation struggles are deeply interconnected so that no porations and the nationalization of property. one can be truly free when others are bound in shackles of It is a common assumption that socialism means state unfreedom. control, one-party rule and vicious restrictions on free ex- Actual socialist movements have often failed the test of pression. This ignores the long history of bitter struggles this high standard of universalism and solidarity, leaving against authoritarian socialism from above waged from vari- many feeling betrayed. Even if socialist movements have of- ous socialism from below perspectives. The casual dismissal ten failed to meet their own standards in this area, socialism of socialism and the idea it has failed is being used as a wedge can provide an important basis for a universalistic and trans- to separate us from our collective memories of struggle, par- formative understanding of freedom. ticularly obliterating the libertarian forms of socialism asso-

Marginalization o f So c i a l i s m ciated with vibrant ideas of real democracy and freedom. The marginalization of socialism today is not only the re- Socialism may have a great deal to offer us in our struggles sult of the failure of certain forms of socialism from above, for freedom, but it has very little weight these days. Social- but also the overall weakening of our counter-power, and the ism is marginalized in part because it is seen as a colossal infrastructure of dissent that supports it, since the 1970s. In failure. Indeed, it is possible in the current climate to ca- recent issues of this magazine, I argued that 20th century sually dismiss socialism by pointing to the collapse of the socialism thrived as part of a rich and varied infrastructure Soviet bloc, the dramatic erosion of the welfare state and of dissent that helped activists develop capacities for com- the end of “Third World” economic munication, analysis and solidarity. and political strategies to regulate The struggles for basic democratic, interactions with global capitalism. We build a counter-power labor and social rights developed Part of this casual dismissal is the when people become active key elements of community through idea that socialism not only failed a variety of shared political, cul- to make a better world, but actually in their own cause: occupying, tural, educational and social spaces, made things worse. ranging from sustained opposition If socialism really has failed on a striking or taking demands movements within unions to left- world scale, then any attempt to re- wing cultural spaces. vive it might seem to be the project to the streets Many of these spaces are now of relatively small numbers of left- gone, due not only to a decline in the over cultish dogmatists deliberate in their ignorance of this level of activism but also important changes in working-class ugly legacy. Those of us who want to argue for a renewal of life and work. Around us we find only the faintest echo of socialism need to start with patient discussion of what we the forms of community that sustained earlier mobilizations mean by socialism and how we explain the legacy of 20th and nurtured socialist consciousness. We must begin to un- century socialisms. derstand and orient ourselves around the new forms of infra- Socialism has come to mean a lot of different things over structure of dissent that emerge with new rounds of struggle. the past 150 years. US socialist Hal Draper clarified debates Socialist organizing is not a substitute for rebuilding the in- about what we mean by socialism tremendously by distin- frastructure of dissent, but can and must be oriented around guishing between ideas of socialism from below and from making a contribution to that broader process of rebuilding above. Socialism from above is associated with increased our collective dissent capacities. state and party control over the society in the name of the So c i a l i s m a n d t h e Ne x t Ne w Le f t people, while socialism from below is based on the collective and democratic seizure of power by the mass of the working There is every reason to believe that there will benew class with their own hands. waves of struggle, given the unpopularity of neoliberalism Much of the “failure of socialism” is associated with so- and the toll that capitalist restructuring has taken on our cialism from above strategies that sought to use state power lives. The mobilizations will see the emergence of the next to moderate the impact of capitalism on the population and/ New Left, as the old Left inherited from the past is oriented or run the economy directly. This was true of the one-party around a particular configuration of work, community and forms of rule associated with the Soviet bloc and Maoist politics that no longer exists in the same way. New Lefts have China as well as with the electoralist social democratic par- emerged before as movements face challenges that the tools ties in the West. The neoliberal restructuring of capitalism answered by previous left formations do not fully answer, for since the 1970s has specifically squeezed out the space for example in the insurgent wave of revolt after World War I or certain forms of state regulation of the economy associated in the massive mobilizations during and after 1968. with the welfare state, the imposition of conditions on cor- One of the challenges facing the next New Left will be

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 7 rebuilding the infrastructure of dissent that de- velops our collective capacities to express, analyze The necessity and act together. Examples of modest rebuilding abound in the struggles of our times. CAW work- ers used the mobility of contemporary communi- of socialism cations technology to build a whole new genera- tion of flying pickets that were able to stop scabs by Jeff Noonan from getting into Navistar in Chatham during the strike there in 2002. The meat packers strike n a growing global crisis of human life-values, liberal capitalism has in Brooks, Alberta in 2005 provided a taste of the squandered whatever political capital it might have amassed follow- new forms of anti-racist solidarity that need to ingI the collapse of the Soviet bloc. This crisis has created a new open- be built as genuinely inclusive forms of fighting ing for a non-dogmatic socialism, focussed on building a democratic working-class organization are being built. The society that prioritizes the satisfaction of human needs over capitalist global justice movement of the period 1999-2001 profits. This perspective sees the fundamental problem of capitalism reminded us that demonstrations need not be sim- as a contradiction between the particular needs of the system and the ply symbolic events, but organized forms of orga- universal human needs required to sustain fulfilling forms of life. Re- nization for collective activism that could actually interpreting the contradictions of capitalism in this way retains the make things happen. core of Marx’s systematic critique of capitalism, but discloses more Socialist ideas can make an important contri- clearly the universal values underlying the socialist project. bution to rebuilding these capacities, providing an To begin, a brief survey of the main dimensions of this life cri- important orientation beyond capitalism towards sis today is necessary. The unifying principle that allows one to link other possible worlds. Socialism at its best offers these different elements of global crisis together is what ethicist John a series of tools for fluid action and analysis rather McMurtry calls the “life-ground of value.” The starting point for the than a single correct path. life-ground of value is identifying the ways that objects, practices and If we are to think socialism anew for these institutions contribute to satisfaction of the life requirements and de- times, we cannot be bound by the versions of so- velopment of the creative capabilities that make life meaningful and cialist organizing that emerged through the 20th socially valuable. century; nor can we casually dismiss the experience Environmental Cr i s i s of 150 years of struggle for freedom. We need a new socialism that is genuinely transformed by its A snowless December 2006 in much of Canada accomplished encounters with feminism, anti-racism, queer lib- what more than a decade of scientific argument failed to produce: eration and ecological movements, so that it is true a growing social consensus that climate change is a serious threat to to the idea of universal emancipation. The strug- planetary life. We are already seeing an extinction crisis affecting large gles of the 1960s and those since have created new standards for activism in the areas of gender, racial- Hamilton smokestacks: Environmental degradation goes from ization, sexuality and environmental sustainability bad to worse, even with increased awareness of the threat of and a socialism that does not meet these standards global warming. will not meet the challenges of these times. This requires genuine encounters with these movements and the emancipatory perspectives that emerge from them. To begin building a so- cialism for these times, we need to learn from the movements around us and from the critical exami- nation of past struggles. Socialists are often in a bit of a hurry to teach, and do not spend enough time listening patiently, investigating open-endedly, and learning. The development of a socialism for these times requires collective work of investiga- tion, debate and discussion, which can only hap- pen as we reflect actively on the struggles of the day and those that are just emerging beneath the Jeff Noonan is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Windsor. radar. 

8 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 ­mammals, large marine life and, perhaps themselves forced to live according to the ingful human life. The global capitalist most serious over the long term, plank- values of the global market – or not at economy, and the political regimes that ton that forms the basis of oceanic food all. All of our human capacities are sub- support it, treat life as a mere tool of the chains. Underlying both climate change ordinated to the growth imperative of the further growth of its ruling system value and the extinction crisis is the ever-ris- global market. – money-capital. Human needs are sat- isfied if, and only if, people can pay for ing demand of industrial and consumer Ti m e Cr i s i s capitalism for more energy. them, and only if it is profitable to pro- The value of a free human life is not duce them. Cr i s i s o f Hu m a n Li f e Co n d i t i o n s fully realized through the development So c i a l i s m a n d Hu m a n Ne e d s Human life also depends on economic of creative capabilities. The free develop- and social conditions. In the world today, ment of creative capabilities depends also In its many different historical forms, there is a crisis in the form of the scourge upon the satisfaction of a need for free the meaning of socialism has always been of poverty that affects more than two time. Free time is an experience of time linked to an economic system that pri- billion people who simply do not have as an open matrix of possibilities for life- oritizes the satisfaction of human life-re- adequate resources for basic food and activity. In other words, the experience quirements over considerations of profit. shelter. The growing consensus around of time as free is the imaginative experi- Thus socialism has always been implicitly human rights has not led to the deep ence of oneself as having real alternatives linked to the life-ground of value – the value changes necessary to support a seri- to pursue over a lifetime. This experience set of conditions without which life can- ous international commitment to wealth is contrasted with the experience of time not reproduce itself and/or most fully redistribution. Poverty is not only a prob- as a closed routine in which one’s every develop meaningful and socially valuable lem in the global South. Its life-damag- capabilities. Making this link explicit to- ing effects are found also in rich nations, day has the potential to invigorate anti- in rich provinces and states, in rich cities Preprogrammed work capitalist movements by giving them a and rich neighbourhoods. Women and and leisure activity is, positive, life-grounded socialist goal. children the world over suffer dispro- Satisfying the objective conditions to portionally from the harms of absolute as Marx was the sustain, develop and enjoy life is the ma- poverty. terial condition of expanding life-value. We have seen that global capitalism has Cr i s i s o f Me a n i n g first to show, essential become a threat to human and plan- Humans depend upon social relations to capitalism etary life-value. Only the radical trans- and institutional interactions, not only formation of this system can reconnect for continued organic life, but also for economic systems to their proper goal meaningful and valuable activity. A life – serving the interests of human life in led without meaningful, valuable activ- activity has already been determined. But the satisfaction of its fundamental life- ity – for self and for others – is generally preprogrammed work and leisure activity requirements. agreed to be a “waste.” is, as Marx was the first to show, essential Judging the effects of social processes, Human consciousness has many ca- to capitalism. Hence capitalism also fails institutions and frameworks of value pabilities: for original cognitive and to satisfy the human need for free time. from the perspective of life-value solves imaginative thought, for world and self- To argue that the crisis facing the globe the contradiction between life needs and transforming creative action, for non-in- is a unified crisis of life-value is to say that system needs by revealing the shared re- strumental and mutually rewarding rela- the ruling socio-economic and political quirements of life that lie beneath what- tionships, for work that contributes to the forces and powers systematically fail to ever particular goals and interests people overall health and value of society, and for understand the proper relation between value. Clean air and water, comfortable deliberative participation in public affairs. the value of life and that which serves life. shelter, education, institutions that culti- The realization of these capacities is de- Whether one is talking about harms done vate creativity, participation in public af- pendent on the satisfaction of uniquely to the web of planetary life, the satisfac- fairs and free time are not the exclusive human sociocultural and political needs. tion of the basic organic needs of human interest of any one class, gender, race or It is essential to global capitalism that beings, the development of principles of historical form of civilization (e.g. the the operation of political and educational institutional governance that ensure the West). Those who object to this life- institutions, artistic practices and other cultivation of peoples’ specifically human grounded framework might argue that it cultural forms of expression serve the capabilities, or the temporal organization rests upon an unacceptable paternalism goal of global market growth. In this way, of the economic system, the depth cause that undermines people’s need to choose the priorities of the global economy are of crisis is that the requirements of the their life freely. In defence of the life-val- tyrannically imposed on people who find system are ranked above those for mean- ue perspective, there are two responses.

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 9 First, there is no meaningful choice beings are social beings. Thus we always el, the demands that different oppressed without the satisfaction of the material find ourselves in contexts where decisions groups have made against the exclusion conditions needed for realistic options to must be made about resource production and need-deprivation that have defined exist. An author might choose to write a and distribution and the general prin- the history of capitalism. The institu- book in support of capitalism, while an- ciples of collective life-regulation. Since tionalization of the demands of those other might choose to criticize it. But if these decisions can make people’s lives struggles has generated a history of social either lacked the education needed to de- better or worse, it follows from the life- – as opposed to simply political – democ- velop the capability to read and write, no grounded perspective that everyone has ratization. book could be written. By setting out the a need to participate in these decisions. Whether one is talking about the en- basic material (natural and social) con- This democratic approach to problems franchisement of women and excluded ditions for the existence of options, the of social production is the very socioeco- racial minorities, legal limitations on the life-grounded account for the foundation nomic heart of socialism and contrasts work day, public funding of education, of socialism promotes, rather than denies, with the essentially undemocratic and libraries and art galleries, or the redistrib- freedom of choice of life-activity. need-depriving procedures and outcomes uting of income from profits to wages, the Second, the understanding of human of global capitalism. general trend of social struggle has been nature does not reduce human interests towards increased need-satisfaction on Revitalizing So c i a l i s m to mere biological needs. Instead, the life- the planes of life-requirement discussed grounded understanding of human beings The life-grounded conception of the above. These social goods are required shows – as did Marx – our animal and universal values that socialism hopes to by everybody if they are to be more fully human sides together in unity. Human realize brings together, at the deepest lev- alive. Recognizing the shared nature of these requirements is the hidden secret that must be revealed if non-sectarian, non-dogmatic struggles for a future, life- grounded socialism are to be successful. The life-grounded foundation of social- ism is not an anachronism, therefore, but, in fact, the general expression of a long- term trend of social development whose gains are currently being rolled back by global capitalism. Read at the level of its deepest values, the story of social de- mocratization links the many struggles of distinct oppressed groups to secure access to democratic control over the shared re- quirements of human life in the endlessly varied ways that its life-value appears in human history and cultures. The life-grounded perspective does not deny that there are separate histories of struggle and oppression. Rather, it main- tains that different forms of oppression are real experiences of the same general form of systemic need-deprivation in the three dimensions of life-need. In this way, it also puts forward a universal goal of different political struggles against op- pression: social and natural wealth is to be produced and distributed in order to satisfy the fundamental needs of human beings so that they are enabled to real- ize their capabilities through self-deter- mined projects. If that is not the general It is a challenge to think seriously about the future of socialism in a period where it is often treated as kitsch - a funny retro joke. principle of socialism, it is not clear to me what is. 

