COMMENT
Return of the Left
SHELLEY WALIA
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The egalitarian project of the Left is growing new roots.
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Genuine concern: Chavez has changed public perception of the Left in Latin America.
IN the wake of the varying forms which the idea of the end of history has taken, the intellectual history of disillusionment and resignation has been countered with a Leftist framework. But, with almost 10 million non-white people in the EU, the rising number of impoverished masses in Brazil, or in South Asia, as well as the problems of health and illiteracy, the Left has a formidable task before it; issues concerning economic deprivation, the brutalisation of workers, increasing spending on nuclear enhancement and the need for all ethnic minorities to explicitly feature in a pluralistic vision needs to be the foundation of any reinvention of the Left.
International agenda
The long drawn out economic and political tensions, for instance, in Latin America have moved the Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and Evo Morales trio towards an international agenda for social reconstruction within which socialism does not need to be replaced but must be put forward as a programme to salvage a world from inequality and the abuse of power, especially the hegemony of the White House. They have together constructed a progressive alliance, insisting on a collective leadership that endorses the rich diversity of radical and socialist traditions.
In a drastically damaged world in which received political ideologies have been exhausted, anti-imperialist agenda and far-reaching remedies have been initiated in Bolivia, in Cuba and in Venezuela to check the erratic play of market forces. Chavez has been particularly hard hitting through his move of cutting off oil supplies to the U.S. and his unquestionable allegiance with Castro. He has not hesitated to build trade relations with China and to back Iran's nuclear ambitions. The dream of an anti-imperialist union has finally come true by the induction of Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Chile into the club headed by Castro and Chavez, and underpinned by the age-old vision for a strong Leftist opposition to the interventionist policies of the U.S. Inspired by great heroes like Simon Bolivar and Che Guevara, Chavez has been fighting for regional integration and a society that bases itself on the ideology of the new South American Left.
The insistence that the egalitarian project of the Left was a product of a specific historical epoch and that it now has no place in a "post-socialist" world is a serious allegation and rather off the mark when one considers the recent steps taken by Chavez in sending grants up to $41 billion to Cuba and in return getting the much needed medical services offered by thousands of trained Cuban doctors. He has, over the months, pumped millions of dollars earned from booming oil profits into social schemes for the benefit of the poor. Such camaraderie is also visible in the aid offered to Bolivians by Cuba. It is a fact that Chavez makes it a point to be on the move, travelling through the villages, sharing meals with the farmers, and doing all that is possible to uplift the standard of living. He, along with other Latin American leaders, has moved socialism back on to the centre stage.
Leadership of sincerity
In the face of such an input and concern for the people, there has been a build-up of public opinion in countries like Mexico where there has been a conspicuous leaning towards the Left as is clear from the defeat of American-backed clients aspiring to gain power. America's theory of the "the rotten apple", which lays emphasis on not allowing any contagion of anti-American Left wing tendencies to take over in Latin America, is in jeopardy in the face of the rise of the Left. Chavez's unlimited resources and a leadership of impeccable sincerity towards his countrymen are a harbinger of new upheavals and reconfigurations of power and politics aimed towards ending the unilateralism of the U.S. Under his auspices, thousands of activists gathered recently at the World Social Forum in Caracas, with the sole aim of castigating American military and imperial ambitions. The slogan of the demonstrators resounded across the world: "No to war, peace is possible".
New identity
It is, therefore, clear that within the context of the structural transformation of capitalism that has led to the decline of the classical working class and the generation of new forms of social protest, the Left has moved towards a new identity, so visible in the communist comeback in Russia, in France, and now in Latin America. This is clear from a re-evaluation of the future of the Left-of-centre politics and its viability at a time when communism is re-emerging, and social democracy appearing too fragile to transform history.
An ever-expanding capitalism finds it difficult to cope with environmental limits in terms of the earth's resources. Socialist programmes must realise the contradictions within the new political and economic conditions which the Right is imposing on the world. Globalisation of production and the drawbacks of centralisation demand a new approach to social change in industrialised societies. The return of the Left has become indispensable and meaningful so as to wrap up unfulfilled agendas undermined by the crippling appeal of the possibilities of power in capitalism. A necessary exchange of ideas between Left-wing politics and dogmatic orthodoxies would help to throw light on the nature of human struggle characteristic of the major crisis in contemporary democratic politics and globalism.
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