SOCIETY
Between struggle and survival
SHELLEY WALIA
|
A view of alternative social and political struggles that capture the deep-seated intellect of the protest movements.
|
Globalising Resistance: The State of Struggle; ed. Francois Polet and Cetri; London: Pluto Press, pp.321, $ 26.95.
"We are not a market — first and foremost, we are the people."
(Declaration of South American Chemical and Paper Workers)
IN the great globalisation debate we have to ask the significant question "who rules and in whose interests and to what ends?" Maybe a global covenant of "cosmopolitan social democracy" could be the answer to unwarranted excesses and stratagems of western capitalism. At the current historical moment, we see global changes transforming the very foundations of world order by, what David Held argues, "reconstructing traditional forms of sovereign statehood, political community and international governance". We gradually move from the state-centred to the "multilayered global politics". And in all this free market dramatics, global transformist thought in areas of social justice, universal human rights, rule of law, global anti-war movements and transnational amity remains an aspiration of survival and a motivating force behind all liberatory movements. A number of essays in this collection, especially Bernard Dreano's "Europe: The Challenge for Social Movements" and Mondli Hlatshayo's "The African Social Forum: Between Radicals and Reformers" are balanced accounts of some of the most important political debates concerning resistance in the new millennium.
Globalisation and the prospects of continuous and endless interventionism have invoked a nihilist culture that preaches altruism while enacting bondage and servitude. Agitational and inspirational in nature, Globalizing Resistance brings together a collection of papers on Social movements in South Asia and China, on resistance to Neoliberalism in Australia and Oceania, and on surviving in the Congo: all these issues are geared towards a counter-hegemonic globalisation and unscrupulous military interference leading to war.
David Coetzee, a political scientist and one of the contributors, argues in his paper "South Africa's New Social Movements" against neo-liberal economic policies which have hugely multiplied job losses, instead of creating the thousands of jobs promised, and "generated a widening gap between white and black, rich and poor". Along with this, the average income of Africa since the democratic election of 1994 has fallen 19 per cent while the income of the white households mounted by 15 per cent. This dismal picture is further aggravated by the rising graph of unemployment, which stands at the astonishing figure of eight million. The government "soldiers on without any active intervention while waiting for a trickle-down of benefits from a growing economy". This kind of economic marginalisation of millions around the world has led to the growth of resistance to overall policies of the governments in power. Left-wing social movements spearheaded by South African Communist party or the Communist Party of India working from within the seat of power are highly suspect; on-the-ground struggles outside the workplace have to rise to the occasion and work with other civil society organisations dating back to the anti-apartheid days and the still rampant culture of resistance which underpin the agendas of NGOs that make it a point to vociferously criticise government policies.
Need of the hour
The various political parties in India, for instance, have their trade unions, student unions and women's movements, but as argued by Vinod Raina in his essay "Political Diversity, Common Purpose: Social Movements in India", these often compete with each other. The need of the hour is to collaborate and have a unified action plan "particularly those who are concerned about fragmentation and subsequent loss of political strength". He is sceptical of the sincerity of "party-allied movements", which tend to build a restraint as soon as their party is in power. However, Raina draws attention to other non-traditional movements such as the Chipko Andolan, the Dalit agenda which "distance themselves from the traditional party linkages in order to innovate, in terms of organisational structures, leadership roles and proximity with the most oppressed in remote areas".
The conflict between the poor and the government has increased in the wake of all Indian political parties blindly falling into the trap of global politics of privatisation, liberalisation and enhancement of foreign direct investment. The rural-urban divide, "the closure of thousands of older industries, an increase in agricultural inputs and decrease in the purchase price of domestic agricultural produce", has resulted in the hard-up condition of the workers and peasants further intensifying. The new Social Forums of Porto Alegre and Mumbai have taken up cognisance of such a fall out and are forces to reckon with. The drive is to significantly muster forces from around the world to oppose these capitalist trends of social exclusion and misuse.
Indeed, the contributors in this volume sincerely provide a view of alternative social and political struggles and capture the deep-seated intellect of the protest movements.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