10 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 Gender ... sexual ... human liberation In today’s neo-liberal world, there is a greater need than ever for socialist feminism – that is, socialist, internationalist, anti-racist, anti-heterosexist feminism by Gabriele Gérin and Sandra Sarner with participation by Manuel Larrabure and Gabriella Gonzalez in discussions leading to the development of the ideas and structure for this article.

e live in a world today where there is no longer a need Wfor feminism – or so we are told by the mainstream media. And while it is true that the struggles of women, gays and lesbians in the 1970s and early 1980s led to many im- portant gains, it is equally true that inequalities and oppres- sion continue and are deepening as a result of neoliberalism. Women have achieved the unquestioning right to partici- pate fully in the workforce. Yet women in Canada still earn only 62 percent of men’s wages, according to 2001 Canada census data. Job ghettoization, insecure part-time and con- tract work with few benefits are on the rise, particularly for women of colour and immigrant women. Canada currently has no law against abortion yet access is extremely limited. This is particularly so for women in rural areas, young women, Aboriginal women, racial minorities and immigrants. In some provinces, abortions are not avail- able at all. Fewer than 18 percent of hospitals today provide abortion services, a decline from over 20 percent in 1977. International Women’s Day: celebration of gains, Clinic abortions can cost $500 or more. struggle for demands around many issues we still face. The on-going cuts to social services also have an uneven impact, causing financial hardship and forcing individuals to take on more of the work of caring for children, the sick, tinue to outnumber men nine to one as victims of assault by the disabled and the elderly. Today, despite the prevalence a spouse or partner. “Coming out” as a lesbian, gay or trans- of notions of shared responsibility between women and men sexual is a dangerous move in most rural areas as well as in in the family, the bulk of domestic labour continues to be most high schools, for example, even in large urban centres performed by women. with vibrant queer communities. A strong indication of the pervasive existence of sexism Gays, lesbians and, more recently, transgendered people, and homophobia in our society today is the on-going prob- have gained some acceptance as sympathetic characters in lem of violence against women and those with alternative mainstream movies and on TV. However, those who do not sexual identities. According to Health Canada, women con- fit into sexually normative categories continue to face dis- crimination in jobs, housing and other areas. Gabriele Gérin is a student activist and member of the New Socialist Group. Sandra Sarner is an editor of New Socialist magazine. Manuel Worldwide, the economic realities of globalization impact Larrabure and Gabriella Gonzalez are both student activists and members everyone – but women are particularly hard hit. In poorer of the New Socialist Group. nations, women bear a greater burden of labour as a result of

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 11 Families today come in many forms, however, lesbian and gay men still face enormous hurdles in adopting children. . com photo : br en dan e sposito PHOTO: josha n djosh . t y p e pad PHOTO:

brutal structural adjustment plans. Displaced by rapid eco-

nomic changes, many Third World women have been forced . s y d ney mor n i ng h e rald to leave families behind and migrate to wealthier nations as guest workers with few rights. In the neoliberal world of today, there is a greater need than ever for feminism – and more specifically, for socialist feminism, which should be understood, as Barbara Ehren- reich described in 1975, as “socialist, internationalist, anti- racist, anti-heterosexist feminism.” Clearly, there is also the need for a movement to improve conditions for women, gays, lesbians and transgendered people – indeed, for all poor and working people, people in, and depends on, not only the sphere of waged produc- of colour, immigrants and Aboriginal people. Today, when tion, but also on all other aspects of social life where the we support various struggles, we are building the seeds of a conditions for the continued accumulation of capital are cre- future left movement. We need to analyze and understand ated. The concept of social reproduction therefore provides the way the oppression of women and other minority groups a framework for understanding the productive character of bolsters neoliberal capitalism. By paying attention today to unpaid, reproductive tasks and their role in maintaining (or the special demands of oppressed minorities in all struggles transforming) the social order. – for immigrant rights, international solidarity, resistance to The family is arguably the most widespread and important cuts, union struggles, etc.– we are building the basis for the institution in the reproductive realm. It has undergone many vibrant anti-racist, socialist-feminist movement of the fu- changes over the years and yet, in important ways, continues ture. to fulfil its function as a source of unpaid labour that bolsters the system and an important site of the oppression of women So c i a l Reproduction and those with non-traditional sexual identities – lesbians, Socialist-feminist theory plays an important role in help- bisexuals, gays, transgendered people. ing us make sense of how capitalism is developing and how As a result of women’s increasing participation in the resistance to changes unfolds. One important contribution workforce, as well as the gains of the women’s and gay/les- is the concept of social reproduction. This was developed bian liberation movements of the 1970s and 1980s, a range notably, but not solely, in reference to social spheres and ac- of alternate family forms are far more accepted today than a tivities generally associated with femininity and tradition- generation ago. Straight, lesbian, gay, with or without chil- ally considered private, apolitical and unproductive, such as dren, married or common-law, even forms of communal liv- childrearing, housework and education. This has been coun- ing – all are options. However, there are limits to this flex- terposed to the public sphere of waged labour and wealth ibility, particularly in smaller communities and among some production, traditionally associated with masculinity. What immigrant groups. this concept highlights is the notion that capitalism unfolds The family is a contradictory phenomenon, in all its vary-

12 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 ing forms. On the one hand, it can be a source of compan- Worldwide, the economic ionship, support, love and joy – it can even be a sphere where we express our creativities, develop diverse skills and gain realities of globalization impact control over our lives and selves. But it can also be a sphere of conflict, oppression and even violence, as well as asite everyone – but women are where we are forced to make choices contrary to our desires for the sake of survival. For many working class people, espe- particularly hard hit cially women, the family is an inescapable responsibility, as women today continue to provide most of the physical and emotional labour needed to raise children and provide for the day-to-day needs of family members. characterized mainly by an increase in the burden of unpaid But social reproduction is not limited to the household. labour, especially for women, oppressed minorities and the It encompasses all social relations, processes and institu- poorest sections of society – especially with the retreat of the tions relied upon by the system of capitalist production and state from providing quality public services and adequate in- exchange for its reproduction and expansion. Capitalism comes for jobless, disabled and other disadvantaged people. evolves not only in the sphere of formal production at the It has also seen the expanding submission to the logic of the workplace but also through the constant structuring and re- market of all aspects of social life and the commodification structuring of social relations of reproduction of society as a of more and more aspects of social reproduction. Aspects of whole – through education, culture, law, and the organiza- popular, collective control over social reproduction have be- tion of households and communities. come increasingly alienated from the working class, as each The concept of social reproduction sheds light on areas individual and household is forced to find private solutions, of working class life under capitalism that impact on class often mediated through the market, for survival. Because struggle in all sorts of ways. These areas include households, capitalism is a system that unfolds not only in the public various communities and even individual and interpersonal sphere of waged production but also in the private sphere of relationships. In our neoliberal world, the changing pressures reproduction, it is crucial to understand how both spheres of capital accumulation impact strongly on these social re- play a role in how resistance to the system develops. production relations and spaces. Capitalist restructuring is Su r v i v a l Pr o j e c t s

One useful way to think about all the various ways that Family values – Tory style working class people organize their lives is the concept of “survival projects,” a notion developed by U.S. socialist-femi- The Harper government’s real commitment to families nist Joanna Brenner. Survival projects encompass activities is on display in a new piece of immigration policy. and relationships in the realms of both production and re- Mothers of children who will be left back in their home production – waged labour and our after-work lives. They country are favoured to be selected as “guest workers” refer to all the ways that working class people develop to under this policy, as these kids at home are seen as survive under capitalism – employment, state services, fam- reducing the “risk” they will go underground in Canada ily, friendships, community, etc. when their legal time here is up. The nature of our survival projects impacts both on our The government recently privatized an aspect of abilities and our willingness to resist as well as on our tenden- immigration controls. Employers are now permitted to cies to accommodate to the system. For example, belonging apply for the right to bring “guest workers” into the to a union and/or to a community support group may help country if they can show that they are unable to find a working class immigrant woman to participate in struggle Canadians to fill certain jobs. while other aspects of her survival project – her family ties Some fast food companies on the west coast are already and responsibilities, potential reprisals at work – may act as taking advantage of this new provision. The regulations limits on her participation. The concept of survival projects allow the “guest workers” to stay for a maximum of allows us to develop an integrated approach to looking at two years. The company takes full responsibility for their working class resistance and accommodation to neoliberal transportation and housing while in Canada. Overseas capitalism. recruiters are used to find workers and, although they There is also a component of survival projects that pro- are not supposed to require payment from the workers vides a glimpse into a possible socialist future. Most of us themselves, many of them do. struggle to keep as much control as possible over our lives. In various ways, we try to reduce our dependency on the

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 13 Provocation: Sexual Revolutions? market and affirm our humanity in how we live and the b y Ma n u e l La r r a b u r e methods we develop to survive. There are many examples of non-capitalistic, and even socialist-like, survival projects and The act of sex is a powerful and intense expression of both practices. People help each other as neighbours, friends and the individuals involved as well as of broader social relations relatives. Community members come together to form sup- and, as such, can serve as a site of resistance that can foster port groups or recreation teams. Women (and men) develop human emancipation. networks to share childcare responsibilities. Even when we It is personal in that it involves some conscious self-reflection, develop “free, unnecessary” friendly relationships with co- and social in that the ways it is undertaken are conditioned workers, for example, rather than competing as individuals, by forces outside the bedroom, some of which are linked we are showing our human, social inclination towards collec- directly to capitalism. It is a site of resistance because the act tive solidarity. And all this in spite of the pressures of a soci- of sex, as an expression of positive human traits, can compel ety that promotes competition and bombards us with images us to reflect on the anti-human logic of capitalism that may of ourselves as violent, selfish and distrustful. be intertwined with the act itself. This then allows for active These spaces of everyday life where socialist social rela- resistance to this logic that can, for example, take the form of tions are expressed and built can be understood as poten- sexist attitudes. tial contributors to the process of social transformation. The creation of these alternatives produces social relations that Capitalism, by demanding that individuals endlessly compete contradict the capitalist logic – even if incompletely – and with one another, fosters feelings of fear and mistrust. Its are a necessary aspect of any revolutionary process. Resisting perverse logic of exchange value compels us to think of capitalism is inseparable from the production of non-capi- our activities – even those that are not market transactions talist, socialist-like social relations. In these spaces today, we – in relation to what they are worth in the market. Does can catch a glimpse of the seeds of socialism and the poten- this maximize my income? Does that represent the most tials in a socialist future. efficient use of my time? And, as neoliberalism continues to push the logic of capitalism deeper into every facet of our lives, it is inevitable that our sexual lives will be more deeply Anti-sex backlash intertwined with its logic. The anti-sex backlash is big business, especially in the In this way, something that has the potential to be an act of United States. Carole Platt Liebau’s book Prude: How the deep solidarity, caring and acceptance can become one in Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (and America, Too!) which partners become perceived like commodities – things is an example of the abstinence line that is turning sex that can be bought and sold. In some ways, sexual unions can education and AIDS prevention into a farce. reflect the unequal transaction between worker and capitalist. One interesting feature of the abstinence industry is The result is that sex becomes a mere exchange value, losing the way they manage to sound a bit feminist. They have its intrinsic sensuousness. picked up on a key contradiction of the 1960s sexual It is therefore imperative to engage in a process of sexual de- revolution. Male dominance in this society means that commodification. And, although this process ultimately has to women often face sexual coercion, silencing of their take place on the picket line and on the streets – by engaging own desires and a lack of access to birth control and/ in direct battle with capitalism – it can also take place in the or abortion. Women are still often reduced to sexual bedroom. We need to imagine new ways of engaging with one objects for the pleasure of men. another and attempt to fight the divisive forces of jealousy The abstinence industry claims that the best way to and competition. We also need to create, as best we can, protect women from sexual coercion is to confine new sexual identities for ourselves – identities that challenge sex to marriage, as if that has ever protected women the restrictive sexual roles reinforced by the logic of capital from violence or abuse. Real sexual liberation must – such as machismo, to use one of many examples. necessarily include the fight for full access free abortion Even under capitalism, it is possible to develop new, more and birth control, and an ongoing battle against sexual social and human, relations of being. Doing so poses a direct coercion and male violence. It means the real freedom challenge to the system and, in turn, opens up new avenues to say “no” to sex as well as to say “yes.” for resistance and further progress, as we continues to reflect For a funny, insightful and moving novel about one on the oppressive character of capitalism. How exactly we teacher’s fight against the abstinence industry in the translate this to the bedroom, I’ll leave to your Marxian United States, read The Abstinence Teacher by Tom imagination. Perrotta.

14 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 International Women’s Day March, Toronto 2007: Still fighting for abortion access, reproductive rights, workers’ rights, immigrant rights, an end to war, racism, homophobia and violence.

However, it is important to note that there are limitations It is in struggle that we acquire to the revolutionary potential of survival projects – even those that are quite radical in nature. Developing models for a fuller consciousness of alternative practices and social relations is not sufficient for building an anti-racist, anti-homophobic, socialist-feminist ourselves and of our potential movement against capitalist exploitation and oppression. for creating alternatives that Plus, there always exists the danger that these alternative spaces become ends in themselves, leading to a kind of life- contradict capitalist logic style activism that does not connect with broader struggles against the system. To be effective and meaningful, anti-cap- italist spaces and social relations must be integrated into, and develop at, the heart of broader class-struggle movements. and bring dynamism to our “socialist instincts” – helping us This also creates the conditions through which they can ex- develop ideas about different, more humanistic forms of so- pand and be appropriated by more and more people. cial organization. So, for example, in 2006, in Argentina, in Struggles are extremely important for a whole range of the wake of economic collapse and mass working class upris- reasons. One is that they offer us spaces where we can pro- ings, workers throughout the country took over factories that duce new, disalienated social relations and where we can dis- had been abandoned by their employers and restarted them cover creative ways to organize social reproduction. Child- as collectives under workers’ control. care is a good example. Without affordable childcare that To build a better world for women, lesbians, gays and extends beyond normal working hours, women in particular transgendered people – as well as for all oppressed minori- are handicapped from full participation in unions and other ties and working class people – we need struggles that help working-class political organizing. It is no coincidence that, build a broad, dynamic socialist movement and the alterna- when women enter into struggle, the issue of childcare be- tive social relations that prefigure a socialist future. But that comes central. The first demand made by women workers is only possible if these struggles take on an emancipatory seeking to democratize the Ontario Public Service Employ- form. They must be democratic and dynamic, with partici- ees Union in the mid 1970s, for example, was for fully subsi- pants having genuine collective and creative control over the dized childcare at all union meetings. process of transformation. Only in this way can these strug- It is also in struggle that we acquire a fuller consciousness gles not only lead to concrete gains for the working class, of ourselves and of our potential for creating alternatives that but also become the occasion for building genuine, emanci- contradict capitalist logic. Successful struggles, in particular, patory popular counterpower, characterized by unalienated  can radicalize our understanding of ourselves and society, social relations.

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 15 ‘POWERS OF THE MIND’ Indigenous traditions in freedom by Deborah Simmons

he nationalist idea that Canada is a kinder, gentler state is firmly rooted Tin the myth of a benevolent “partnership” with indigenous peoples established by French and English colonists during the fur trade. This heritage supposedly stands in brutal contrast to the genocidal Indian Wars that subdued indigenous peoples south of the border. This myth obscures two fundamen- tal aspects of the history that forged

the Canadian state: the capitalist de- D rawi ng: JOS E PH K PPL R velopment that has violently dispos- sessed indigenous peoples of their lands and sovereignty; and the strug- gle and resistance that has repeatedly forced Canada’s rulers to make con- cessions to indigenous rights. The history of capitalism in this country can be traced back to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s restructuring of the fur industry Savagery to “Civilization.” under competition from independent traders in the late 19th The Indian women: We whom you pity as drudges and early 20th century. This was far from a partnership: the reached centuries ago the goal that you are now nearing. company was viciously competitive and did not hesitate to throw its indigenous workers into starvation in the interest Tr a d i t i o n s i n Fr e e d o m of efficiency and greater profits. The history of treaties and of the Indian Act is one of successive attempts by the state to The Notebooks reveal Marx’s enduring revolutionary com- open the way to capitalist enterprise while preventing costly mitment to “the emancipation of all the human qualities conflicts with indigenous peoples. and senses.” Morgan’s ethnography for the first time gave Indigenous resistance to assimilation cannot be under- Marx insights into the concrete possibilities of a free society, stood solely in cultural or political terms – in defending their prefigured in past and present history rather than conjured land-based subsistence practices, indigenous peoples also de- up in theory. Marx shows great interest in the combination fend traditional economies that are profoundly incompatible of cultural practices, egalitarian decision-making processes, with capitalism. This present reality of a non-capitalist mode and non-oppressive gender roles that Morgan describes of production in indigenous societies came to fascinate Karl in Haudenosaunee society. Marx painstakingly copied out Marx in the later part of his life, especially via the writings whole pages of text from Morgan’s book Ancient Society, de- of anthropologist Henry Lewis Morgan and his representa- scribing numerous details about the Haudenosaunee way of tions of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. Unfor- life – including indigenous terminology and concepts. tunately Marx was unable to synthesize his working notes Marx was focused on the complexity, the dynamism, and for publication before his death – the notes, written in the in fact the superiority of Haudenosaunee society compared last weeks of 1880 and the first days of 1881 are now pub- to the degraded societies founded on the capitalist profit lished under the title Ethnographic Notebooks. motive. In his words, “primitive communities had incompa- Deborah Simmons is a New Socialist editor living in the Northwest rably greater vitality than the Semitic, Greek, Roman and Territories. a fortiori the modern capitalist societies.” As commentator

16 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 Franklin Rosemont remarks, here it is possible to glimpse “Nowadays, we often hear it said that the rural commune the “then-undreamed of possibility that such peoples could is an archaic form condemned to perish by history, scien- make their own contributions to the global struggle for hu- tific socialism and, in short, everything above debate. Those man emancipation.” who preach such a view call themselves your disciples… their Marx’s interest in indigenous society was not merely strongest argument is often: ‘Marx said so.’ ‘But how do you historical or instrumental. This is emphasized by Raya Du- derive that from Capital?’ others object. ‘He does not discuss nayevskaya in her reflections on the Notebooks: “Marx’s hos- the agrarian question, and says nothing about Russia.’ ‘He tility to capitalism’s colonialism was intensifying...[He] re- would have said as much if he had discussed our country,’ turns to probe the origin of humanity, not for purposes of your disciples retort…” discovering new origins, but for perceiving new revolution- Marx had already been studying the Russian peasant com- ary forces, their reason, or as Marx called it, in emphasizing mune, and intensified this study in formulating his answer to a sentence of Morgan, ‘powers of the mind.’” Zasulich. The gravity of the question for Marx is evident in The influence of Marx’s readings on indigenous societies the four draft responses that he produced. He refers directly was manifested most remarkably in his response to a letter to Morgan (“an American writer”) in admonishing that “we from Russian radical Vera Zasulich that arrived while he was should not …be too frightened by the word archaic,” con- working on the Notebooks. Zasulich wanted him to clarify cluding that far from being a social form of the past, “the whether he viewed the Russian peasant commune as merely commune is the fulcrum for social regeneration in Russia.” an anachronism that would have to be superseded by a capi- Marx did not make the mistake of equating Haudeno- talist stage, or whether it could be the basis for a new collec- saunee society with Russian peasant society. But he was in- tive society. According to the letter, this had become a source spired by his understanding of the human potential embod- of vigorous debate among Russian Marxists influenced by ied in both societies to become a supporter of a movement the first volume of Marx’s Capital (the other volumes had that his own disciples scorned as “ahistorical,” “utopian,” not yet been published): “unrealistic” and “petty-bourgeois.” His readings about these

