| Jean-Noël Montagné on Tue, 19 Jan 2021 13:56:00 +0100 (CET) |
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| Re: <nettime> The Left Needs a New Strategy |
Le 10/01/2021 à 06:15, Brian Holmes a écrit :
The end of the neoliberal period has coincided with a symbolic reversal in politics: the torch of the partisan has passed from the insurgent Left of 1968 to the Qanon nationalists of today. This is a gigantic historical shift.
[...]
As the old neoliberal order crumbles we've seen that movement in reverse: a new disruptive force of social activism has arisen on the right, overtaking a territory of activism that was held almost entirely by the left just a decade ago.
I don't see the end of the neoliberal period in the maelstrom which gathers populists/Trump/Qanon activists. They still behave in a conservative way: guns, religion, free-market capitalism, climate change denial, covid harshness denial, cult of the leader, economical colonialism, etc. About economy, they have endorsed Trump desire about USA products consuming, but in a complete blindness of the dependencies to economical globalization for each consuming act. Globalization is the essence of neoliberalism and we cannot escape it unless there is a radical change.
[...]
A leaderless revolution can be fostered and unleashed from the top in a bid to change the system. The combination of organized hierarchy and molecular energy characterizes the networked fascism.
As a nettime reader, interested by net and digital culture, I have studied the power of social networks algorithms on the sudden emergence of Gilets Jaunes in France. Gilets Jaunes movement is almost identically composed by the same items we see in US, apart from some national cultural particularities: distrust of the political class, feeling of social downgrading, feeling of territorial abandonment, decline in purchasing power, specially for working class and low/middle class, ideas mixed with all fake news and comploting theories.
The rapid mobilisation of people in protests are generated by the huge power of gathering of the social networks. French Polytechnique university analysts have counted that more than 1.5 million Gilets Jaunes where only linked by Facebook.
One could think that recent populists protests are the fruit of a new sentiment of collectivity, ou new revolutionary ideology, but in my opinion, this is the contrary. Social media algorithms destroy real social links. Theese different artificial entities are unable to build organised struggles or movements.
By selecting, spreading and promoting primarily controversial contents (excessive, fake, provocative, extravagant, buzz,) in user's incoming fluxus, by locking up their users in cognitive bubbles, they create artificial micro-ideologies with protest content.
They don't unite us on common values, "the Left", for exemple, but they unite around digitally aggregated small particularities, small-scale based. Theese thousands artificial "communities" are unable to build organised struggles or movements. They are unable to carry large-scale common struggles around common values, but they are able to rally, in US, around someone like Trump, who is open to all this comedy.
The popular activism of the Left was historically based on the knowledge of common political ideologies and strategies. This time is over. Young generations have no idea of the big political theories of the last centuries. In my country, France, the Left has exploded. Socialist party is around 6 to 8%. Communist party is around 3 to 5%. Other "left" newly-based parties are around 6 to 8%. The total of the "original" left is around 25 to 30%, depending of the type of elections. Ecologists have more, around 18/20%, but it's not an ecology driven by a real knowledge, or real ideology. It's still an informal protest movement.
Years ago, without giving up any of my fundamental choices, I decided to drop the old leftist toolkit of surprise and disruption, and try some exploratory research. The first really original thing that emerged was the chance to collaborate with a newly radicalized sector: earth system scientists. I thought by looking around in an area where actual change was sure to happen, more tangible possibilities would open. Now that people speak of the Pyrocene rather than "climate change," I want to go for much more immediate issues: environmental justice. Society can be materially transformed on that terrain. This is just one strategic place that anyone can occupy, within a larger "Great Transformation" type strategy that is increasingly coming together, in the face of incipient breakdowns both social and ecological. I think we need a constructive strategy, not a disruptive one. If we can't put something together, the alternative is apocalyptic.
Yes, I agree, this is the way to follow. But it's still driven by a very small minority, wich has no access to mainstream media or social network algorithms.
The first struggle to build in my opinion, is the struggle against social networks, and at the same time, the promotion of the use and build of other alternatives ( existing or to by built) for press, local direct democracy, information and education.
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