The alternative to the anti-social offensive does not lie in the
programs of any of the political parties of the bourgeoisie, no
matter how much the Liberals and the NDP say that this is the case.
The anti-social offensive begins with the capitalist relations of
production and the rule of the financial oligarchy that is built
upon these relations. Liberalism and social-democracy are staunch
defenders of both these phenomena.
The financial oligarchy does not want anybody to see, let
alone move beyond, the strictures that are imposed on the society
by its rule. Those strictures demand that everything must be done
to maximize capitalist profit. The financial oligarchy presents the
anti-social offensive as the alternative to the profound crisis of
capitalist society. Amongst other things, the crisis of today is
presented as the result of Keynesian-influenced economic and fiscal
policies that landed all the countries of the world in a terrible
mess of indebtedness and unmanageable deficits. The fact that
Keynesianism was also a response to an earlier crisis of capitalism
in different conditions (the Great Depression) is swept under the
rug, along with the fact that crisis is inherent to the system.
The financial oligarchy presents the opponents of the
anti-social offensive as those who want to go back to previous
"policies" that did not work. The slogan which has been presented
to the workers of "defending the gains of the past" plays into this
interpretation of the financial oligarchy. Going back to "the past"
will not lift the society out of the crisis. Nor was this "past"
ever satisfactory in terms of meeting the needs of the working
class and the broad masses of people.
For liberalism and social-democracy, which pose as opponents
of the anti-social offensive, anything offered to the working class
is conditioned by the dictate that the maximization of capitalist
profit is the starting point of social development. This was
clearly seen by the performance of the social-democrats in Ontario
when they took up the anti-social offensive in the name of "making
the economy competitive," and "dealing with the fiscal realities."
It is also seen by the anti-social actions of the federal Liberal
Party. In the end, the aim of liberalism and social-democracy
always revolves around fulfilling the stated and unstated interests
of the financial oligarchy within specific conditions.
Leaving aside the dubious character of some of the things
which are characterized as "gains of the past," the reason these
"gains" can disappear so easily, sometimes with the bat of an
eyelash, is because they, like everything else under capitalism,
began from the same starting point-the fundamental interest of the
financial oligarchy to maximize profit.
Changing the basic direction of the economy is at the heart of
a pro-social agenda. The pro-social program begins from the
position that the working class and people have the right to a
livelihood, the right to health, to education, and to
social-services. Just as the anti-social offensive is not a matter
of the bad policies of this or that political party, a pro-social
agenda cannot be just a matter of coming up with some "better
policies" while everything else, including the direction of the
economy, remain the same. The working class must elaborate a
pro-social agenda which will extricate the society from the crisis.
The pro-social agenda has to start from the objective situation
that confronts society today, the problems it faces, the resources
at its disposal, the obstacles that must be overcome. It has to
constitute a radical departure from the past. Any "gains" which the
working class has enjoyed in the "past" have been a result of their
struggle. They must take this struggle further, not to "regain"
what has been lost but to gain what they have never had - their
social emancipation. The starting point of this struggle for social
emancipation is the struggle for the pro-social agenda. It is this
gain which must be fought for and achieved at this time.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