Wasáse They are also a reflection of the indigenous individuals is welcomed, current conditions of radical struggle significant solidarity from the non- Radical Indigenism in Canada: the small number of people indigenous working class is not viewed The members of the radical indigenous willing to turn anger into action against as a possibility. Wasáse network, inspired by the what governments and corporations A critique of the unrealistic aspects writings of Mohawk scholar Taiaiake are doing; and the ongoing racism of the earlier Red Power movement, Alfred, have been engaged in education experienced by indigenous people every along with a sober assessment of and activism exposing the contradictions day. current conditions for struggle, has of ”partnership” deals with government While the importance of collective led Wasáse members to a deliberate and industry, and have thereby earned political action is recognized by pragmatism. There is a certain strength open hostility from official leaders. Wasáse supporters, the emphasis in this approach – the Wasáse group Wasáse members oppose the is on dismantling the colonial ideas is undoubtedly on the cutting edge dominant form of indigenous politics, that bind individuals into the system. of revolutionary ideas and activism in whose objective is limited to seeking While capitalism is understood to be comparison to the generally woefully recognition of existing legal “rights” antithetical to indigenous traditions, it is inadequate Left in Canada. by Canadian state institutions. The colonialism and colonial consciousness Wasáse members are developing their ideas of Wasáse are grounded in that are seen to be the main obstacle to ideas in action. They’re leading a variety “critical traditionalism,” affirming the indigenous self-determination. of political mobilizations defending potential of pre-colonial traditions while A Gandhian discipline of truthful indigenous lands from corporate acknowledging that traditional cultures and critical thinking, healthful living, development interests, opposing the can be appropriated and commodified connection to one’s own traditional selling out of sovereignty in land claim within the capitalist system if they are heritage, and non-violent resistance and self-government negotiations, not linked to radical anti-colonial politics. is promoted as a form of self- and exposing the dehumanizing and The ideas being discussed by Wasáse determination in the present. The destructive aspects of the dominant members represent a significant idea of revolution is constrained to society. There is much to be learned in development building on the militant what seems to be possible in today’s reading, dialogue and common action Red Power movement of the 1970s. conditions. While the solidarity of non- with Wasáse activists.

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 17 y l Nad e r

Protesting real estate development on Six Nations territory at

, S h e r , n S p e ctator H amilto CP, PHOTO: Caledonia.

societies led him to understand that there are multiple roads ways to open up previously marginal indigenous lands for to a social revolution that would open the road to socialism. exploitation. This has involved a number of concessions to De s t r u c t i o n f r o m W i t h i n aboriginal governments, including negotiation of the new comprehensive land claim agreements in areas where land However, Marx’s readings on the Russian commune also title remained unsettled; financial compensation to First Na- revealed the complexity of undertaking revolution where ele- tions for acquisition of Crown title; and financial rents and ments of capitalism have begun to take hold. Russia was at other benefits for exploration and development on aboriginal the time one of the least economically developed states in an lands. In the process, First Nations have established signifi- otherwise predominantly capitalist Europe, but it was by no cant corporate entities of their own, and joint ventures with means isolated from capitalist forces. industry are increasingly commonplace. Marx observed that the commune had long been “ex- For the first time since the earliest days of the fur trade ploited fraudulently by the intruding capitalists, merchants, when indigenous people maintained a powerful position as landed ‘proprietors’ as well as undermined by usury” – with sovereign and independent producers, it would seem that the the active support of the Russian state. Peasants were in- partnership model is being realized. Opinion leaders such as creasingly able to accumulate private property, money, and Osoyoos Chief Clarence Louis and writer Calvin Helin are even slaves and serfs. This had the effect of dissolving the reinforcing this with the popular message that indigenous “original social and economic equality” of the commune. If people should shed the outdated attitudes and dependencies left unchecked, these forces would lead to the emergence of of the colonial past and join the bright new era of indigenous class divisions in peasant society, where a minority would economic development. benefit from allegiances with outside capitalist interests. The But flare-ups of rebellion against these new development communal system would be destroyed from within. initiatives on indigenous lands are indicators that the new While Marx was writing the Ethnographic Notebooks economic partnerships are not oriented to sustaining indig- and studying the Russian commune, the new Dominion of enous sovereignty and collective heritage. A critical minor- Canada was preparing for a second round in the battle with ity in indigenous communities across the country is pointing Métis and indigenous rebels opposed to the usurping of their out that treaties and self-government agreements represent land rights and sovereignty. The battle ended in defeat for the extinguishment of sovereignty; cozy deals with industry are Métis. Even so, the federal government learned early about being exposed as betrayals of ancient and sacred trusts in the virtues of buying allies within indigenous communities. sustainable land stewardship. This was the great advantage of the Band Council system So l i da r i t y imposed and financed by the Department of Indian Affairs to supplant traditional governance systems. But it is not until Socialists should not place conditions on our solidarity recently that conditions have existed for the crystallizing of with indigenous activists struggling in opposition to domi- class divisions in indigenous communities, similar to those nation and racism; nor should we pretend to hold a formula predicted by Marx among the Russian peasants. for indigenous liberation. Certainly we should vigorously The resource development boom that has been intensify- oppose the Stalinist dogma (promoted by self-styled Marx- ing in Canada since the late 1980s is leading the state, along ist academics Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard) that with corporate interests, to look for politically acceptable indigenous people must integrate with the capitalist system,

18 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 relinquish their connections to their traditional lands and A solidarity limited by the conditions of the present inevita- culture, and become absorbed into the working class in order bly leads to a debilitating pessimism, a narrowing of the ho- to achieve liberation. This would be tantamount to support- rizon of possibility. We need to look back into history to find ing the most right-wing elements in the Conservative Party the diverse moments of struggle and human self-realization agenda. Nor should we make the opposite mistake of assum- that can be windows into what revolution might look like. ing that it is necessary to be (or pretend to be) indigenous in Now more than ever, indigenous peoples are facing the order to be revolutionaries. brutal impact of capitalist expansion and dispossession. More There has never been a significant socialist current among and more indigenous communities are experiencing the kind indigenous peoples, so there are aspects of indigenous strug- of legal dispossession, cultural erosion and spiritual destruc- gle that non-indigenous socialists know very little about. But tion that comes with corporate profit-making on their lands. we do share in common with indigenous activists an interest More and more indigenous people are being forced into in analysing the inhumanity and ecologically destructive na- urban centres, either completely impoverished and home- ture of capitalism; the role of the state in maintaining stable less and subject to systematic police brutality, or reduced to conditions for capitalist development, including the divisions working in low-wage jobs. This is an unacceptable reality in that pit the exploited and oppressed against each other; and the Canadian state; indigenous participation and servitude strategies for building resistance. We also share a common in fulfilling the dreams of those who rule Canada is not an goal in developing a vision for a society free of racism, sexism option for those seeking true liberation. and other forms of oppression. It is our responsibility to be Solidarity with indigenous peoples must be multi-faceted, as rigorous as possible in holding up our side of the dialogue with demands for rights to land and self-determination be- in these areas of common interest, and to demonstrate our ing a core principle. Indigenous self-determination must be commitment in action. understood as an aspect of every struggle. A sign of success Despite the difficult conditions of struggle in Canada to- in the socialist strategy will be when spaces have been cre- day, we must avoid at all costs the temptation to conceive of ated for indigenous activists to become genuine (not token) socialism as a reality to be deferred to some indefinite and leaders in all of the movements that affect them: environ- abstract future. Like the vision of the Wasáse group, our mental, labour, anti-poverty, women’s and gay rights, anti- socialism must involve strategic thinking for our times, a imperialist/anti-war … and the list goes on. disciplined realism. But we should also take direction from Writing about the revolutionary potential of the Rus- anti-colonial writer Frantz Fanon, who warned against the sian communal movement, Marx warned that it would not fragmented thinking that results from taking what seems be possible to sustain such a revolution in isolation. As a possible in today’s circumstances to be all that could ever be. highly industrialized settler-state, Canada by no means re- flects the social conditions that existed in 19th century Rus- sia. The Russian communes were proportionally much larger and more economically powerful, and the Russian state was much weaker. Since early in the 20th century, the working class has been at the core of the Canadian economy and the key potential force for transforming society. The political weakness, bureaucratization and fragmenta- tion of the current working-class movement belies its poten- tial power; the history of the Winnipeg General Strike and other mass mobilizations sheds light on the enormous po- tential of the working class to change society. The challenge

ve. s e of creating new social movements, including a new workers’ movement, can be a task for non-indigenous socialists in col- laboration with radical indigenous activists. Referring to the demands of anti-colonial struggle,

e dral g o . cath Taiaiake Alfred has written, “Action is the life sign of peo- ples whose existence is officially denied … we must fight for www what is precious to us, or it will be stolen away and used for someone else’s benefit and enjoyment. Fight, not talk.” So- : : photo cialists cannot lead the fight of indigenous peoples, but our Opposition to resort development on Songhees solidarity in building radical social movements can help to traditional territory in B.C. create the conditions for victory. 

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 19 Book review Offering bandaid solutions

Dances with Dependency: of colonialism, rather than addressing its Indigenous Success Through roots, he is able to come up with no more Self-Reliance than band-aid solutions. by Calvin Helin Ass i m i l at i o n Review by Helin states throughout the book that Tricia McGuire Adams no amount of government money thrown at the “Indian Problem” will ever solve it. Following in the footsteps of He argues that money will only “exacer- ­Duncan Campbell Scott (deputy super- bate existing struggles.” Yet paradoxically intendent of the Department of Indian he views financial wealth to be the prin- Affairs from 1913 to 1932) and Prime cipal means of self-determination: “The Ministers Jean Chrétien and Pierre good news is that Aboriginal Canadians Trudeau, Calvin Helin – real estate devel- are in the best positions ever to integrate oper and member of the Tsimshian First economically with the mainstream, to Nation – introduces his take on how to partner with industry and create wealth finally solve the “Indian Problem” in his and opportunities for all.” book Dances with Dependency. And the source of this new wealth is His argument focuses on the national resource extraction, the plundering of oil, well-being, financial security and devel- opment of Canada, and therefore explic- Helin’s solution is the itly not on the well-being of indigenous Canadian government and Canadian peoples. His mantra is repeated continu- assimilation of indigenous corporations are the main benefactors of ally throughout the book, “It is time to the direct oppression and exploitation of take the giant leap forward for the benefit peoples into the very system indigenous peoples’ land. of Canada as a Nation.” that has almost destroyed This book is extremely dangerous in Helin takes a blinkered approach to that its assimilationist agenda is cloaked welfare dependency. He sees all of the them and continues to make in a rhetoric that indigenous peoples can “Aboriginal woes” – poverty, alcohol and millions off of them agree with. Who doesn’t want to see an drug abuse, laziness, fatness, slowness, be- end to the poverty, welfare dependency, ing stupid and youth suicide – as the di- youth suicide and violence that indig- rect results of the dependency trap. In his enous people live with on a daily basis? view, it is time for “Aboriginal Canadians diamonds, gas, forestry, hydro, mining The history of Canadian capitalism to take responsibility for our problems, and minerals on traditional indigenous shows that Helin’s solution, wealth cre- just like our ancestors of antiquity would lands. Helin’s solution is for indigenous ation through resource extraction, will have done,” by forgetting about the past people to achieve “real leverage within not bring an end to these problems. On and work on creating wealth through the Canadian economy – which will re- the contrary, this ecologically destructive “development” opportunities. sult in an unprecedented opportunity to economy is what caused the problems in Helin’s analysis is quite simply wrong. forge a new era of self-reliance.” the first place, by displacing indigenous The dependency trap is but one symp- Helin goes on to ask, “How can the peoples from their traditional role as tom of colonialism and the oppression constructive future of indigenous nations stewards of the land for the well-being of of indigenous people’s minds and bodies. be founded on festering grievances of the their communities, and for generations to Because he focuses on only one symptom past?” Although the victim mentality cre- come. ated by colonialism must be challenged, Capitalist ventures will never reflect Tricia McGuire Adams is Anishinaabe from indigenous peoples cannot simply forget indigenous people’s unique worldviews Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (Sandpoint First about the legacy of colonialism. It is still and values. Nor will exploiting our land Nation) near Thunder Bay, Ontario. having a direct impact on their lives. The make our ancestors proud. 

20 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 A contribution to white anti-racist and socialist practice An abridged excerpt from Taking Responsibility, Taking Direction (2005) b y Sh e i l a W i l m o t , reprinted by permission of Arbeiter Ring Publishing.

nti-racist organizing now takes place in a context of fiercely systematic, anti-Middle Eastern racism, new We white activists often A“security” laws to increased repression of immigrants, refu- gees and indigenous people. In our organizing efforts, the seem to interpret “taking racism itself is not our only challenge: we also have to deal with our society’s implicit acceptance of these and other neo- responsibility”as “taking over” liberal attacks, combined with mythical notions of the Cana- dian nations’ politeness and peace-loving ways. Canada also has an odd place in the world as an impe- the far left. A kind of sectarianism can also be seen in certain rialist power that is still subordinated to the United States, expressions of anti-oppression politics, often in the form of the self-appointed global banker, decision maker, cop and ideologies setting a heavy moral tone to how we must un- executioner on our southern border. So ideas are created, derstand and respond to white privilege. Such “my way or maintained and driven home that because of our place in the the highway” sectarianism continues to cast a pall over many world, we can do very little to change the direction of global- different kinds of organizing. ization, that we really are quite powerless to make fight-back Be y o n d Re m o r s e efforts matter. This is not to say that no one is fighting back or trying to As a white community activist since the mid-1980s, I have change things. Many people do actively dissent, in ways that come to think of my approach as constantly shifting the bal- also change with time and place, but still in small numbers ance between taking responsibility and taking direction. This and with little continuity. We see a lot of one-off events with is not easy. Although we might be able to achieve equality in little to no follow-up, as well as a lot of individually based working together in terms of our humanity, we are not, by “what-you-can-do” types of activity. a long shot, equal in terms of our conditions. Many white We cannot underestimate the impact on us of how highly activists, of various generations, seem unable to get past in- privatized, individualized and commodified human life has voking the words “white privilege” to describe the situation become in our time. The collective problems caused by social and their remorse. On the other hand, we white activists of- program cuts and bloated corporate profit margins are con- ten seem to interpret “taking responsibility” as “taking over.” tinually defined and redefined as individual impediments. This is often combined with remorse so that we feel we have In addition to this, social movements of the 1960s, 70s just got to “power through” and get the things done that we and 80s have been institutionalized through achieving some believe will fix racism. of the very demands for which activists fought. Today we The white anti-racism that does exist is due to the activ- see some excellent politicized, non-profit, social service de- ism against racism by people of colour. Most recently and livery that is mostly disconnected from any political organiz- specifically, it has been the feminism of women of colour that ing that falls outside agency- or network-specific goals and has demanded white leftists’ accountability and actions. De- frameworks. spite the weaknesses of anti-racist movements and the inter- We are also saddled with the sectarian legacy of much of national Left, it is still important to look at what we might Sheila Wilmot has been a community activist since the 1980s, and has be able to do differently in Canada, to be encouraged by the worked in the labour movement as a shop steward and an organizer with organizing successes we do see, and to look for opportunities low-wage and migrant workers; in a long-term solidarity project with the to try to broaden these successes. Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mexico; and in anti-war and anti-racism campaigns Therefore, as unionists and activists, here are two fronts to in Toronto, Canada. She is now the equity officer at CUPE Local 3903. work on at the same time.

