GTN

An emancipation strategy,
in the Face of Right-Wing and Far-Right Alliances

Gustave Massiah
former vice-president of ATTAC-France
CRID representative at the WSF International Council
12-07-2023

Far-right ideas and alliances between the rights and far-right are on the up in every society and throughout the world. Against equality, they have promoted identitarianism, nationalism and securitarianism. Today, three propositions replace the left/right distinction: neoliberalism, still dominant; the national-identitarian that structures the far right; and the progressive in search of new landmarks. The trend is towards an alliance between neoliberalism and the far right. The far right has not won yet. Social, ecological, political and ideological contradictions are still present in every country and on a world scale. The ecological crisis, the explosion of super-profits and the resistance of the working classes have highlighted the contradictions of neo-liberal growth, exacerbated by the pandemic and climate crises.

The crisis recalls the crisis of 1929 and the transition to a new phase in the capitalist mode of production with the transition to Fordist and Keynesian capitalism, implemented by the New Deal. Three major contradictions are present. The new crisis could correspond to the transition to a new phase in the capitalist mode of production, initiated in particular by the digital revolution. The link between democracy and war is marked today by the rise of various kinds of authoritarianism. The third, accentuated by the securitarian phase of neo-liberalism since 2008, is the ecological rupture. Immanuel Wallerstein^[1] proposes that the crisis is structural, challenging the foundations of the capitalist mode of production. But this crisis of capitalism will not lead to socialism. It could be succeeded by another unequal and different mode of production.

The crisis is first of all the crisis of the overcoming of capitalism, the crisis of socialist and communist utopias. It is the crisis of a new project of radical transformation that would be different from state socialism. This project has still not emerged. But fortunately, there are powerful contestation movements that are the bearers of new radicalities. The social movement and the trade union, workers’ and peasants’ movement. the feminist movement, the anti-racist movement, the environmental movement, the movement of indigenous peoples, the migrant movement, the movement for the right to housing, the right to health, etc. These movements are the bearers of fundamental values, particularly equality. But they have not yet built an effective political alternative to neoliberalism and the far-right.

The awareness of the ecological rupture is a determining factor. The covid pandemic accentuated it. The climate, biodiversity and the cohabitation of species call into question the relationship between the human species and Nature; it is a philosophical challenge, the end of infinite time. The ecological disruption calls into question the dominant conceptions of growth and development, which are the foundations of dominant capitalism. It reinforces the hypothesis of a crisis of civilization. What some are now calling collapse is not the end of the world; it could be the start of a new civilization.

The social question remains decisive. It refers to wage labour, which is still the dominant form of appropriation of surplus value and separation between social classes. The claim is not so much to work less, but to be exploited less; this is at the heart of the struggles. It also highlights the opportunities presented by the social and solidarity economy and associations, which have been part of the debate on the future of capitalism from its very beginnings.

Social movements reveal that inequality, injustice and discrimination have become unbearable. Revolts become revolutions when the outcome appears possible. If inequality and injustice have become insupportable and unacceptable, it is also because a world without inequality and injustice appears now possible.

Democracy is a central issue that needs to be explored more deeply. It defines the paths of transition: democracy in enterprises, local democracy, democracy in public action and in states, international democracy. In an excellent article, Kavita Krishnan^[2] asks « Is multipolarity the mantra of authoritarianism?  Societies are facing a triple panic: economic panic, identitarian panic and ecological panic.

Since 2011, new movements have been renewing the approach to democracy. They are being repressed, but they are also opening up new avenues. They have developed a generational approach to democracy. They emphasize their opposition to representation and delegation, and are becoming more engaged on an individual basis; they have a strong presence on social networks. The strategy of these movements is to give greater importance to the local level. Among these movements are: the Zapatistas (democracy, justice, freedom; obedient leadership, Indian insurrection and global resistance); Young Iranians (women, life, freedom); the Kurds of Rojava (women, ecology, democracy; municipalism).

Decolonization is not over. As stated at the Bandung Conference in 1955, after the independence of States, the period will be that of the liberation of Nations and the revolution of Peoples. The response to identity-based nationalism is to build an international system, a new internationalism that extends international solidarity and alterglobalism.

We need to elaborate about the question of strategic alliances. The failure of the socialist and communist project has created a gap on the question of the meaning of history and the meaning of life. Religions and spiritualities have captured this. The new far-right has imposed itself in each religion by relying on integrisms. Think of radical Islamism in Islam; fundamentalist Catholics; extreme Evangelicals and Pentecostals in Protestantism; fundamentalist Jews in Zionism; Modi’s Hindus; extreme Buddhists in Burma; not forgetting the secularists among the atheists. We need to start again from the debate in each religion between the integrists and the advocates of universal solidarity; to mobilize people in each religion who are committed to opening up and emancipating policies. By giving a voice to those who oppose the various forms of integris and their extension to the far-right. This is a long-term alliance, similar to the one that linked national liberation movements and communist movements during the first phase of decolonization.

The emancipation strategy remains to be defined. The state has revealed itself to be more able to build capitalism and reproduce it than to overcome it. And a party created to conquer the state becomes a party-state even before it has conquered it. This explains the debates on the relationship between movement-form and party-form. It involves the value of equality, which serves to oppose the values of the far right, inequality and discrimination. Emancipation is driven by the radicality of movements. These movements provoke very violent reactions, but they are digging their own path. What’s missing, what we need to work on, is a common project, a project that would enable us to renew the utopia of emancipation, a new internationalism. We need to build everything: a theoretical and philosophical approach, a social project, a mobilizing narrative, a strategy and alliances. These are the tasks for the coming period.

[1] Immanuel Wallerstein, « Dilemnas of the Global Left »; preface to Gustave Massiah, Strategy for the Alternative to Globalisation, Montréal, New-YorkLondon, Black Rose Books, 2015

^[2] https://www.theindiaforum.in/politics/multipolarity-mantra-authoritarianism