We Are on our Own

I need some help in writing the conclusion to my "Dispatches to the Next Generation" which is my attempt to answer some existential questions I posed twenty years ago. It's currently in draft here. A few years ago this was how I tried to sum it all up –

·       The “mixed economy” which existed from 1950-1990 was a healthy and effective system for us in the West

·       It worked because power was diffused. Each type of power – economic (companies/banks etc), political (citizens and workers) and legal/admin/military (the state) – balanced the other. None was dominant.

·       Deindustrialisation and economic globalisation have undermined the power which working class people were able to exercise in that period through votes and union activity

·       Privatisation has been a disaster – inflicting costs on the public and transferring wealth to the few

·       Neo-liberalism has supplied a thought system which justifies corporate greed and the privileging (through tax breaks and favourable legislation) of the large international company

·       All political parties and most media have been captured by that thought system which now rules the world

·       People have, as a result, become cynical and apathetic

·       Two elements of the “balanced system” (Political and legal power) are therefore now supine before the third (corporate and media power). The balance is broken and the dominant power ruthless in its exploitation of its new freedom

·       It is very difficult to see a “countervailing power” which would make these corporate elites pull back from the disasters they are inflicting on us

·       Social protest is marginalised

·       Not least by the combination of the media and an Orwellian “security state” ready to act against “dissidence”

·       But the beliefs which lie at the dark heart of the neo-liberal project do need more detailed exposure

·       as well as its continued efforts to undermine what little is left of state power

·       We need to be willing to express more vehemently the arguments against privatisation - existing and proposed)

·       to feel less ashamed about arguing for “the commons” and for things like cooperatives and social enterprise (inasmuch as such endeavours are allowed) 

We’re now in summer 2021 – with the Covid pandemic still raging. How would I now update that statement??

·       we have consistently underestimated the significance of global warming and what is now called the anthropogenic era – indeed there is now open talk of “facing extinction”

·       Globalisation is in shreds

·       Not least through the Covid19 pandemic of 2020

·       Societies are polarised

·       Thrust into narrow and selfish “bubbles”

·       Artificial intelligence threatens what we used to refer to as “employment prospects”    

                How, in such conditions, might social forces come together with a programme which stands a good chance of reforming the political and state systems of power - so that the wings of corporate power can be properly clipped??

And make no mistake – power is the central issue here. At the heart of our collective malaise is the imbalance of power. We quantify everything these days – talking for example of the 8 men who control half the planet’s wealth. But somehow this fails to galvanise any sort of collective action – reference to gini-coefficients leaves glazed eyes

The last post suggested that the manifestos of political parties are characterised by total irrelevance. Totally missing are the commitments to change the power structure eg

-       Break up monopolies

-       Tax the rich – who currently hide in tax havens

-       Reinstate media balance (including a requirement for interviewees to reveal their sources of income)

-       Develop Citizen juries

-       Stop money talking

-       Ensure that civil service advice is neutral

And why are such commitments missing? Because those in charge of political parties know they would then be the subject of highly aggressive attacks by journalists and academics in the pay of corporate power. We can no longer rely on political parties to be agents of change - we seem to be on our own 

I’ve been trying to gather together some key books to skim for my conclusion and felt that Jeremy Gilbert’s Common Ground – democracy and collectivity in an age of individualism (2013) was one of the important texts whose very title recognises the basic problem we face.

A future post will share some of other titles I’ve gathered together for this final push….