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 21 e ct proj a n ti - racism n A ssociatio R adical P hilosoph y

In d i v i d u a l a n d Co l l e c t i v e Ch a l l e n g e s t o Ra c i s m : Even generally not relating to workers in the context of a broad without a broad-based movement, we can take on the inci- critique of how society functions as a whole and an analysis dents of everyday racism that go on around us, we can chal- of what we need to do to change it. Most people get involved lenge our own and each other’s white supremacy and racism, in struggles out of dire personal need. In the words of one and we can act in our communities and workplaces to chal- activist, “I was totally apolitical but this was the last straw, lenge the structural racism that often comes in the form of enough was enough.” policies and programs, or lack thereof. At the same time, we cannot shy away from arguments that critique capitalism, assuming that “community people” An t i -Ra c i s t Or g a n i z i n g f o r Br o a d So c i a l Ch a n g e : will be alienated; we shouldn’t fall back onto those main- This is a tough challenge, but we can try to organize in stream explanations of how our economy or society should communities, workplaces and unions with the broad goal function. For example, when government tells us that we in mind, while recognizing it is a step-by-step process with can’t raise the minimum wage because it’s bad for business, often externally imposed limits. To be effective, this action we do not have to cede that terrain. We just need to be sure needs to be done within an integrated, anti-racist, organizing to put people’s agency and the faults of a profit-based eco- framework. This is demonstrated by how we set and work nomic system first, while at the same time being concrete towards our political goals, whom we choose to work with, and not abstract or dogmatic. who the leadership of our projects is and what projects we In political terms, we can think of “agency” as the ability choose to work in and/or politically support. of exploited and oppressed people to use what they know and understand from their own experience to resist and Un d e r s t a n d i n g A g e n c y struggle. Although maybe not so frequently thought of as All political work must be anti-racist work. As well, we part of agency, I would also include in the definition what we must have a clear set of political goals, an overall strategy to do individually and collectively that results in our benefitting get there and a flexible set of tactics that can be applied in from the oppression of others – and how these actions in- different situations, depending on the context and the avail- teract with structures of domination. It is often said by some able people. What we need is a collective, on-the-ground ap- far-left thinkers that white workers use racism to explain proach that plans where it is going and seeks to build some- why they are exploited and poor in their everyday lives, to thing from each activity and event, with the transformation make sense of the world around them. of our society as our ultimate goal. A narrow focus on agency does not shed light on why we And here we need to accept another contradiction: while are not blaming the ruling class for the damage they are do- this may be our ultimate goal, it is not enough to add “anti- ing. If we are just making sense of the world, why is that in a capitalist” to our group’s basis of unity or our organization’s predominantly racist way? There are powerful forces at work mandate. Given the broader social conditions we face, we are to make white workers make cross-class alliances instead of

22 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 working class ones. We need to see our agency in its fullness and as part of the workings of structures of domination if we are to appreciate, and hope to realize, the potential of agency The white anti-racism that at all. does exist is due to the activism Co m m o n Gr o u n d against racism by people White activists need to find new ways to take the political responsibility of engaging with people of colour. The “ally” of colour concept, which is found in practice in a number of political groups and many community-based, anti-racist educational programs, is important for white anti-racism. When we ap- ply the concept well, we are taking responsibility and direc- us be a white anti-racist bridge to other white-dominated tion at the same time. political groups and settings. Yet, the responsibility-direction balance can tip too far at At the same time, we do need to accept that sometimes times with an over-emphasis on seeing ourselves as merely we will work together, and at others, separately. If we build allies and not as interested parties in the struggle. If we really real political relationships with organizers of colour we will believe that none are truly free until all are free, we must see have the basis on which to understand when and why this solidarity relationships as two-way streets and not as forums must happen. To strategize on improving our anti-racism as to which we humbly bring our skills, and in which we will part of our political work, we could look at reviving some always defer to the opinion of people of colour. form of meeting of white allies in our union and community Being a good ally does not mean just doing what we’re settings. told; it means respecting people of colour and ourselves When we look for direction, we do not need to be com- enough to disagree sometimes and, in doing so, risk finding pletely deferential and remain silent; we ought instead to be out that one of us is not right. In the words of late activist actively listening and contributing to political discussions Dave Brophy of the Winnipeg Indigenous Peoples Solidar- with people of colour about how to develop our collective ity Movement, it means developing together a “better articu- strategies. This becomes easier as people get to know us and lation of ‘common ground.’” trust starts to develop, a key foundation of any successful po- Effective anti-racist organizing puts non-white people’s litical relationship. agency front and centre, not in a romantic or deferential way, Fr o m Ra g e t o A c t i o n but based on the respectful treatment of equals. This means building trusting political relationships over the long term I spent most of the fall of 2001 in an inspired rage. The through being an obvious and consistent ally, and through rage was about the US attack on Afghanistan and the ratch- valuing and supporting the leadership development of peo- eting-up of domestic racism. The inspiration came from the ple of colour, especially women. multiracial organizing that, although short-lived, blossomed Part of this is getting involved in things we may not “get,” in response to it. I remember one discussion-oriented meet- such as when people of colour come together to organize ing I attended at which there were a lot of white folks. I was public, political-cultural events that do not “look political” to unable to control my anger at all when I spoke, that rage white folks. When an opportunity is there, let’s get ourselves gushing forth as I said, “It’s f—n time we white folks stepped into environments where we are the minority, do some good up to the plate!” work, and learn about different aspects of community-based Now, where that plate is and how to find it aren’t easy organizing at the same time. This kind of experience can help questions to answer. But, I still have that sharp feeling that we simply can no longer let it go on, as more “security laws” get put in place, as more and more migrants are restricted or permitted only temporary access. Rights are being reduced We do need to accept that and racism is on the rise. So we’ve got to get on it. Moving forward requires not only the balancing act of sometimes we will work taking responsibility/taking direction. It also requires bal- ancing hopefulness and inspiration with a thoughtful as- together, and at sessment of conditions and possibilities. It feels, here in my lifetime, like it’s high time we get down to it. And I will not others, separately say I hope that we can do that because, at some point, we simply must. 

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 23 No borders on human freedom by Yen Chu

he No One is Illegal (NOII) cam- paign launched across Canada in theT wake of 9/11 and the growing overtly

racist political climate. No One is Illegal P hoto : No One is I ll eg al – T unites under the fundamental demands for regularization of all non-status peo- ple, an end to detentions and deporta- tions of immigrants and refugees, and — reflecting the link between immigration and the war on terrorism — an end to security certificates. Another important initiative is the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” oro n to campaign, mobilizing service providers to defend the rights of all immigrants to have their basic needs met through access Drawing up the fight against borders. to housing, education and the social wel- No One is Illegal (Toronto) ... fare system. the war at home and how the policies of ... is a group of immigrants, refugees The “No One is Illegal” slogan emerged the G8 displace those in the South who and allies who fight for the rights of in the late 1990s in Europe with the Sans are then forced to migrate. While capital all migrants to live with dignity and Papier and No Borders movement. How- moves freely across borders, displacing respect. We believe that granting ever, it could be argued that the struggle and dispossessing people along its way, citizenship to a privileged few is against borders started with the dawn of the movement of people is increasingly part of a racist immigration and colonization and imperialism. NOII or- being regulated, controlled and criminal- border policy designed to exploit ganizations see the fight against imperi- ized. As a result, the poor, the working and marginalize migrants. We alism as an integral part of their struggle class and people of colour are increasingly work to oppose these policies, as both abroad and at home, where they forced to live with precarious immigra- well as the international economic work to support indigenous sovereignty. tion status, and end up becoming a pool policies that create the conditions The building of the Canadian nation- of low-wage labour. of poverty and war that force state started with the near annihilation For socialists, the fight against racist migration. At the same time, it is of indigenous peoples, communities and immigration laws is important not only part of our ongoing work to support culture. Indigenous resistance challenges for social justice, but also to build work- and build alliances with indigenous the legitimacy of the state to grant citi- ing class solidarity across state and racial peoples in their fight against zenship in the first place. Ongoing strug- lines. State borders and a divided work- colonialism, displacement and the gles in places like Grassy Narrows and Six ing class are fundamental to the competi- ongoing occupation of their land. Nations territory share a common goal tive aspect of the capitalist system. For Exerpted from with anti-racist struggles in the migrant this reason, the struggle for the rights of toronto.nooneisillegal.org rights movement – an opposition to Ca- migrant workers has deeply radical im- nadian nationalism and imperialism. plications. The same state that has dispossessed Marx saw the state as a coercive “il- The fight for people’s right to choose and displaced indigenous peoples is also lusory community” whose purpose was where they live and work is an important responsible for the displacement of refu- to maintain private property. He argued aspect of the struggle for socialism. By gees and economic migrants. During the that true community can only be estab- building solidarity with migrant com- 2002 G8 summit, activists marched under lished with the abolition of classes and munities to fight against detentions and the “No One is Illegal” banner to make the state. At the same time, he supported deportations and to fight for status for all, the links between the war abroad and movements of oppressed nations against socialists can begin to pose the possibility Yen Chu is a member of No One Is Illegal in imperialism as a “necessary condition and of a revolutionary society where people Toronto. prerequisite for true internationalism.” are placed before profit. 

24 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 Re a l Fr e e d o m Marxism ... Anarchism ... Liberation by Sebastian Lamb “So this is freedom — they must be joking.” The Housemartins

We live in a free society. Or at least that’s what we’re constantly told. But it doesn’t take much effort to see what’s wrong with this claim. How free are people who live without adequate food and shelter? How free are we in the places where we work for pay? Lesbians and gays can marry, but heterosexism still scars the lives of queer people. Equal rights in law don’t translate into real equality for women, people of colour, im- migrants, indigenous people and people with disabilities. All this points to an important truth: even in the wealthi- est capitalist countries, such as the Canadian state, we are far from free. It’s not that there’s no freedom. In some ways, capitalist societies are freer than the other class-divided societies they replaced in much of the world. The French Revolution of the 1790s and other revolutions eroded or dismantled some forms of domination that were an obstacle to capitalist de- velopment, such as the rights of nobles and monarchs that

restricted the powers of rich “commoners.” These revolutions .un d e r . ch /S a n s T itr opened the door to radical people’s struggles for freedom. But such struggles were repressed so that capitalists could www

reap the benefits of change without risking the loss of their F rom own property and power. But while it dismantled some forms of domination and oppression, capitalism reproduced and intensified others. cost, against state and corporate power. Capitalist colonialism gave rise to a new form of oppression, Sadly, these advances don’t come close to making this a racism. So it is highly misleading to paint a picture of free- free society. The workplaces where society’s goods and ser- dom as the essence of capitalism. vices are produced are managerial dictatorships. Decisions

Un f r e e d o m that affect our lives are made by capitalists who are never elected, governments that aren’t accountable between elec- Clearly there are elements of freedom in Canadian soci- tions, and top state officials for whom no one ever casts a ety today. It would be foolish to deny that gains have been ballot. Immigrants excluded from citizenship have even less made: Laws prohibiting abortion and same-gender sex have influence over who governs us. been struck down. New laws have been established, recog- Sexism, racism, heterosexism and other forms of oppres- nizing union rights and protecting people from discrimina- sion are still part of the fabric of society. The Canadian state tion. These gains had to be fought for, often at great human is a colonial settler-state that denies indigenous peoples and the Québecois the right to determine their own destinies Sebastian Lamb is an editor of New Socialist. Thanks to Kim Parry and without interference from the dominant Canadian nation. Shelagh Pizey-Allen for comments on a draft of this article. The young demonstrators who chanted “The ­Communist

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 25 World is not communist, the Free World is not free!” in the late 1960s were right. Almost all of the Stalinist dictatorships that passed themselves off as “Communist” have collapsed. However, the end of the Cold War did not bring about free- dom — just ask the people of occupied Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.

A Ra d i c a l V i e w

Freedom struggles are an important part of humanity’s history, going back thousands of years. They have included

revolts by peasants and slaves, working-class upsurges, rebel- F rom lions against colonialism, women’s mobilizations, anti-racist struggles, queer protests and more. We see aspirations for www

real freedom in these struggles. .un d e r . ch /S a n s T itr But what would a free society look like? Socialists of dif- ferent stripes have long argued that capitalism cannot de- liver on its promise of freedom, and that it will take a radical transformation of society to realize that possibility. Unfortu- nately, most socialists have seen socialism as something that can be achieved by a committed minority (such as a party or army) on behalf of the majority. For such supporters of socialism from above, freedom is at best a secondary concern and at worst merely rhetoric. Re a l Fr e e d o m A minority of socialists have always disagreed with this. For supporters of socialism from below, a free society — a soci- Freedom is not just the absence of constraints. Freedom ety without class divisions, state power or oppression — can- lies in our ability to choose among options and to create new not be handed down by a minority, no matter how sincere. It options for ourselves and for others. This includes the free- will be achieved as a result of the self-organized struggles of dom to change and for individuals to become what they wish the exploited and oppressed themselves or not at all. to become (for example, to live our gender however we wish). Today, anarchist supporters of socialism from below are It’s not a state of mind, but requires real material conditions. more well-known for their commitment to a free society It cannot be achieved through the actions of individuals, but than Marxist socialists. For example, anarcho-communist only in community. Alexander Berkman wrote in 1929 that “we can live in a so- To say that freedom is inherently social doesn’t mean that ciety where there is no compulsion of any kind... freedom individual liberty is unimportant. It doesn’t mean that indi- from being forced or coerced, a chance to live the life that viduals need to subordinate themselves to other individuals suits you best.” or to social institutions acting in the name of the common Yet certain Marxist traditions have long articulated a good. There is a big difference between individualism (acting strong revolutionary vision of a free society. The following and thinking in one’s own narrow self-interest), and indi- lines appeared in 1847 in a publication of the political group vidual liberty. to which Karl Marx then belonged: “We are not among The flowering of true individuality requires a society in those communists who are out to destroy personal liberty, which everyone is free. There must be free time — time in who wish to turn the world into one huge barrack or into which people are free to do whatever they choose, so long as a gigantic workhouse. There certainly are some communists this doesn’t involve harming others. This requires a reduction who, with an easy conscience, refuse to countenance personal in the time people spend producing the services and goods liberty and would like to shuffle it out of the world because that society needs. they consider that it is a hindrance to complete harmony. But For this to happen, the world of work would have to be we have no desire to exchange freedom for equality. We are transformed. Workplaces would have to be democratized, so convinced... that in no social order will personal freedom be that workers manage themselves. Production would be for so assured as in a society based upon communal ownership.” need, not for profit. The goals and products of labour would Not all supporters of socialism from below have been as be determined through democratic planning, guided by eco- clear as this. But it is in this tradition that we find a truly logical concerns. The overall organization of workplaces and radical view of freedom. the content of jobs would need to be reorganized in order to

26 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 undermine divisions among workers such as those between a careful study of the actual history of the past century of manual and mental labour, and between unpleasant and more social struggles. Since he sees a free society as impossible, he enjoyable tasks. argues that the best that can be hoped for is small-scale mo- All across society, authoritarian hierarchies would have to ments of freedom in the here and now, from battles against be replaced by democratic structures for making and imple- oppression to the creation of “alternative economies” like menting decisions. As the anarchist socialist Murray Book- worker-run small businesses. chin argued, “A free society will either be democratic, or it It should come as no surprise that ideas like Day’s are ap- will not be achieved at all.” pealing to some people in societies like Canada. In this time An inconsistent commitment to socialist democracy in and place, ecological crisis, exploitation and oppression are theory and practice has weakened the struggle for a free so- all too visible. However, the low level of popular resistance ciety. Such inconsistency can be seen in the functioning of and the weakness of the radical left make mass movements many Marxist and anarchist groups. It is also evident in the and revolutionary change seem impossible. writings of influential Marxist socialists Frederick Engels, An o t h e r W o r l d Is Po ss i b l e Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky and major anarchist so- cialists such as Emma Goldman. We should not resign ourselves to this politics of despair.

