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Introduction
The four authors of the first chapter of this book, a preliminary version of
which was published online in February 2007, have all been involved in left-wing
politics for upwards of forty years.1 That chapter, and this book, were written
as an attempt to apply the insights and experience of our political lifetimes
to the history of the past thirty years - an era characterised, above all, by
the ascendancy of neoliberalism, both as a general world-view and as an approach
to public policy.
The period that more than any other shaped our political outlook was the 1970s,
a turbulent decade that began with such high hopes for the left and ended with
the triumph of Mrs Thatcher. As we struggled to understand the unfolding drama
of these years and to respond with creative intelligence, we drew heavily on
the ideas of Antonio Gramsci, whose Prison Notebooks became more accessible
in the English-speaking world with the publication of a must-read new translation
in 1971.2 Gramsci's efforts to explain the ebbing of the revolutionary tide
that swept across Europe after 1917, the rise of fascism in Italy and the resilience
of capitalism in its heartlands, resonated powerfully with our predicament and
preoccupations.
The editors of this volume still believe that the 1970s were a watershed in
British history, and that our Gramscian heritage remains indispensable for understanding
what went wrong then and what needs to be done today to tackle the besetting
weaknesses of the British left: its ambivalent attitude to democracy, its workerism,
its economism, and its failure to appreciate the role of moral and intellectual
leadership in defending or challenging the prevailing social order and in winning
or retaining political power.
This is a suitable moment to take stock. The New Labour project has reached
the end of the road. Neoliberalism, on the other hand, lives on. It has, to
be sure, been severely shaken by the near collapse of the global banking system
and the onset of what is shaping up to be a deep and prolonged global recession.
And beyond these classic manifestations of capitalism in crisis loom the longer-term
challenges of climate change and the shift in the balance of global economic
power from West to East. Nevertheless, the return of boom and bust and the end
of light-touch financial regulation do not in themselves portend an impending
change of regime. The struggle to replace neoliberalism, at national and global
levels, is what the politics of the next ten years will be about, just as the
Great Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed it prompted an urgent
search for workable alternatives to the discredited economics of laissez faire,
leading, eventually, to a new international order - though only after ten years
of world-wide economic carnage and six years of total war.
In Britain, it looks as if the baton of government may pass from New Labour
to a revamped Conservative Party, which has rediscovered 'society', but remains
hostile to 'the state' and continues to idolise 'the market'. Conceivably, the
Labour government could tackle the recession by repudiating neoliberalism and
forging ahead with a green new deal. Thus re-invigorated and perhaps inspired
by the example of Barack Obama, Labour could reconnect with Britain's own progressive
past, rally the broad-based popular coalition required to sustain a radical
shift in course and proceed, against the odds, to win a fourth term. But if
the pattern of the 1930s repeats itself, as Obama's election victory suggests
is more probable, the voters will eject a government which has presided over
a major crash. The further consequences of a change of government at Westminster
are hard to foresee, for with nationalist parties in office for the first time
in Scotland and Wales, the future of the UK as a union state and the whole pattern
of British party politics are in a state of flux.
New Labour, neoliberalism and the democratic left
The central thesis of Feelbad Britain is that contemporary British
society is troubled and dysfunctional. Three decades of neoliberalism, extended
by New Labour into the heart of the welfare state, have undermined the institutions
and social relations on which solidarity, trust and citizenship depend and in
which they were once embedded. Our sense of social membership and our shared
identity as citizens have been effaced by individualist consumerism, the dominant
culture and common sense of the age.
Structurally, the source of the problem is the social and environmental damage
caused by the incorrigibly expansionist dynamic of capitalism. Historically,
the malaise goes back to the organic crisis of the 1970s, when the post-war
political settlement imploded and the radical right seized the chance to launch
a neoliberal counter-revolution. In the absence of a countervailing hegemonic
project of the left, the New Labour government elected in 1997 embraced the
new order and, indeed, set out to complete Mrs Thatcher's unfinished business
by placing public services on a quasi-commercial footing and driving market
forces deep into the welfare state. As a result, after thirty years of neoliberal
ideological social engineering, there is now a gaping hole in British politics
where the democratic left ought to be.
