Re: In defence of Rejoin
Posted by Pharmakon on 2026-October-18 02:08:38, SundayIn reply to In defence of Rejoin posted by diogenes on 2026-October-17 15:04:02, Saturday
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Of course I did provide a link to the speech. I see how little attention you are willing to give to the nuances of left politics. Better I guess to spend your time fact checking Beracine's idiocies. Fazi in any case has been beating this drum for a while. Are you forgetting Corbyn's euroscepticism? Are you forgetting that Brexit itself was supposed to lose, thus allowing Cameron to subject the UK for all time to Atlanticist domination? Or does all this operate at a too "high level of generality" for you? Does the example of Greece not fatally undermine your claim that the EU would be powerless to frustrate the initiatives of a left wing national government? Does the annulled Romanian election not undermine your claim that the EU has any respect for democracy at the national level? I hope for Burnham rather than Farage. I hope for Polanski rather than Burnham. I hope for the Dems rather than Trump. I understand that the victory of right wing populism does real harm to people. I am also well aware that internationalism, anti-nationalism, has long been a fundamental commitment of left politics. Trotskyists called for a "United States of Europe." The EU seemed at one time to be answering that call. It is hard for life-long Marxists to advocate for national sovereignty. Much of the left today equates populism with fascism, and for good reason. But I have been convinced by Laclau, by Fazi, by Streeck, by Corbyn (!), that only a left wing populism can effectively oppose the right wing version. Neoliberalism has seized control of international institutions and used them to reverse the democratic initiatives that led to advances in equality and liberty in the first decades following WWII. (I have previously recommended Michael Hardt's The Subversive Seventies on this topic.) As Fazi says: The rights obtained in the post-war period were not granted to the people; it was the consequence of the fact that, for a brief historical period, the organised power of the working classes, the broad masses, were able to wrestle some power away from the organised power of capital — though these were always relative gains. Neither in the UK nor in the rest of Europe nor in the US will this path of reversal, set in motion by Reagan and Thatcher, be easily deprived of its momentum. The US Dems (or the currently tending Democratic Socialists) will not do it, nor will Burnham, nor will Polanski. It will require something more and different. I am not an accelerationist. I do not hope for fascist victories on the basis that these would provoke a countermovement, though they might. Too many people would be hurt too badly by Vance, or Farage, or LePen, should they come to power. But it is necessary to see the forest, not just the trees. The EU is not a "trading bloc." It is one of the primary institutions enforcing the neoliberal world order. As Fazi argues, it will have to be dismantled if democracy is to survive. hugzu ;-p  |
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