An Im p o ss i b i l i t y ? In order to fight for real freedom one does not need to be- lieve that it is likely to be achieved. So long as we believe that Today, the tradition of socialist democracy is largely un- it is not impossible, there is good reason to do whatever we can known. In the 20th century, it suffered greatly at the hands of to make this possibility more likely. fascism and Stalinism, and was reduced to a marginal current. Fortunately, there are still people who refuse to abandon Today, many people in search of genuinely radical politics of the slogan “Another World is Possible!” made famous by the freedom identify with anarchism. After all, anarchism is not stained by association with Stalinism, social democracy or bureaucratic union leaders. Yet what is striking about much “We are convinced that in of contemporary anarchism is that it is not dedicated to the no social order will personal freedom struggle for a free, democratic, socialist society. Take, for example, writer Derrick Jensen. He argues that be so assured as in a society “civilization” (by which he means societies with cities) “is not and can never be sustainable. This is especially true for indus- based upon communal ownership” trial civilization... Civilization is not redeemable... civiliza- tion turns the entire world into a labour camp, then a death camp... the endpoint of civilization is assembly-line mass global justice movement before the events of September 11, murder.” So much for the possibility of freedom. 2001. There are still voices insisting that this possible world As Bookchin argued against earlier anti-civilization an- must be a society of real freedom, beyond capitalism and the archists, to denounce “civilization as inherently oppressive of forms of oppression intertwined with it. humanity in fact serves to veil the specific social relations Hope in the possibility of real freedom has been extin- that privilege exploiters over the exploited and hierarchs over guished even among many of those who clearly see the hor- their subordinates.” It is not civilization but capitalism that rors that capitalism has unleashed, and dread the greater has caused a global ecological crisis, thanks to its cancerous horrors it promises to deliver in the future. The few who profit-driven expansion. Capitalism, not urban society, made maintain a revolutionary vision of freedom differ among the Nazi killing machine possible. ourselves on many issues. But small in number as we are, we The politics of Canadian anarchist Richard Day are not would be wise to get clear about what we agree on and what reactionary like Jensen’s, but he too rejects the struggle for a we can do together. free society. His book Gramsci is Dead dismisses all politics By all means, we should discuss and debate our disagree- of revolutionary social transformation (which he caricatures) ments, but let’s keep these in perspective. The most funda- and the possibility of a society without exploitation and op- mental political division among radicals today is not between pression. In this, he openly follows two French thinkers: Mi- “anarchists” and “Marxists.” People who accept these labels chel Foucault, who saw revolutions as leading inevitably to disagree among themselves more than they agree. The real new forms of domination and Jean Baudrillard, with whom division is between anti-capitalists who believe that libera- Day agrees that “the masses” in the advanced capitalist coun- tion is possible and worth fighting for and those who, influ- tries have no “political potential.” enced by the despair and political confusion of our times, are Day reaches this conclusion without anything resembling resigned to the present reality of unfreedom. 

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 27 Building toward the next new Left

by David McNally

ometimes the most profound thinking occurs when we Sare lost, when we do not know where we are, or how to get to where we want to go. This can be true in the life of an individual, in study of a scientific problem, or in the evolution of political movements. And the socialist Left the world over is essentially lost today, living through a period of intense political disorientation after 30 years of maraud- ing neoliberalism. As a general trend – with important ex- ceptions – unions have been in massive retreat for decades, while social movements, after a brief resurgence in the form of global justice struggles, have been on the decline since the clampdown after 9/11. Periods of retreat are especially difficult for the radical Left. When people find it daunting to make even modest improvements in their lives, thoughts of a radical socialist transformation of society appear to be wildly utopian, the stuff of otherworldly dreamers. Movements for socialist lib- eration find themselves on the margins of political life. ABC

Be y o n d De n i a l a n d Re t r e a t Lost on a desert island: how many competing socialist In times of disarray for the Left, the most scrupulous organizations do they need? honesty is at a premium. So let us begin with a hard truth: the revolutionary socialist Left is today more marginal, more disconnected from the day to day experiences of working ing on the new challenges and struggles of our day. But they class people than at any time in the last 150 years. This real- do not offer answers to the challenges that lie ahead. ity has produced two main reactions within the left: retreat To stay to the left while rejecting retreat and denial in- and denial. volves a politics of “sober senses,” to borrow a phrase from Retreat is, of course, the most common response. People Marx. It means persisting with the struggle for a better world give up the struggle, sink into defeatism, embrace purely per- while reckoning with the terrible odds against us. It requires sonal “solutions” to what ails the world. The end result is a openly acknowledging that the whole socialist project has decline in the organized presence of socialist politics. Denial been thrown into question by events of the last quarter cen- is little better. It consists of sticking one’s head in the sand tury. and pretending that no real dilemmas exist. Deniers urge And yet, the three vital sources of socialist opposition to that all is well, that history is moving forward, and that all we capitalism persist: capital’s intense exploitation and oppres- need to do is prepare to apply the “lessons of history” derived sion of the majority of the globe’s inhabitants; powerful and from a great historical event – be it the 1917 revolution in inspiring movements of resistance to these realities; dreams Russia, or the anarchist struggles of 1936 in Barcelona. and struggles that point toward a radically different way of There is a sleight of hand in such arguments, however. It is organizing human life. true that history is rich with experiences from which social- Because of these realities, socialist politics will not disap- ists must try to extract all the practical wisdom they can. But pear, however enfeebled they may become. And for groups history does not repeat itself; it incessantly generates new which refuse to give up on the struggle for a truly better phenomena, new problems. All ostensible historical “lessons” world, three interrelated tasks will continue to confront are at best partial. They offer ways of thinking about and act- them, though on dramatically different scales and in quite different configurations depending on circumstances. First, David McNally is the author of Another World is Possible: socialist groups must figure out how to contribute to signifi- Globalization and Anti-Capitalism, published by Arbeiter Ring. cant struggles of resistance, so as to nurture opposition and

28 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 build people’s capacities to change the world. Secondly, they Th i n k i n g a b o u t 1968 must develop ways of keeping the socialist imaginary – the The great struggles of May-June 1968 in France – huge radical vision of a democratic and egalitarian society – alive social protests, student-occupied universities run by mass as- and relevant to people seeking alternatives. And, finally, they semblies, a general strike of 10 million workers in which one must seek out ways to organize themselves as democratic to two million seized control of their workplaces – constitute collectives based on practices of movement building activism one of the great moments of social insurgency in the period and socialist education. since the Second World War. And these events demonstrate Th i n k i n g a n d A c t i n g Hi s to r i c a l ly how important small radical groups can be – both positively and negatively. But to do these things effectively requires thinking and May ’68 was an explosion of radical democracy, street pro- acting historically – with respect to the present and the fu- test, workers’ power, mass mobilization – and revolutionary ture. To think historically about the present means honestly imagination. Wall posters and graffiti sprung up with slogans confronting our real possibilities and capacities in the here like the following: and now. A group of a hundred people in a period of retreat Be realistic – demand the impossible for the Left is very differently positioned from a small party of ten thousand in the midst of an upsurge of working-class Revolution is the ecstasy of history struggle. As British socialist Duncan Hallas wrote nearly 40 All power to the imagination! years ago, “Organizations do not exist in a vacuum. They are composed of actual people in specific historical circumstanc- Slogans such as these, which were widespread, transmit a es, attempting to solve real problems with a limited number sense of the revolutionary imaginary that informed much of of options open to them.” If groups delude themselves that the struggle of these amazing weeks. Yet, this sort of politi- they are on the verge of leading mass struggles, when noth- cal imaginary had percolated for years in the orbit of small ing of the sort is probable, they will distort their own de- leftist groups which had demonstrated some capacity to velopment, tending to blame some of those closest to them, anticipate what the next wave of struggles might look like. be it in their own groups or other organizations of the left, Two such groups in particular contributed mightily to the for the recalcitrance of circumstances. Down that road lies a radical sensibility of 1968: Socialism or Barbarism and the sterile sectarianism. Situationist International. What So, part of thinking historically Meaningful socialist groups is remarkable is that both groups is reckoning with the actual tasks did this despite incredibly severe of the moment. Today in most of must be able to help shortcomings. the Global North this means em- strengthen anti-capitalist Socialism or Barbarism (SB) phasizing interrelated processes of had originated in the 1950s and modest movement-building and resistance and make a was never more than a current of socialist self-education. It means a few dozen people that published nurturing collectives of activist- compelling case for the a journal. SB put a major stress on persuaders who are able to contrib- workers self-management of pro- ute to real resistance movements continued relevance of duction (autogestion) and cham- while also increasing the quantity socialist politics pioned the Hungarian workers’ and quality of organized socialist uprising of 1956 against Stalin- forces. Meaningful socialist groups ism. By the late 1960s, however, must be able, therefore, to help strengthen anti-capitalist re- the group ceased functioning entirely. Nevertheless, many of sistance and make a compelling case for the continued rel- SB’s political ideas had a major impact on youth radicals of evance of socialist politics. 1968. To do both of these things means to think and act histori- The Situationist International (SI) too was an extremely cally toward the future. It means discerning elements of the small group with a bizarre and unpleasant internal regime. future within the present and integrating them into a social- The Situationists were less interested in workers’ experience ist politics that speaks to the next wave of mass struggles. It on the job than was SB. But they developed a powerful cri- means developing an anticipatory politics that anticipates the tique of alienated existence in modern capitalism – a critique direction of emerging struggles, rather than summarizing of everyday life – that was indebted to the Surrealist move- the “lessons” of past mobilizations. ment of the 1930s and ‘40s. They argued that workers in de- If we think about the mass movements in France in May veloped capitalist countries were still poor – in psychological, and early June 1968 we get some sense of what this means. cultural and social terms – because their time at work and

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 29 outside work was controlled by the alienating powers of capital and consumer culture. As student agitation grew throughout 1967, Situationist analyses became a major point of reference for radicalizing students. And in 1968, Situationist slogans could be found scrawled on walls or adorning posters throughout France. Because each of these groups developed crucial rad- ical ideas – self-management in the case of the SB and a sweeping critique of alienated life in late capitalism in the case of the SI – they were able to have a pow- erful influence on a major political upheaval, despite their small size. Many of their ideas with respect to self-management and their sharply anti-bureaucratic sentiments helped shape the assembly-style democracy practiced by students at occupied universities and the practices of self-management that influenced workers occupying their factories. Ultimately, neither group was able to contribute to the building of large, sustained movements and orga- Mayday, Windsor, Ontario, 1935: Socialist organizations had nizations of a New Left, particularly in the aftermath real weight within the working class movement. of ‘68 – in significant measure because each failed to develop practices of democratic and collective movement- which activists are addressing the interrelationships between building activity. struggles against capitalism and movements for indigenous Yet, notwithstanding these major failings, their work of self-determination. anticipating the future politics of the left indicates one of In Brazil, over a somewhat longer period, one of the the major tasks that confront small revolutionary socialist most significant social movements in the world, the Land- groups: the development of an imaginative socialist vision less Workers Movement (or MST according to its Portu- that captures some of the tendencies of the future and crys- guese initials), has settled about half a million people on land tallizes them theoretically and practically for the next wave seized through militant occupations. On their settlements, of political radicalization. MST activist struggle to build cooperative social relations Of course, 1968 holds no more magical lessons than does that challenge class and gender hierarchies and nurture an 1917 or 1936. Recent struggles in France, for instance, have anti-capitalist worldview. Like movements in Bolivia, the had a much more considerable presence of workers and MST is experimenting with forms of militant and demo- youth of colour at their forefront than was the case in 1968. cratic mass organizing. The purpose of looking at 1968 is twofold. First, it represents A relevant socialism – a socialism for the 21st century as it the last mass popular upheaval in a capitalistically developed has come to be known in Venezuela – will need to learn from society. And, second, it suggests some of the things (but by the powerful, liberatory impulses that run through these Bo- no means all) that small radical groups might do to prepare livian and Brazilian struggles. It will need to project a social- the freedom dreams that can inform and inspire new waves ism that, much more thoroughly than in the past, genuinely of revolutionary struggle. But what we learn in these regards integrates anti-racism and feminism into its class politics. will have to be remixed through the living currents of today’s It will need to champion sexual liberation, a revolution in struggles. everyday life, and a new ecosocialism. Without such an emancipatory outlook, one that provides Th e Fu t u r e i n T o d a y ’s Pr e s e n t inspiration for the long haul while also informing strategies Bolivia and Brazil are probably two of the key places to- and tactics of resistance in the here-and-now, socialist poli- day where we can catch glimpses of the next wave of mass tics are not likely to be vibrant and sustainable. Yes, socialist struggle. In Bolivia, a cycle of revolt emerged in 2000 that organizing is damned hard, persistent work much of the time. has seen combined indigenous-worker-peasant uprisings But it must also be uplifting and celebratory. It must inspire that have toppled governments, blocked water privatization and build new solidarities. It must, in short, join hard-nosed in one city, produced new mass popular organizations, and realism to a lively utopian imagination. mobilized against multinationals in the oil and gas indus- In that direction lies hope, rather than retreat or tries. A new Marxist-indigenous dialogue has emerged in denial. 

30 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 Union activism today by Alex Levant It is not surprising that many working people, including many radical activists, see into how management runs the work- today’s unions as largely irrelevant, bloated bureaucracies. The vast majority of rank- place. In response to a wave of labour and-file members are experiencing an unprecedented disconnection from their militancy during and immediately af- unions. Relegated to the role of spectators in an ongoing dispute between company ter World War II, the bosses reluctantly bosses and top union officials, or of foot soldiers mobilized and demobilized by their shifted their approach from confronting union leaderships, very few union members experience their unions as more than a the labour movement to co-opting it. service agency that sometimes advocates on their behalf in exchange for their dues. This change in strategy came in the form of legislation that forced the bosses Radical activists are similarly disconnected from today’s unions. They tend to and unions to play by certain rules, which experience unions as massive, stationary organizations that from time to time determined how to form a union, how contribute funds or fiery rhetoric to various social struggles, but which usually work to resolve on-the-job disputes, the rules to put the brakes on these struggles when they gather enough momentum to exceed of collective bargaining, and most other their control. As a result of such bitter experiences, few radical activists put their aspects of labour relations. Strikes were efforts into the union movement today, or even see the potential of that movement legal only during contract negotiations to contribute to social transformation. (and some workers continue to be ex- Nevertheless, union activism remains an important avenue for social change today. cluded even from this right).While pre- This article offers some ideas on what such activism might look like. viously unions had to strike to force the bosses to the bargaining table, now they had to follow the legal process to form Am b i v a l e n t Ro l e i n St r u g g l e This ambiguity stems in part from a union and use the law to compel the There is little consensus among the gi- the fact that unions occupy a contradic- bosses to negotiate. Furthermore, they no ants of classical Marxism on what role tory position: on the one hand they act longer had to convince union members to the union plays in the struggle for social as a barrier to profit-making, but on the transformation. For instance, Karl Marx other they are an important component and Friedrich Engels were optimistic of maintaining existing property rela- Unions tend to defend the that unions helped develop workers’ class tions. In fact, unions tend to defend the capitalist organization of awareness. Vladimir Lenin, on the other capitalist organization of production at hand, was much more pessimistic toward the same time as they seek to mitigate production at the same time as the potential of unions to foster a revo- some of its worst consequences. In this lutionary consciousness, and famously way, they are simultaneously a part of and they seek to mitigate some of argued that such a perspective could only against capitalism. its worst consequences be brought in “from the outside” of the As a result, unions have a chequered union movement (by a political party). past when it comes to social struggles. Rosa Luxemburg likewise criticized the On the one hand, they have been on the pay dues once the law required employers best-organized unions of her day for front lines of a broad range of struggles, to automatically deduct dues payments stifling the development of the workers’ by far exceeding the immediate economic from the paycheques of all workers cov- movement in the context of the “spon- demands of their members; on the other, ered by union contracts. taneous” (self-organized) wave of gen- union leaderships have often acted di- The labour movement had won legal eral strikes that swept across Russia in rectly against some of the most commit- and financial stability, but at an enor- 1905. Similarly, Antonio Gramsci noted ted and effective activists, organizations mous long-term cost. As class war be- that unions often acted as a barrier to the and movements. This ambivalent history came transformed into labour relations, emergence and development of factory of the union movement can be disorient- fighting the bosses began to require spe- councils, which exceeded the objectives ing for radical activists. cialized knowledge, which most union members lacked. As a result, a new layer of unions by organizing workers to oc- Th e Ca n a d i a n Sc e n e cupy and self-manage their workplaces. of union officials emerged in the form of While the formation of a union in a labour lawyers and hired staff, whose job Alex Levant is a politically deskilled rank-and- given workplace continues to be the big- was to fight the bosses on the workers’ file member of two unions and an editorial gest headache of the bosses, the union behalf. Workers became reliant on them associate of New Socialist. movement has largely been incorporated to fight for their rights within the legal

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 31 Unions possess a great power that usually remains untapped. th e U n io