The British left today is a shadow of its former self, a diffuse and amorphous
body of opinion with almost no presence in mainstream politics and little impact
on public affairs. Not only this: there is also a marked gap in experience and
outlook between the remnants and survivors of the old left and the new generation
of green activists and counter-cultural campaigners. Of course, inter-generational
misunderstanding and conflict is a feature of the human condition. But as long
as the past is remembered, young and old remain connected by a common culture.
By the same token, if historical memory fails, radical traditions are lost and
radical politics flounders. If we are to fill the vacuum on the left, we need
to retrieve our own history and reconnect the generations.
Timescales
Clearly, a long road lies ahead for those who aspire to turn the democratic
left into a serious political force. But the longest journey starts with a single
step, and if this book turns out to be that step, other steps might reasonably
be expected to follow. Before discussing these, however, it is worth outlining
what kind of journey we have in mind and how long it is likely to take.
In a world where questions of economic and social organisation impinge on the
very future of our planet, we need to distinguish four timescales:
Our project spans all these timescales. Conventional politics deals only with
the short and medium run. This is what preoccupies the political class and the
media, their eyes fixed firmly on the next election. Inevitably, if this is
your time horizon, you will be mainly concerned with trying to cope with the
issues that are thrown up by the ongoing development of capitalism and the exigencies
of party political conflict. It is the timescale natural to anyone who is primarily
concerned with managing the existing social order. Of course, managing
the system is difficult enough and may be done well or badly. But ever since
the French Revolution, the left has aspired to transform society, an
even harder task. And for socialists - once the core of the left, but now in
the West almost an endangered political species - this meant working towards
a post-capitalist civilisation.
Some of us believe that this should still be our aim. It will not, of course,
be achieved any time soon, but this does not mean that the idea of
post-capitalism has no relevance to the problems we face today. The reason we
need to look beyond the short and medium run and think about life after capitalism
is that if we do not, we shall simply be buffeted about and carried along by
the prevailing winds and tides, rather than steering towards a goal of our own
choosing. In other words, the left needs not only policies for the
short and medium run, but also a project oriented towards the long
run and the very long run.
Naturally, policies and project must connect. It's no use proclaiming long-term
goals as the solution to today's problems, because that gives you no purchase
on the current situation and simply means that other political forces will take
charge and decide what actually happens. But neither can we afford to ignore
the long run and respond to today's problems on a purely pragmatic basis - 'doing
what works' in the current vogue phrase - because that does nothing to change
prevailing social institutions, cultural patterns and power relations.
The distinction between the long run and the very long run turns on the difference
between transforming capitalism and transcending it. At a
time when US global supremacy is coming to an end and the neoliberal paradigm
is being seriously tested, transforming capitalism involves, above all, a concerted
effort to dethrone neoliberalism and install a new regulated 'social market'
policy regime. Transcending capitalism means, quite literally, building a post-capitalist
society. Undeniably, a wider range forces can currently be mobilised in support
of a change in policy regime than will be prepared to work for the end of capitalism.
But just as the left in general needs to look beyond the short and medium run,
so serious opponents of capitalism need to convince their allies in the struggle
against neoliberalism that if the beast is merely caged and not killed, pressure
will eventually grow for the bars to be removed and the cycle of crisis, regulation
and deregulation will repeat itself.
The structure of the book
Chapter 1 below is a thoroughly updated and revised version of the original,
on-line, stand-alone text. The argument falls into three parts. The first describes
the main symptoms of Britain's contemporary social malaise, citing evidence
relating to subjective well-being and the prevalence of mental disorders, and
identifying those changes in the framework of social life which have damaged
social cohesion over the past thirty years. The second part, having set out
a theoretical framework to guide the subsequent argument, traces the roots of
the malaise to the organic crisis of the 1970s and the neoliberal counter-revolution
by which the crisis was resolved. New Labour, it argues, confirmed and deepened
this regime change, introducing market forces and business norms into areas
of social provision from which they had hitherto - with good reason - been largely
excluded. The third part considers what is to be done and outlines proposals
for revitalising the British left, challenging neoliberal hegemony and developing
a political project aimed at creating a greener, fairer, happier, more democratic
and less divided Britain in a greener, fairer, happier, more democratic and
less divided world
Subsequent chapters expand on central themes and issues raised in the long opening
essay. Five of these are written by the editors and six by invited contributors,
whose enthusiasm for the project and whose discipline in sticking to strict
word-limits and tight deadlines we gratefully acknowledge. We should also point
out that neither the editors nor additional contributors necessarily agree with
everything that follows, though all share a common commitment to stimulating
debate about the future of the British left.
