What Left do we take as a starting point?
I will start with the alter-globalisation movement, which can be defined as a movement representing both a prolongation and a renewal of its three historical predecessors: the decolonisation movement, the workers' and the social movements, and the struggles for freedoms. Decolonisation, social struggles, the democratic imperative, as well as the freedoms constitute the predominant historical culture of this movement. The challenge is to define a new emancipatory project.
This movement represents a new hope that is born from the refusal to accept the status quo as inevitability - this is the meaning of the statement "another world is possible". The alter-globalisation movement's strategy is built around the convergence of social and citizen movements that emphasise solidarity, freedom and peace. They also build a new political culture, which is based on diversity, self-managed activities and mutualisation, and which prefers "horizontality" over hierarchy. A strategic orientation has become apparent: that of access to fundamental rights for all. This represents the development of an alternative to the predominant approach of adapting our societies to the world market through regulation by the global capital market. Current debates inside the movement highlight the strategic question. This raises the question of power, which takes us back to the discussion on the State and touches on the questions of parties, of the model of social transformation and of the nature of development.
In Europe, we can distinguish five political currents - with certain peculiarities depending on the particular countries - intending to rebuild the Left. The left of the Left, continuing to distinguish itself from the extreme left; communism, rebuilding itself after the collapse of Sovietism; the libertarians, trying to express the individual and collective refusal of alternative practices; those among the social democrats who have begun to comprehend the disaster following the subordination to neoliberalism; those among the ecologists who tie ecology directly to social issues, to the freedoms, to international solidarity.
Confronting the dangers of the crisis is a matter of urgency
The global crisis is a crisis of capitalist globalisation in its neoliberal phase. It is a structural crisis: economic and social; ecological, geopolitical; political and ideological. The current sequence of a financial, monetary, real estate, food, and economic crisis shows many facets of it. All these aspects play a decisive role in the confrontation between social and political movements and the ruling powers.
The first danger relates to poverty. The usual approach is to make the poor pay for the crisis, starting with the discriminated-against and the colonised. It is also about crushing the middle classes. The second danger concerns the restriction of freedoms and democracy. Crisis management strategies based on anti-social orientations tend to rely on repressive measures, criminalisation of social movements and solidarity, instrumentalisation of terrorism, law and order ideologies, xenophobia, racist, islamophobic and nationalist agitation, exploitation of scapegoats, migrants and Roma. In some regions, this evolution may produce dictatorial and repressive regimes and even give rise to fascism and fascistic populism. The third danger concerns countries that will be marginalised and ruined. The risk of war is another typical outcome of major crises. Let us not forget that the world is already at war and that almost one billion people live in war-stricken regions. These conflicts are permanent and the destabilisation is systematic. The forms of war have changed along with the militarisation of societies, global apartheid, the war of the strong against the weak, and the trivialisation of torture.
To fight against these dangers, we must strengthen the opposition movements and expand the alliances and coalitions for freedom, democracy and peace. From this point of view, Europe is one of the principal actors bringing about all of these dangers - for the other regions of the world and for the working classes in Europe.
The ways out of the crisis are not predetermined
There are opportunities. We can identify them by analysing the deadlocks of the neoliberal period, of the failures of Sovietism, of the limits of Keynesianism of the post-World War II economic boom ("Trente glorieuses" in France), of the crisis of decolonisation.
Let us remember six opportunities inherent in the crisis. First of all, the ideological defeat of neoliberalism favours the strengthening of public regulation. Secondly, the redistribution of wealth and the return of the domestic market offer new chances of stabilising and guaranteeing wages and social protection and of reorganising the public services. Likewise, the ecological emergency requires a transformation of the mode of social development. Similarly, the crisis of the political model of representation reinforces the need for social democracy and participative democracy, as well as for reflection on power. Moreover, creating a new balance between the Northern and the Southern hemisphere opens up a new phase of decolonisation and a new perspective on global geopolitics. Regarding all these aspects working class movements are bringing forward fascinating proposals characterised by the realisation that improvements for the working classes should not be sought by reasserting European hegemony.
None of these opportunities is going to impose itself; they can only result in better situations if the opposition movements grow stronger and if the social and ecological struggle for the freedoms and against war intensifies. Two questions have already been raised: How to avoid an alliance between neoliberal and conservative forces and reformers that is based on minimal reforms and green, authoritarian regimes? How to radicalise a potential reform movement for the benefit of the working classes?
Uncertainty prevails regarding the duration of the current crisis and future prospects. Let us remember the last structural crisis, its official beginning in 1929, the Great Depression in 1930, the New Deal in 1933, the new political landscape in 1945, following a world war. Several scenarios are possible. One is that of a conservative nature, a war neoliberalism. The second is that of a fundamental reform of capitalism by choosing a neo-Keynesian and ecological approach or a "Green New Deal". The third is set in the context of the historical question of going beyond capitalism.
The alter-globalisation movement does not neglect possible improvements and is committed to avoiding unbearable situations. Moreover, it is largely in favour of a radical transformation and takes the possibilities of going beyond capitalism very seriously. This is a long term objective and the outcome cannot be predetermined. There are already social relations foreshadowing this development, the same way capitalist social relations emerged in feudal societies. The new world, born from the old world, is beginning to take shape today, and it will experience difficulties. It is starting out from contradictions already experienced and it will create new contradictions. A new, collective emancipatory project is on the agenda. Capitalism is not eternal; the question of going beyond it is now topical. And we must start from now on to build another possible world.
Gustave Massiah - October 2009