Militant US autoworkers form Soldiers of Solidarity network, 2005. : Fu t u r e of : P hoto

framework of labour relations. To be clear, I am not suggesting that unions continue to pose the greatest The disconnection that most union a radical working class is being con- obstacle to the bosses. After failing to members experience from their unions is tained here, but that the infrastructure eliminate this threat, the bosses have in large part a result of the form that the of containment acts as a barrier to the opted to contain it and to subvert it. labour movement assumed in the wake of development of an empowered work- To grasp the importance of unions, the postwar compromise. To ensure com- ing class. To the extent that they limit we need to distinguish between their pliance with this class truce, elected of- the development of members’ capacities current form and their unrealized po- ficials became legally required to prevent for collective self-activity, unions serve tential. Above all, the labour movement their members from directly participating the long-term interests of the bosses as is not simply there to be embraced or in the struggle, a role that they tended to an important part of the current infra- denounced, but is a key site of struggle assume with a disturbing amount of en- structure of containment. for both workers and bosses. Abstain- thusiasm. In this way, unions became part ing from activism in unions plays right Ac t i v i s m o f Ra d i c a l s i n Un i o n s ? of the infrastructure of containment. into the hands of the bosses, who use Alan Sears has argued about the im- This criticism is in no way intended them to help incorporate unionized portance of the infrastructure of dissent to encourage radicals to give up on the workers into capitalist society. “through which oppressed and exploited Radical activists must be active in groups developed their capacities to act labour movement. Despite their cur- today’s unions for the following rea- in the world …[and] has included every- rent state, even today’s unions offer sons. First, as mass workers’ organiza- thing from informal networks in neigh- many opportunities for activists to do tions, unions offer the best opportunity bourhoods and workplaces through to significant work on a variety of issues. for radicals to connect with working formal social and political organizations” In fact, the best union activists make (see his article in New Socialist 61 avail- the most of these spaces and push the people. This connection is vital for ac- able at www. newsocialist.org). Borrow- labour movement beyond its limited tivists who see social transformation ing and inverting his concept, one can objectives and methods. as a process that must be set in motion also identify an infrastructure of contain- Unions possess a great power that and carried through by these very peo- ment – formal and informal networks usually remains untapped. Because they ple themselves, rather than a small sect and organizations which foster practices are structurally positioned at the point of radicals. that weaken our capacities, consciousness of production and because they are the The role of activists must then be and unity. only mass workers’ organizations today, to reform unions into organizations

32 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 that help to politically re-skill their members – developing their capacities Is culture our weapon? to work together, to think beyond the horizon of the bosses’ world of possi- by Daniel Serge bilities, to make them capable of taking on the bosses. Rather than being part ainstream politics often seems irrelevant to changing the world, just like an- of the infrastructure of containment, Mother TV show. Mainstream culture helps keep politics irrelevant. The media these unions would become part of the is saturated with celebrity culture, and when politics is portrayed, like in the U.S. infrastructure of dissent. presidential race, it morphs into a celebrity contest, with commentary on candidates’ Wh a t W o u l d T h i s Lo o k Li k e ? dress habits, past indiscretions, and insult-trading, not real issues. It’s tempting to ignore it all. But people watch the news and reality TV, and if we want to change Transforming unions into organi- the world we have to start with where we are, not where we want them to be. We zations that politically re-skill their need to, as the old Leninist saying goes, “be as radical as reality itself.” Can culture members is a more difficult task than be a tool that helps us reveal what’s really going on? Can we create our own cultural winning elected union office. While forms, or should we try to use the mainstream? this approach can be fruitful to advance certain projects or areas of activism, it is Cu l t u r e a n d Co n f l i c t largely a dead end if the goal is to make Some say culture is a useful tool, but it needs reshaping. German left-wing play- union power a reality. wright Bertolt Brecht thought popular entertainment pacified people, by posing Rather than simply becoming part a conflict that gets resolved easily. Audiences learn to empathize with heroes and of the official leadership, activists must expect a tension release at the end – for example, movies The Matrix and V for Ven- challenge the relationship between detta feature revolutionaries triumphing over evil governments. Brecht called this leaders and rank-and-file members. “spiritual dope traffic”: “the greater the grip on the audience’s nerves, the less chance Above all, this means building an ac- there was of it learning.” So he tried to create a conflict and not resolve it. The viewer tivist base within the union, and on would be upset, agitated and forced to confront that conflict in real life. the strength of this base, fighting for In real life, there often is no happy ending. There are so many unresolved con- structural reform that facilitates mem- flicts – strikes, wars, oppressions – to portray. However, if these conflicts are also bership involvement by improving de- going largely unchallenged in real life, then the viewer has no way to fight to win, mocracy and transparency. Challenging and left wing stories can be demobilizing. Rather than firing us up, the examination existing leaders for their positions must of the world as it is can just leave us overwhelmed. Ken Loach’s films likeMy Name be part of this overall effort, but when Is Joe and Sweet Sixteen portray working class people trying to escape their misery, there is no activist base committed to and failing miserably. The lesson is that individual solutions to class exploitation this project even the best activists tend always fail – but how many of us have access to a fighting socialist movement? to become part of the bureaucracy that Loach’s heroes certainly don’t. they seek to transform. Central to this project is challeng- ing all the barriers to the participation of members, which means serious and ongoing equity work in terms of how the union functions, its understanding of its place among other social move- ments, and the scope and nature of its bargaining demands. Union activism today must be ori- ented on reintegrating rank-and-file members into the life of the union. This would not only empower the union to negotiate much stronger collective agree- ments, but would also help to politically reskill working people to think, dream and fight for that which lies ­beyond the Daniel Serge has never been held down by the Man horizon of possibilities today. 

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 33 Re d Ro m a n t i c Co m e d y ? love can’t conquer all in a racist society. ronic hipsters who trivialize issues they’re But is the mainstream alternative keep- These are attempts to humanize struggle too complacent to understand. But even ing us complacent? Is there a way to create – something Brecht rejected bitterly, but Brooker made the show slick – and very characters audiences like, and even heroes that imitate the narrative forms those of funny – to get his point across. audiences can relate to, while suggesting us saturated by Western media are used The problem with the dumbing-down they can still contribute to struggle? For to, and thus have a chance for wider ex- thesis is that it ignores how a media- example, can there be a romantic comedy posure. savvy younger generation is able to filter about socialism? Ken Loach’s Bread & and comprehend messages in new ways. Du m b i n g Do w n ? Roses comes close, portraying the bud- Comedians like Ricky Gervais, creator ding romance between a union organizer For many leftists, appeals to a wider of clueless office manager David Brent and worker in the L.A. Justice For Jani- audience seem like dumbing-down. “Sell- from The Office, and Sasha Baron Cohen, tors campaign. His 2004 A Fond Kiss is ing out” is a constant threat for any musi- creator of rabid sexist and anti-Semite another romance, as Casim, a Pakistani cal subculture that courts mass appeal: for Borat, suggest that offensive, stupid char- Muslim man and Roisin, an Irish wom- many in the punk and hardcore scenes, acters are funny because people already an, try to date in the tense racial environ- a lifestyle of do-it-yourself production know they’re offensive. Audiences are so- ment of modern Glasgow. Casim’s family and promotion is just as important as the phisticated enough not to take their jokes pressures him into an arranged marriage, music itself. British cultural critic Charlie at face value: the fact that Borat’s sexism and while Roisin has trouble understand- Brooker bemoans “the rise of the idiots” and homophobia make us uncomfort- ing the racism that forces his community and devoted a 2005 TV series, Nathan able show that social prohibitions around inward, she faces discrimination of her Barley, to the consequences of a mass those behaviours are already there. The own. Loach’s message is anti-romantic: audience for culture: the creation of mo- Right is losing the war on political cor- rectness – hence its insistence that Holly- wood is pro-sex and anti-family, and the attempt by Christian companies to create popular entertainment through films like Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, as well as a huge network of music and TV pro- ductions. The dumbing-down thesis ignores that people do have ideas of their own, and re- spond to media putting across new mes- sages in creative, fashionable ways because capitalism creates its own contradictions. The underlying fear of the cultural avant- garde – that we’re all sheep – can never be true, because it takes a high degree of sophistication to manage the contradic- tions of work, reproduce ourselves so we can keep working, and steal some real life back from the boss. That process is pain- ful, and it raises questions socialists can answer – if we’re willing to talk the right language.

Ra d i c a l Cu l t u r e

So does that mean we are seeking so- cialist art? Or do radicals who want to change the world celebrate all culture that touches people and helps them navigate the world? We don’t know how viewers will receive culture, and trying to guaran- tee that in advance has an ignoble history of propaganda. As Trotsky argues, “revo- lutionary art which inevitably reflects all

34 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 The dumbing-down Arrested Development poked fun at the not enough for activism. As Brecht ar- racism and corruption of the idle rich. gues, “How is [a poet] to show the ex- thesis ignores that The Wire, a cop show based in Baltimore, ceedingly complicated machinery within people do have ideas of is a critical take on the “war on drugs,” which the struggle for power nowadays which the producer describes as “a trea- takes place? If his hero is a politician, how their own and respond tise on the end of the American empire.” do politics work? If he is a business man, The Wire’s producer, David Simon, makes how does business work? . . . [Poets] are to media putting across no apologies for using TV with its narra- scarcely likely to learn enough by going new messages in creative, tive conventions: “we’ve treated television round and keeping their eyes open.” Art as if it’s not a mass medium and we have can be a way to express politics; but poli- fashionable ways because been rewarded in kind.” If we don’t at- tics requires learning about history, eco- tempt interventions, we abandon media nomics and other subjects that don’t al- capitalism creates its to the banal. Mass culture is not just a ways fit in an artistic form. We still need own contradictions monolith: it can be a site of struggle. to struggle and to study. As socialists we will never have control Th e La s t W o r d over the means of artistic production, nor should we. Culture is broader than our But culture can be more than a tool for the contradictions of a revolutionary so- politics; however, when radical art gets others – it can be our own tool, to sustain cial system, should not be confused with made, it can be a reflection of ongoing and nurture our politics. The memory of Socialist art for which no basis has as yet struggles. Artists can be allies of social- the working class isn’t just handed down been made.” Trotsky was fighting a rear- ism, because socialism creates the pos- by non-fiction books. It’s preserved in our guard action against Stalinist “socialist sibility of genuine aesthetic experimen- side’s art, and even in our side’s sense of realism” – a movement that dictated art tation, freed from class exploitation. As humour: the satire that gives us a sense must show an idealized vision of com- Trotsky writes, under socialism, “there that we’re in it together. The last word munist society, complete with happy pro- will be the struggle for one’s opinion, for goes to Jarvis Cocker, ex-frontman of the letarians shoveling coal and driving trac- one’s project, for one’s taste.” Being able Britpop band Pulp, who sang these words tors. Trotsky insisted that art must reflect to create art you like is, in fact, revolu- about the leaders of the G8: “You say that class antagonisms, not pretend they’re tionary, if you have to create the condi- the cream will always rise to the top; well invisible. tions where that’s possible. I say, shit floats.” The struggle continues, However, radicals and progressives have This side of the revolution, art alone is and art can point the way.  had a lot of success creating an accessible, political art that, while not preaching a message, lays bare social conflict. Radi- cal blaxploitation films of the early 1970s used a formula-based genre to portray black nationalist struggle. Some African- American groups called blaxploitation racist, because white directors made films, such as Shaft, that played on stereotypes of ideas for radical change pimps and hustlers. But the genre began in 1971 with Melvin van Peebles’ psyche- Subscribe today delic portrayal of a black activist on the CanADA uS run from the police, in Sweet Sweetback’s 4 issues $20 $25 8 issues $35 (save $5) $45 (save $5) Baadasssss Song. Lesser-known examples, 12 issues $50 (save $10) $65 (save $10) like The Final Comedown and The Spook Supporting Add $20 Who Sat By the Door, are stories of upris- ings by black revolutionaries. Institutional & overseas international $40/year Though blaxploitation was notorious for its sexism, movies like Willie Dyna- ALL PRICES IN CANADIAN DOLLARS mite showed prostitutes banding together SEND CHEQUES TO: New socialist to fight their pimp. Nineteen-eighties Box 167, 253 College Street sci-fi flicks like The Running Man and Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R5 Blade Runner warned about fascist cor- www.newsocialist.org porate rule. Mid-2000s TV shows like

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 35 The fight against global warming An Interview with Ecosocialist International Network founder Ia n A n g u s

The reports issued last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prove conclusively that climate change is real, that the pace of global warming is accelerating, and that it is caused by human activity. If greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced quickly, climate change will have catastrophic impacts on human, animal and plant life everywhere. An International Day of Climate Action was organized for December 8, midway through the climate talks in Bali, Indonesia. Demonstrations and other actions were held in some 70 countries, and in over 30 Canadian cities in ten provinces. For more information see these websites: • Stop Climate Chaos Coalition (Canada): www.climatechaos.ca • Climate Crisis Coalition (U.S.): www.climatecrisiscoalition.org • Global Climate Campaign (Britain and worldwide): www.globalclimatecampaign.org In many countries, the participants in these actions included supporters of the recently- formed Ecosocialist International Network (EIN). Socialist Voice Managing Editor Ian Angus is a founder and coordinating committee member of the EIN. He also edits the web journal Climate and Capitalism (www.climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com). Ian was interviewed by the Greek socialist newspaper Kokkino (Red).

Let’s begin with a large question ing class as the engine of social change. – what is ecosocialism? Finally, ecosocialism is an anti-capital- Ecosocialism has grown out of two paral- ist movement that varies a great deal from lel political trends – the spread of Marx- place to place. In the imperialist countries, ist ideas in the green movement and the it is a current within existing socialist and spread of ecological ideas in the Marxist green-left movements, seeking to win A recent letter from Evo Morales to left. The result is a set of social and politi- ecology activists to socialism and to con- the United Nations illustrates that point cal goals, a growing body of ideas, and a vince socialists of the vital importance of and another – that in the fight to save the global movement. ecological issues and struggles. We might earth, a vanguard role is being played by Ecosocialism’s goal is to replace capi- say that in the global North ecosocial- indigenous peoples. As Morales said: talism with a society in which common ism today focuses on making the Greens “[W]e – the indigenous peoples and ownership of the means of production more Red and the Reds more Green. humble and honest inhabitants of this has replaced capitalist ownership, and in In the Third World, by contrast, global planet – believe that the time has come which the preservation and restoration of warming is already a matter of life and to put a stop to this, in order to rediscover ecosystems will be central to all activity. death. People there are fighting environ- our roots, with respect for Mother Earth; As a body of ideas, ecosocialism argues mental destruction – and the environ- with the Pachamama as we call it in the that ecological destruction is not an ac- mental destroyers – on a daily basis. The Andes. Today, the indigenous peoples of cidental feature of capitalism, it is built fights take many forms, including land Latin America and the world have been into the system’s DNA. The system’s in- occupations, road blockades, and sabo- called upon by history to convert our- satiable need to increase profits – what’s tage, as well as more traditional actions selves into the vanguard of the struggle been called “the ecological tyranny of the such as petitions, rallies, demonstrations. to defend nature and life.” bottom line” – cannot be reformed away. Such protests occur daily in dozens of And he suggested a global political or- With that said, it is important to real- countries. ganization to combat global warming: ize ecosocialist thought is not monolithic What we see there is a growing mass “We need to create a World Environ- – it embodies many different views about pro-ecology movement that incorporates ment Organization which is binding, and theory and practice. For example, there socialist ideas – that’s especially true in which can discipline the World Trade is an ongoing debate about the view, ad- Latin America, where anti-imperialist Organization, which is propelling us to- vanced by some ecosocialist writers, that governments headed by Evo Morales in wards barbarism.” social movements have replaced the work- Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Raul Castro in Cuba, are pressing for That’s not just a clever turn of phrase. Adapted from Socialist Voice (www. strong anti-capitalist, pro-environment In that one sentence, Morales says that socialistvoice.ca), December 3, 2007. measures. the environment must be given legal pri-

36 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 ority over capitalist profits and the neo- ians – we’ve seen that happen to many mitigation program from any major capi- liberal policies that protect them. That’s individuals and groups over the years. talist country. a profound idea that the left worldwide Just as Marx and Engels studied and Scientists say that if the average tem- should adopt and defend. adopted ideas from the scientists of their perature rises more than 2 degrees, dan- day – Liebig on soil fertility, Morgan on gerous climate change becomes very What is the Ecosocialist International early societies, Darwin on evolution, and probable. There is no sign that any of the Network? many others – so Marxists today must industrialized countries will implement The Ecosocialist International Network learn from today’s scientists, especially measures sufficient to stop such atem- was formed in October 2007, at a meet- about the biggest issues of the day. Eco- perature increase – anything they do will ing in Paris that was attended by ecoso- socialism aims to do just that. be too little, too late. cialists from 13 countries. Its main goals But if we do not succeed in bringing Can capitalism solve global warming? this system to an end, capitalism will are to improve communication and coor- undoubtedly adapt to the new climate. dination among ecosocialists worldwide, That depends on what you mean by It will do what capitalism always does and to organize a major ecosocialist con- “solve.” Dealing with global warming – it will impose the greatest burdens on ference in Brazil in January 2009, in con- includes two components – mitigation the most vulnerable, on poor people and junction with the World Social Forum. and adaptation. Mitigation means re- poor nations. Climate refugees will mul- The EIN is a very loose and open or- ducing greenhouse gas emissions so that tiply and millions will die. The imperialist ganization. Its only organizational struc- global warming slows down and eventu- powers will fight against the global South, ture is a steering committee to plan the ally reverses. Adaptation means making and amongst themselves, to control the Brazil conference. Anyone who supports changes that will enable people to survive world’s resources, including not just fuel the broad goals of the ecosocialism is in a world where some climate change is but also food and other essentials. The welcome to participate – more informa- inevitable, and where climate chaos is in- most barbaric forms of capitalism will in- tion is available on our website (see www. creasingly likely. tensify and spread. ecosocialistnetwork.org). In my opinion, capitalism’s insatiable In short – yes, capitalism can “solve” need for growth, combined with its mas- global warming, but a capitalist solution How do you respond to socialists who sive dependence on fossil fuels as the will be catastrophic for the great majority argue that there is no need for specifi- dominant energy source, means that it is of the world’s people.  cally “ecosocialist” ideas or activity? very unlikely that we will see an effective In a certain sense they are correct. Marx- ism embodies a wealth of profound ecological thought, far more than many green activists realize. But while concern for ecology was a fundamental part of Marx’s thought, and the Bolsheviks were certainly aware of the issue, the sad fact is that the Marxist left ignored this issue for many decades. It’s important to correct that – and to do so publicly and explicitly. Using the word “ecosocialism” is a way of signalling loud and clear that we

consider climate change not just as an- cit y of other stick to bash capitalism with, but as a critically important issue, one of the toro n to principal problems facing humanity in this century.