These eleven chapters fall into three groups. Chapters 2, 3 and 4, headed 'Directions',
examine the distinctive values and ideas of the democratic left: the analytical
framework we employ in thinking about the economy; our commitment to developing
forms of social ownership as distinct from private- or state-ownership; and
the arguments and prospects for moving towards a post-consumerist civilisation.
The next four chapters focus on Policies. Chapter 6 on the health service and
Chapter 7 on education offer detailed critiques of New Labour's approach to
public sector reform, illustrating the general case argued in Chapter 1. Chapter
5 on democratic renewal and Chapter 8 on climate change deal with areas in which
New Labour's record is at best patchy and, in many respects, lamentable, but
which are central concerns for the democratic left.
Chapters 9-12, grouped together under the heading of 'Politics', tackle what
is usually known as the problem of agency. Three questions need to be distinguished
here. What social forces have an interest in dethroning neoliberalism and transforming
or transcending capitalism? What kind of organisation is required to weld these
forces into a stable historic bloc? And what are the sources from which such
an organisation, a new 'Modern Prince', might emerge? Since these questions
precisely parallel those investigated by Gramsci in The Prison Notebooks,
Chapter 9 assesses Gramsci's theoretical legacy and considers its relevance
to our world. Chapters 10 and 11 focus on gender and the environment, respectively,
as central sites on which the struggle for hegemony is waged. And Chapter 12
asks what we mean by left and right, whether this distinction is outmoded, in
what sense the British left still exists, where it can be found, and how it
can be brought together.
Next steps
None of the contributors to this book would claim to have produced definitive
answers to the questions it addresses. The problem of agency, in particular,
remains a conundrum in Britain, which for most of the twentieth century was
a centralised, two-party state; even though this political system is now dying,
if not dead, it continues to be very difficult for the British left to achieve
even a modicum of organisational coherence. Nor is there any guarantee that
any new formation of the left would make an immediate or substantial political
impact. The point is to keep on trying, repeatedly probing the weak points in
the neoliberal edifice in a bid to change the terms of debate and shape the
course of events.
This brings us, finally, to next steps. If it is to develop the capacity for
flexible, timely and creative political intervention, while at the same time
elaborating and disseminating the various elements of its long-term project
- convergent global development, Citizen's Income, social ownership, stakeholder
democracy, post-consumerism and the rest - the Gramscian democratic left will
need to develop a variety of networks, organisations and publications to articulate,
defend and promote the values, visions and policy directions that we have sketched
in this book. To begin with, the necessary work will have to be done on a shoestring
and the results disseminated via the internet and occasional conferences. But
once a series of further, more narrowly focused, publications has been produced
by these means, we might hope to establish a permanent institutional presence
and solicit regular financial support in the form of membership subscriptions,
donations and grants. This in turn would lead naturally to the forging of links
with other organisations, including political parties, both in Britain and overseas.
It will be hard work. But it will also be good work - in its aims, in the satisfaction
it brings to those involved and, we hope, in its practical achievements. Worthy
work, as William Morris argued, is inseparable from hope: '… hope of rest,
hope of product and hope of pleasure in the work itself … All other work
than this is slaves' work - mere toiling to live, that we may live to toil.'3
Pat Devine Andrew Pearmain David Purdy
References
1. Pat Devine, Andrew Pearmain, Michael Prior and David Purdy, Feelbad Britain,
available on www.hegemonics.co.uk,
2007.
2. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, edited and
translated by Q. Hoare and G. Nowell-Smith, Lawrence and Wishart, London 1971.
3. William Morris, 'Useful Work Versus Useless Toil' (1885), in A.L. Morton
(ed), The Political Writings of William Morris, Lawrence & Wishart,
London 1979, pp87-88.