[lbo-talk] the state of the left: not so bad

[mike larkin]

--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Guardian (London) - October 6, 2003
> 
> For better - or worse
> 
> The anti-war movement failed to stop the attack on
> Iraq, but it has 
> already had a decisive impact on politics
> 
> Gary Younge
> 
> A fter the 1976 Soweto uprising, in which the
> apartheid regime 
> murdered about 200 people and left many more
> injured, Nelson Mandela 
> smuggled a message out of Robben Island prison: "At
> all levels of our 
> struggle, within and outside the country, much has
> been achieved and 
> much remains to be done," he wrote. "But victory is
> certain!"
> 
> Given the times, these were bold words indeed. In
> the years it took 
> the message to travel from his cell to his
> supporters, Margaret 
> Thatcher was elected and Ronald Reagan was on his
> way to the White 
> House. While two of apartheid's most powerful
> supporters came to 
> office, the ANC's principal backer, the Soviet
> Union, was in 
> inexorable decline. When the uprising took place,
> Mandela had already 
> served 13 years in prison; it would be another 14
> before he would 
> emerge a free man. In short, victory was anything
> but certain.
> 
> There is a necessary psychological optimism that
> goes with 
> progressive politics. Its culture hinges on the
> notion that a better 
> world is possible and that a critical mass of people
> could rise to 
> the challenge of creating it. It is rooted in the
> belief that there 
> is an essential decency in humanity that, given
> sufficient political 
> space, economic resources and cultural capital, can
> override naked, 
> narrow and short-term self-interest and be
> translated into power.
> 
> There are times, such as during the euphoria of
> Mandela's release, 
> when such optimism appears justified. There are
> others, such as after 
> the Soweto uprising, when it seems deluded. Now, the
> week after a 
> dismal Labour party conference and the day before
> Arnold 
> Schwarzenegger is set to become governor of
> California, it feels like 
> the latter.
> 
> In Britain we have a war-mongering, privatising,
> race-baiting 
> administration that governs in the name of a party
> set up to 
> represent the interests of working people. In
> America, the most 
> rightwing Republican party since Nixon's time
> controls the presidency 
> and both houses of Congress. Israel is intent on
> building its own 
> version of the Berlin wall through Palestinian land.
> Fundamentalism, 
> be it Christian, Islamic or Hindu, is on the rise,
> with all the 
> intolerance and violence that goes with it.
> 
> At home, the largest demonstration, produced by one
> of the most 
> broad-based political movements in British history,
> failed in its 
> central objective. We did not stop the war. In
> short, there seems 
> little to feel optimistic about.
> 
> And yet it is in these bleakest of moments that
> optimism on the left 
> is most crucial. Extinguish the flame and there is
> no torch to pass 
> on in more hopeful times. Wishful thinking will not
> help us. But a 
> hard-headed assessment of what has been achieved can
> provide the 
> basis for working out what still can be done.
> 
> First, we must recognise that the anti-war movement
> had a decisive 
> impact on exposing the bankrupt rationale of
> attacking Iraq. This was 
> no mean feat. Neither Bush nor Blair would have
> bothered trying to 
> persuade the UN to give its blessing were it not for
> the pressure 
> they were under. The fact that they failed showed
> the war for what it 
> was - a criminal act of military violence expressly
> executed against 
> the global will.
> 
> The implications of this exposure are anything but
> abstract. It 
> explains the reluctance of other nations to relieve
> America of the 
> burden of clearing up its mistakes, and has left
> Blair and Bush 
> isolated on the world stage. It contributed
> significantly to the 
> critical climate that produced the Hutton inquiry
> and the row over 
> Bush's misleading comments in his state of the union
> speech.
> 
> The anti-war movement got the German chancellor,
> Gerhard Schröder, 
> re-elected, and has pushed the centre of gravity in
> the Democratic 
> primaries in a more progressive direction. Political
> leaders need not 
> only geographical but also ideological
> constituencies. Over the past 
> two years the left has built a strong enough base to
> support those 
> who chose to challenge American hegemony.
> 
> True, none of this has saved Iraqi lives. But with
> ratings for Bush 
> and Blair plummeting, it may keep Iranians, North
> Koreans or whoever 
> else they are considering bombing out of harm's way.
> 
> We should also be buoyed by the fact that the sweep
> of the left's 
> analysis since the beginning of the war on terror
> has been proved 
> correct. We said the bombing would not stamp out
> terrorism - the 
> atrocities in Bali, Jakarta and Mombasa show it
> hasn't - but fuel 
> resentment that would create more terrorists; and
> Iraq is a far 
> greater threat to global security than six months
> ago.
> 
> With each passing day these criticisms prove more
> prescient. We 
> argued that the war was a bad idea, even if Saddam
> did have weapons 
> of mass destruction - given enough time the
> inspectors would have 
> found them. News that he didn't have them blows away
> the final fig 
> leaf and leaves the emperors naked. Given the
> thousands who have been 
> killed so far, this is not a victory. But the fact
> that we have 
> understood the problem means that, unlike Blair and
> Bush, we are at 
> least theoretically equipped to resolve it.
> 
> The issue, as ever on the left, is how to convert
> theory into 
> practice. The war exposed the global crisis in
> democratic legitimacy. 
> Not one national poll, including in the US,
> supported a US-led war 
> without UN support. That it happened begs the
> question of how we get 
> rid of these people who have been so bare-faced in
> their lies, so 
> brutal in their destruction and so bold in defence
> of both.
> 
> By far the greatest weakness of the left is
> translating the energy of 
> the popular movements into a potent electoral force.
> This is the 
> source of our pessimism - the despondency brought on
> by the lack of 
> any obvious alternative, which in Britain has led to
> the rise of the 
> far right and the decline in voter turnout.
> 
> With a few exceptions (notably in Scotland), the
> left's electoral 
> challenges to the status quo have proved either
> reckless or 
> ineffectual. The Green candidate Ralph Nader made a
> crucial 
=== message truncated ===

I'm glad someone has made this argument. Around CT,
the young activists I run across haven't been told the
"left is in decline," and behave as if they own the
future. Hopefully, they do. Something has to give.
Maybe we're at a tipping point (knock on wood).

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