But there is more involved. Marxism archi ve s is not a fixed set of eternal truths – it is a living body of thought, a method of understanding society and a tool for so- cial change. Socialists whose views don’t Toronto’s Yonge Street subway line under construction in 1949. Transit in evolve to incorporate new social and sci- many cities is inadequate. When will we see a proper investment of funds entific insights become irrelevant sectar- for sustainable public transit?

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 37 Global justice – against imperialism By Deborah Simmons with Salim Vally

onquest and empire-building did not enter the world stage with the adventC of capitalism. But capitalism did I ll u strat e d L o n do N ws , June 1842 change the nature of empire in important ways. Whereas earlier systems mainly in- volved extraction of wealth from foreign lands and peoples, capitalist empires re- quired that people be completely dispos- sessed of their territory. In response, new forms of resistance were adopted that became an inspiration for some early socialists. Where imperi- alism pitted sections of an increasingly globalized working class against each other, socialists raised the banner of in- Inhabitants of Galway, Ireland, attack a government potato ternationalism. And now, as the brutality store in response to local food shortages. of war in the Middle East and the misery of poverty and disease in so-called “post- colonial” states of Africa and elsewhere to survive, often forced into indentured pand beyond the borders of impoverished continue to haunt us, it is critical that the servitude. Karl Marx described this as “a Russia and gain international support to socialist vision for a world without em- quiet, business-like extinction.” survive. The Bolsheviks saw national lib- pire be renewed. Yet this disaster stimulated the de- eration struggles as an integral part of The earliest systematic experiment in velopment of a radical Irish national- the world revolution they fought for. The capitalist empire was the mass expropria- ist movement of peasants and workers. Russian empire itself was “a prison house tion of peasant lands in Ireland by the Situated in England, Marx and Freder- of nations,” and, at first, the Bolsheviks English in the 1600s. Peasants were re- ick Engels were deeply inspired by the supported the right to self-determination duced to tenant farmers on tiny patches revolutionary energy of the Irish. In the of the various nations within it. But the of land, forced to grow a monoculture words of a young Engels, “Give me two bureaucratic counter-revolution headed crop of potatoes for subsistence. A sys- hundred thousand Irishmen, and I could by Stalin led to the renewed Russian tematically anti-Catholic and racist ide- overthrow the entire British monarchy.” domination of nations of the former tsar- ology was nurtured by the English rul- Support for the right of Ireland to de- ist empire. The foreign policy of the Union ing class to justify their dominance – the termine its own future, and solidarity of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was Irish were referred to in the English press between English and Irish workers, were geared to the state interests of its ruling as “white negroes.” viewed by these early socialists to be dual bureaucracy, not revolutionary interna- The already hungry Irish population conditions for successful revolution. tionalism. Following World War II, new anti- was devastated by the potato famine of Pr i s o n Ho u s e o f Na t i o n s the late 1840s. Countless thousands died colonial movements emerged, providing while food continued to be exported. Anti-colonial movements continued important glimpses into the possibili- Over half a million people were evicted to inspire and be inspired by socialists as ties for socialist transformation. The rise from their paltry lands and replaced by al- imperialism expanded and evolved. Dur- of radical pan-Africanism informed the most double that number of cattle. More ing the First World War, Russian Marx- development of the so-called New Left than one million people were forced to ist V.I. Lenin took considerable pains to around the world, cutting against some of emigrate to England and its colonies develop an analysis of imperialism in the the social democratic and Stalinist ideas era of monopoly capital. that had come to dominate social move- Deborah Simmons is an editor of New Socialist. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, ments. In Algeria, Frantz Fanon exposed Salim Vally is a visiting scholar at York University, Lenin and his political party, the Bolshe- the contradictions of successful radical and a social movement activist in South Africa. viks, argued that the revolution had to ex- nationalist movements that merely took

38 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 the reins of the colonial capitalist state. In sistance. In North America and Europe, tries is part of a global capitalist system. Arab countries, radical anti-colonial ideas the chickens came home to roost in 1999 Now US imperialism is facing new also began to spread across state borders. when mass protests in Seattle shut down challenges: the decline of the dollar, the the Millennium Round meetings of the bursting of the housing bubble, the rise “Ya n k e e Go Ho m e !” World Trade Organization. In the words of competing economic powers (China As resistance made colonial rule more of activist Vicki Larson, “The spirit that and the European Union), and the high costly, one by one, the European colonial makes revolution possible was strong on economic and political costs of intermi- powers were forced to give up direct con- the streets of Seattle.” nable warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq. trol of their colonies. The United States Seattle marked the emergence within This weakness might exacerbate inter- of America (US) and the USSR came to the advanced capitalist countries of what imperialist rivalries and instability, giv- dominate the world stage as competing became known as the global justice move- ing rise to more of the kind of “clashes of forces. The US used the battle against ment. It was followed by a series of mass barbarisms” that characterize the current “communism” as a pretext to wage bloody mobilizations in the US, Australia, Europe confrontations between religious-fanatic warfare against national liberation strug- and the Canadian state. The young activ- terrorists and Western imperialism. gles in numerous countries, especially in ists leading the global justice movement A small number of activists are now Asia and Latin America. took an increasingly anti-capitalist turn. attempting to revitalize the forms of The international conflicts over empire Despite its internationalism, the move- solidarity that helped win the defeat of were paralleled by mounting resistance ment did not have a clear understanding the US in Vietnam and elsewhere in the and state repression at home within the of imperialism. This weakened its ability 1970s, and the defeat of South African imperialist countries of North America to adjust to the more difficult political apartheid. Voices of opposition to war in and Europe. The anti-Vietnam war move- conditions created by the repressive state the Middle East are a small spark of hope, ment, Black Power movement and labour response to the terrorist attacks in the US as is the growing international movement movements all gained momentum dur- on September 11, 2001 and the renewed in solidarity with Palestine. ing the late 1960s, with inspiration from aggression of US imperialism. But as in those early days of radical anti-colonial struggles elsewhere. The This has not deterred anti-imperial- Irish resistance, it is the mass mobiliza- struggle of the people of Vietnam against ist struggles in places like Bolivia, Ven- tion of those directly oppressed by impe- the US also influenced the women’s and ezuela and countries of the Middle East. rialism that is the real beacon of hope for gay and lesbian movements. However, with the exception of some socialists. In fighting for national libera- Yet the revolutionary hopes raised grassroots movements in Latin America, tion these rebels are establishing labora- by these movements were eventually people’s aspirations tend to be limited to tories for revolution. It is this ongoing smashed. When the USSR collapsed in reducing the power of foreign capital and resistance elsewhere that challenges us to 1991, it seemed that the US empire and the grabbing of national resources, rather overcome the odds and renew the battle its neoliberal domination of global mar- than transforming the entire social sys- inside the imperialist countries — includ- kets had become an unstoppable force. tem. Missing is a clear analysis of how ing the Canadian state — for a vision of US academic Francis Fukuyama trim- domination of most of the world by a socialism in which internationalism and phantly declared that this moment was small number of rich and powerful coun- opposition to imperialism are central.  the “end of history.” At the same time, the credibility of the socialist project was called into question because of its asso- ciation with Stalinist “Communism.” The anti-Stalinist Left became marginalized, demoralized and fragmented. But in countries subjected to the US “free trade” agenda and the brutal auster-

ity programs imposed by the US-domi- photo : rob e rt nated World Bank and International Monetary Fund, anti-imperialist sen- timent was transmuted into struggles against the neoliberal agenda adopted by alliso n compliant local governments. In 1994, the Zapatistas of southern Mexico launched a rebellion against the North American Free Trade Agreement that was a cata- Protest against the siege of Gaza in Toronto, February 2008: part of the lyst for a new wave of international re- growing international movement against Israeli Apartheid.

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 39 LATIN AMERICA No easy road to victory by Phil Hearse

Much of today’s world bears the scars of the huge defeats suffered by the left and the international workers movement in the 1980s and ’90s – rampant privatization, the worsening of working conditions, the weakening of the labour movement and deepening wealth differentials. Although we can say there has been something of a rise of the left and militant struggle in the first decade of the new century, nowhere has this been so marked as in Latin America.

he fact that there is today in Vene- zuela a government that projects so- cialismT as the future, and the fact that in Bolivia the government comes from the Massive “Movement Towards Socialism” (MAS)

demonstrations n otm y trib e. com is of enormous ideological significance. were part of the Whatever the final outcome of this phase struggle that of struggle, the poor of Latin America rocked Oaxaca and the gigantic social movements they Mexico for have generated have given a substantive months in 2006. content to the slogan “another world is possible – socialism.” the “Latin American” left as an undiffer- savings in the financial crisis. Turmoil throughout the continent has entiated force. This is far from being true. Between December 2001 and July generated a new wave of strategic debate There are many Latin American lefts, 2002, the popular classes took over the about how to defeat the oligarchy and with a crucial divide between the moder- streets. Some commentators say four mil- imperialism – a debate that is rooted not ate “Centre Left,” which largely seeks an lion people took part in the movement, in in what appears to young people as the accommodation with neoliberalism, and an adult population of less than 30 mil- distant past (for example, Chile in the a militant left which wants to uproot it. lion. early 1970s or Central America in the Generally beneath the divisions is one Even right-wingers talked of a “pre- 1980s), but in real life alternatives in the simple question – is socialism and work- revolutionary situation,” and discussion here and now. ers’ power possible, or even thinkable, in was common of “dual power” between the However, recent experience shows that the modern world? Centre-left politi- state apparatus on the one hand and the no matter how big and militant the mass cians give the explicit or de facto answer piqueteros, neighbourhood assemblies movement, there are enormous obstacles “no.” And that inevitably leads to an ac- and the occupied factories on the other. to victory – not just tenacious resistance commodation with neoliberalism and The most popular slogan was Que from the local ruling classes, but also a to holding back, or even repressing, the se vayan todos! (Out with all the politi- “crisis of political representation” among mass movement. cians!). Yet 17 months later, over 65 the popular masses, which is only slowly per cent of the electorate voted and the being overcome. Ar g e n t i n a – Va n i s h e d Mo v e m e n t top two candidates were the victorious Mainstream commentators in Europe Between December 19 and 21, 2001, a Nestor Kirchner, from the (Peronist) Jus- and North America tend to talk about massive popular rebellion overthrew Ar- tice Party, and former President Carlos Phil Hearse is an editor of International gentinean president Fernando de la Rúa. Menem, the main culprit of the collapse Viewpoint and the editor of marxsite.com. This The uprising led to an unprecedented al- of the economy and the impoverishment is an edited version of a longer article written at the end of 2006. Although it does not discuss liance between the unemployed, under- of millions of Argentines. important developments since then, these only employed workers and a substantial sec- Now, only a shadow of the former confirm its analysis. tor of the middle class that had lost its movement remains. How can such a dra-

40 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 matic turnaround be explained? imposes pressures towards ideological 4 What are the key steps needed to The simple answer is that this huge accommodation and political excuses for make an anti-capitalist transition and mass movement, an incredible display of inexcusable facts. a break with the capitalist state and self-organization, had no unified vision imperialism? St r a t e g i c Pr o b l e m s f o r t h e Le f t of what measures to advocate. The most brilliantly self-organized The intensification of the political cri- Each of the countries of Latin Ameri- movement will not continue unless it has sis on the continent and the problems for ca is oppressed by imperialism. Each has a reason for existing. In Argentina, the the oligarchy was dramatized in 2006 by a super-rich ruling class, which is hand- power vacuum was obvious. But the Ar- the election of Evo Morales and the ad- in-hand with the imperialist bourgeoisie. gentinean workers and urban poor lacked vent of the Movement Towards Social- This has created some of the most un- a mass party-type formation to the left ism (MAS) government in Bolivia. equal societies on earth; in Mexico and of the Peronists. Such a formation could Also significant was the long hot sum- Brazil, the rich are rich by international not be improvised in the middle of a rela- mer of struggle in Mexico, which culmi- standards and the poor are poor by the tively short political crisis. nated in the giant mobilizations against same standards. the electoral fraud which installed Fe- The idea that there can be any kind of Br a z i l : Po l i t i c a l Co l l a p s e lipe Calderón of the ruling PAN (Na- “anti-imperialist alliance” with any sector o f t h e W o r k e r s Pa r t y tional Action Party) and robbed Man- of the ruling class whatsoever is tremen- In Brazil, the election to the presidency uel López Obrador of the left-of-centre dously far-fetched. To achieve real de- of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) of the PRD (Party of the Democratic Revo- mocracy and real national independence Workers Party (PT) in October 2002 lution. But the mobilizations failed to requires a complete break with imperial- created immense hopes and expectations achieve their objective and died down ism and the oligarchy. for radical reform, which have largely leaving Calderón to press ahead with a For example, for Bolivia to achieve real been disappointed. repressive agenda. national independence means really tak- Lula’s failure can be measured by one Each of these crises pose basic ques- ing control of its own resources, i.e., gas, simple fact. State spending in Brazil is tions of socialist strategy, which can be oil and of course water. That means in- around 14 percent of GDP, as opposed summarized as follows: roads into the rights of private property to nearly 50 per cent in France and 42 1 What is the nature of these societies – in other words, tasks of the socialist per cent in Britain. Brazil’s hyper-rich and their relationship with imperial- revolution. Equally, radical democracy at ruling class in one of the most unequal ism? a national level cannot be achieved other societies on earth refuses to pay any seri- 2 What is the nature of the ruling than by breaking the grip of the oligarchy, ous taxes. class? who ensure their control of the political This means that no serious health sys- 3 What is the character of the revolu- process by corruption and violence. Dem- tem, education system, social insurance tionary subject? What popular forces ocratic questions are directly interlinked infrastructure or welfare services can be might be mobilized into an alliance to with the issue of working-class power. created. Without the assets of the state, make a revolutionary breakthrough? The same considerations directly re- the poor stay poor. Lula has blown it, even if he just wanted to create a serious reforming government. This result was especially disappointing for much of the international left, which had seen the PT as a model of a united, democratic and pluralist movement to the left of both Stalinism and social de- mocracy. As the level of class struggle declined in Brazil in the 1990s, the PT and its an- alogue in the trade union movement, the lati n las ne t United Workers’ Confederation (CUT), moved to the right. Many activists be- came full-time functionaries in the trade . or g unions, the party itself or in the city and state local governments controlled by the PT. But when the movement is going to Indigenous activism has been an important part of the mobilization in the right, being a full-time functionary Bolivia for justice and against privitization

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 41 late to the land struggle, which is not just Th e Qu e s t i o n o f Po w e r and the solution to their problems will against local landlords but increasingly For the left, the decisive issue is how not be found outside of a radical redistri- against transnational capitalist corpora- to integrate all these questions – of de- bution of wealth, which means breaking tions. The fight against imperialism is one mocracy, land reform, destruction of the the power and wealth of the oligarchy. and the same as the struggle against the oligarchy, an end to economic robbery The narrow defeat of the referendum local oligarchy. by the elite and imperialism, the basics in Venezuela – which introduced many consititutional amendments – was a Revolutionary Su b j e c t of life for the urban poor and liberation for indigenous people and women – into setback. Some supporters of President The enormous growth of the cities, the a coherent overarching strategy for the Hugo Chávez may have stayed away to development of agribusiness and semi- popular masses to conquer power. avoid voting for the one amendment that industrialization in the major countries The “Centre-Left” forces like the PT would have increased presidential pow- has significantly changed the revolution- in Brazil, the Frente Amplio in Uruguay ers. Now the question becomes: will the ary subject. This is summed up in the and the PRD of Manuel López Obra- popular movement continue to press for- governmental slogan of nearly all of the dor in Mexico, obviously do not agree. ward or will it be held back by parts of Mexican militant left: Un gobierno obrero, For them it is about getting more justice the apparatus? campesino, indígena y popular(A workers’, within the system, and we have seen what In the context of a political polariza- peasants’, indigenous and popular gov- this means in Uruguay and Brazil: abject tion in which the entire bourgeoisie and ernment). This crystallizes what we can capitulation to neoliberalism. a big majority of the middle classes are expect a revolutionary alliance in most of against Chávez, this unstable equilibrium Latin America to be like. between the bourgeoisie and the masses, The urban poor are a vital part of the Venezuela is raising hope mediated by Chávez, cannot continue base of the Bolivarian movement in Ven- forever. With threats from the right and ezuela and of the mass movement which for another economic imperialism, the consolidation of popu- eventually brought Evo Morales and the model in Latin America lar committees into a national network MAS to power in Bolivia. The key de- of popular power is crucial. This would mands of these people revolve around the involve arming the popular sectors and basic questions of the provision of the es- This poses first a question and then a building a popular militia. sentials of life: clean water, proper hous- problem – that of class independence, In Bolivia, there were massive conflicts ing, sanitation, education and of course creating political parties of the popular over the now-stalled “nationalization” of freedom from violence and paternalistic masses led politically by the working oil and gas. The MAS is internally di- manipulation by the state, i.e., democracy. class, independent of bourgeois national- vided. The government has stumbled and A new and positive feature of the ist and populist forces. made important concessions to the right. Latin American movement has been the Building a broad class struggle party But the right remains intransigent and emergence of indigenous movements, on a national basis is a task which Sub- has sought to block the work and under- the most well-known example being the commandante Marcos and the Zapatis- mine the legitimacy of the Constituent Zapatistas in Mexico and sections of the tas have avoided confronting. However, Assembly. Recently, four resource rich movement in Bolivia. the “Other Campaign” – a bold and auda- provinces, known as the Media Luna, Two central issues cannot be avoided by cious attempt to move out of their Chi- have unilaterally sought to declare au- the Latin American left: machismo, and its apas mountain redoubts and unify the tonomy. The MAS has tried to mobilize opposite, women’s liberation. While the Mexican social movements – indicates a against this threat and, despite the limita- leaders of the social movements in the renewed strategic thinking. tions of its agenda, popular sectors have barrios are disproportionately women, How is the idea of the popular masses responded. the violence against and super-exploita- taking state power relevant to develop- Morales and his team will have to tion of women on the most machista of ments in Venezuela and Bolivia? In Ven- make their choice between the oligarchy continents is incredible; from the daily ezuela the bourgeoisie have lost, or par- and imperialism on the one hand and the subjugation of women as the most ex- tially lost, control of the government but self-organized masses on the other. ploited workers in an often suffocating are still the economic ruling class. Today the centre of attention is Ven- paternalistic family to the ghastly mass On the other hand, there has been tre- ezuela, where the popular forces have not murder of women in Guatemala. A more mendous development of popular self- been defeated. Venezuela is raising hope stable integration of women’s liberation organization from below in the barrios for another economic model in Latin into the strategy of the Latin American and in the countryside. Substantial social America. But the question of power has left would unleash tremendous new forc- progress has been made through the social not been resolved and a race is underway es and energies into the struggle. missions, funded by oil revenues. How- between revolution and counter-revolu- ever the poor remain legion in Venezuela tion. 

42 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 Book review Is it really that shocking? The Shock Doctrine: The on psychiatric patients with a co- Rise of Disaster Capitalism ordinated strategy of disciplining By Naomi Klein workers and populations around the world toward a new phase of Alfred A. Knopf Canada growth based on the destruction of the Keynesian post-war com- Review by Toby Moorsom promise. The outcome has been a form of “If money, according to Augier, comes into the capitalism that traumatizes popu- world with a congenital blood-stain on one lations into submission through cheek, capital comes dripping from head to numerous forms of manufactured foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.” crisis, causing massive displace- Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1 ment and impoverishment. This new capitalism allows a wide- The scope and tenacity of ­analysis ranging extension of the market in The Shock Doctrine clearly establishes into the terrain of the capitalist Naomi Klein as a left intellectual to be state. In particular, it has seen the taken seriously, especially given that privatization of those parts of the it comes at a time when the left is in a state that both create and respond near complete state of retreat. The book’s to crises. Thus, we see a cycle of greatest strength is that it brings together profit supporting a self-referen- a history of neoliberalism for a popular tial and increasingly consolidated audience. Most importantly, it accurate- group of rich and powerful figures ly reveals how neoliberal economics are that benefit from calamities and part of a counter-revolutionary strat- state terror. a vast crusade in which the Friedman-in- egy against working class victories of the spired ideology of neoliberalism rose to Th e My t h post-war era. Nevertheless, its historical prominence. Neoliberal ideas served as myopia and theoretical weaknesses are The capitalist Shock Doctrine is based a justification for a “counter-revolution- frustrating. on a myth that people and societies that ary” backlash against post-war Keynesian economics and the rise in workers power Ma r k e t Fundamentali s m are uninterested in conforming to capital- ist demands of self-interest can be healed associated with the worldwide anti-colo- Klein’s central argument is that the by a combination of sensory overload, nial, civil rights and socialist struggles of market fundamentalism, which came to sensory deprivation, isolation and electri- the 1960s. be known as neoliberalism, represents a cal shock. The desired outcome is a state Keynesian economics rest, in part, on new phase of capitalist accumulation de- of confusion in which memory is lost and the notion that governments can stimu- fined by its close association with human a new personality can be imposed upon a late an economy in recession by investing disaster. This phase is not an unravelling blank slate. in public works and preventing capital of coincidences, but a product of plan- Not only are these the assumptions be- flight through trade barriers. It also as- ning, often involving the most grotesque hind the CIA-funded research of former serts that workers need to gain some ben- criminal behaviour among an elite that is McGill professor Dr. Ewen Cameron, efits from capitalism in order for them to portrayed by its own corporate media as but they are also the assumptions behind provide markets for capitalist consump- intelligent and heroic. the economic theory of Milton Fried- tion. More importantly, by ensuring their Klein follows the parallel formation man and the economics department at interests are aligned with the system, they of research into electroshock “therapy” the University of Chicago. Klein reveals are less likely to swing toward socialism or fascism. (In practice, the beneficiaries Toby Moorsom is a graduate student in history at Queen’s University in Kingston – a university of Keynesian economic policies tended to established by the victors and collaborators in the process of clearing the Scottish Highlands. He is be white males, while women and people grateful to Richard Banner and Harold Lavender for significant editorial assistance. of colour continued to be excluded.)

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 43 Ma r k e t Di s t o r t i o n s ?

Friedman argued that neoliberal poli- cies create distortions in the market, which, if left alone, would “naturally” al- locate resources in an efficient manner. Thus, states need to remove themselves from the economic sphere and focus only on the political. Implicit in this theory is an obsessive, even fascist, desire for mar- ket purity attainable with accurate diag- nosis and prescription. Klein reveals a maniacal tendency for neoliberal ideologues to draw on medi- NE W

cal analogies for describing the ailments Y ORK TIM E S of society. Thus they can be portrayed as objective technocrats that are absolved of any responsibility for the political pro- cesses associated with their prescriptions. Chilean Leftist President Salvador Allende just before the 1973 coup that The reality Klein depicts, however, is an launched a right-wing offensive in Latin America. economic model that not only imposes suffering on a massive scale and is there- torships, however, was not aimed just at that support a “disaster capitalism com- fore inherently violent, but also a model Marxists, but rather at all those who held plex.” They were therefore increasingly that requires authoritarian conditions for any form of communal ideas. That is, at able to seal off Palestine and manage it its implementation. entire societies. militarily while they continued to destroy The forms of authoritarianism that have This provided the model that was then neighbourhoods and build settlements accompanied neoliberal experiments have followed in countries all over the world on their remains. changed over time, largely because Freid- and is currently behind the invasion in The disaster capitalist industry Klein manites have learned from each case of Iraq. Klein’s experiences in Iraq reveal describes is ready to pounce on massive its application. Klein shows how the fol- a situation remarkably similar to Chile, reconstruction contracts wherever they lowers of the Chicago School were heav- with political figures and community or- occur – and interestingly, to remarkably ily funded by and closely aligned with a ganizers interested in democracy being inefficient ends. Klein documents mas- project stemming from within the CIA tortured, murdered and “disappeared.” sive fraud, with little actual reconstruc- and the US military, designed to form a At one point, Klein asserts, commerce tion. Instead, disasters become opportu- counter-revolution against socialist ideol- benefited from apparent peace between nities for social cleansing exercises. nations (an argument made by Adam ogy in the countries of the southern cone “Ne w Co r p o r a t i s m ” of Latin America. Smith while European colonial powers Funded by USAID and the Ford Foun- were pillaging Asia and the Americas). Klein describes this phase of growth as dation, Latin American students were She notes that following the 9/11 attacks, a “new corporatism.” Earlier corporatism, brought to study in Chicago and then the US stock market fell dramatically. she suggests, was a practice of govern- sent to establish US-funded econom- Later attacks, however, were followed by ment, business and labour collaborating ics departments in their own countries. growth. Israel is a particular example of a on a social contract, through which all However, their ideology met up against state that has benefited from this growth would offer some concessions to maintain entire societies that were moving increas- despite the lack of peace. growth. Under new corporatism, business ingly toward socialism. Klein notes that before the Oslo ac- interests wholly colonize government, cords, Israeli businesses had wanted thereby using the state apparatus of re- Im p o s i t i o n o f t h e Mo d e l peace in order to maintain the function- pression against workers. The first imposition of their model ing of their economy. However, he influx While Klein provides convincing evi- came to being in Chile in 1973 through of a million refugees from the former So- dence of its existence, her analysis is lim- the violent overthrow of Salvador Allen- viet Union (as a result of Chicago School ited in its capacity to explain how neo- de’s democratically elected socialist gov- economic policies there) reduced Israeli liberal ideology is practiced in everyday ernment, which was soon followed by a reliance on cheap Palestinian labour at life, and why workers themselves become military junta in Argentina. The political the same time as businesses were invest- involved in transforming their work- repression that came with these dicta- ing in the high-tech and security sectors places along neoliberal lines. Instead, the

44 NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 Shock Doctrine appears to be almost a their villages were destroyed and burnt, ... what Klein ­conspiracy among elite men. all their fields turned into pasturage. The concept of the Shock Doctrine also British soldiers enforced this eviction, describes is not has historical limitations. What Klein de- and came to blows with the inhabitants. scribes is not something especially new to One old woman was burnt to death in new to capitalism; capitalism; rather, it is primarily the tech- the flames of the hut, which she refused nologies and scope that have changed. It to leave. Thus this fine lady appropriat- it is primarily the is really a continuation of the processes ed 794,000 acres of land that had from of what Marx described as primitive (or time immemorial belonged to the clan. technologies and primary) accumulation. The word “primi- She assigned to the expelled inhabitants tive” was intended to describe the neces- about 6,000 acres on the sea-shore — 2 scope that have sary pre-condition for capitalism to exist: acres per family. The 6,000 acres had until the seizure of land and property held in this time lain waste, and brought in no changed. common. It is only when people are dis- income to their owners.” possessed of land and all other means of The usurpation of feudal property by producing for themselves that the selling the rising bourgeoisie went through what manner similar to the attacks on Chileans of wage labour comes into being. Marx describes as a “transformation into in the 1970s or Muslims currently held in modern private property under circum- detention by the US. Fi r s t Ca p i t a l i s t W a r stances of reckless terrorism . . . Thus Kl e i n ’s Ke y n e s i a n i s m Arguably, the first capitalist war oc- were the agricultural people first forcibly curred when the English army cleared expropriated from the soil, driven from Understanding primitive accumulation the Scottish highlands of feudal rule. In their homes, turned into vagabonds, and allows us to avoid Klein’s short-sighted 1746, a modern army with breech-load then whipped, branded, tortured by laws Keynesianism. According to Klein, di- rifles and cannons met up with Scottish grotesquely terrible, into the discipline saster capitalism is a perverted form of clansmen armed with swords and bows necessary for the wage system.” capitalism rather than something inher- and arrows. Following England’s decisive This expropriation, he suggests, takes ently tied to market-based societies. Thus, and rapid victory, the troops marched place “in different countries, assumes dif- Klein thinks capitalism could otherwise through the highlands raping and pillag- ferent aspects, and runs through its vari- be much kinder. So she suggests “it is ing, sending thousands into forced migra- ous phases in different orders of succes- equally possible to require corporations tions and imposing strict orders on those sion, and at different periods.” Thus we to pay decent wages, to respect the rights who remained. In particular, symbols of see, for example, the Opium Wars as a of workers to form unions, and for gov- Scottish nationalism and clan pride, such means of conquering China. While there ernment to tax and redistribute wealth so as the tartan, were banned. As Karl Marx are differences the forms taken by primi- that the sharp inequalities that mark the describes: tive accumulation, Marx notes that they corporatist state are reduced.” “From 1814 to 1820, these 15,000 in- always involve brute force and employ Yet the Keynesian state was clearly not habitants, about 3,000 families, were sys- the power of the state “to hasten, hot- capable of maintaining such an order – or tematically hunted and rooted out. All house fashion, the process of transforma- even creating it for that matter, as it was al- tion.” (Rosa Luxemburg marvellously ex- ways something that existed amidst mas- panded upon this history in Accumulation sive racial and gender inequalities. Capi- of Capital.) tal has an insatiable need to grow and, in Klein argues that This cnforced transformation induces that process, it must continually destroy shock, striking deeply at people’s sense to build anew. What Klein describes as neoliberalism of identity. Instead of working along clan the “disaster capitalism complex” reveals and household groupings in close prox- the degree to which capitalism is willing represents a new imity to one’s settlement, with intimate to invade and impose its logic. phase of capitalist knowledge of the environment, people Historically speaking, it is more accu- are forced into cities at a rate faster than rate to suggest, as Ellen Wood does, that accumulation infrastructure and social support mecha- Keynesianism was the anomaly and that nisms can keep up with. They make con- what we are seeing now is a resurgence defined by its close tracts on a daily basis as individuals for of capitalism as it has always been. This wages and in doing so lose any form of horrendous reality is exactly why Engels, association with collective power over processes of pro- and later Rosa Luxemburg, suggested the duction. This new mode of survival strikes choice would ultimately come down to human disaster ... at all aspects of people’s cultural life in a one of socialism or barbarism. 

NEW SOCIALIST 2008-1 45 Below: Paris May-June 68: Amsterdam exhibition, 1969.

1968 ma g i n ar

The New Left y m u s eu - archi ve. or g ... Last Time ... Next Time

The next issue of New Socialist magazine will focus on the lessons to be learned from the global revolt of 1968. It is very difficult in 2008 to imagine what global revolt looks like, given that struggle is now at a fairly low ebb. Early in 1968, the Tet offensive by the National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese showed that U.S imperialism could be beaten on the ground. The African-American movement took on a new militancy after the assassination of Martin Luther King in April. Students and workers ground French society to a halt in May, with a massive general strike. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August met resistance in the streets and raised important questions about what socialism should really be. r e coll ctio n books . com It was a year of mass mobilizations that lead to upsurges Above: 1968 in student activism, worker militancy, women’s liberation, France: In the indigenous mobilization, gay liberation, anti-racist and national midst of the upheavals, liberation struggles. It is French President not only the inspiration de Gaulle, his from 1968 we need today, wife and aides but also the lessons about climb into three forms of left activism. helicopters and vanish. Panic has 1968 was a key moment the country’s in the development propertied of a New Left, which classes on the sought to reimagine left edge of madness. On the streets activism. There is much the mood is the to be learned from these greatest jubilation attempts to revitalize imaginable. the left, as we attempt to build a new left today.

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