Hello,
As Brian Holmes has stated, "Yesterday's vote is a stunning development and it
foreshadows the possible end of an era shaped, in many positive respects, by
1968 and the immense and diverse forces of liberation that flowered in its
wake.” This is only partially true; but, nevertheless, indicates an important
frame of reference in regards to the implications of the Brexit vote. Like the
’68 events, and more generally the political movements that flowered during the
post-war period (including the revolutionary movements in Africa and Latin
America as well as the civil rights and anti-war movements in the U.S.) what
was brought into the foreground was the necessity of the Western democracies to
deliver on the promises of their anti-colonial rhetoric. They didn't. And,
putting aside (for the moment) whatever truths lay behind the propaganda
battles of the Cold War, what we do know is that the colonial powers of Europe
and the neo-colonial upstart, the U.S, needed to be forcibly pushed to
relinquish their colonial dominions AND often the changes that did take place
were short lived or only partial. But this serves only as a fragmentary context
of the times.
What was significant about this historical moment is that it dramatically
highlighted the disconnect between the rhetoric of democratic regimes and
social reality. In the U.S. this disjuncture was painfully obvious in regards
to the limitations on human rights and violence directed towards America’s Afro
American citizens, in particular. And, while the post-68 generations carried
forward many forces (and ideas) regarding human liberation, and other social
movements, “in their wake” was an equally forceful counterrevolution
incorporating what Marcuse called ‘repressive tolerance’ as well as an
avalanche of neoliberal policies and wars that created the ground work for new
forms of social alienation and political disconnections.
The complexity and diversity of today's emerging social movements are
significant and have parallels with an earlier time; they define a prologue
that suggests new forms of political dscourse and actions; they consciously
seek to diverge from traditional and stale political institutions. We see this
in the Bernie Sanders campaign in the U.S., in France, In Spain, in Greece and
very soon in England. The common denominator here is youth, disempowered and
disillusioned youth who, like the youth in ’68, see the political rhetoric of
the established political parties as a sham: their rhetoric riddled with lies
and disinformation. The Iraq war in this sense was a watershed for it not only
brought havoc on to the region but was justified by pompous sloganeering and
policy statements that were little more than conscious deceptions designed to
sway public opinion.
When I say that the present moment is simply a prologue marking more critical
struggles that lay beyond our immediate horizon or sense of the possible, I
mean exactly that. What is required now is a rigorous sifting through the
ideological terrain and a thorough critique of the viability of existing
political institutions; the moment requires also a decisive leap in our
collective ideological imaginations; a leap that strenghtens nascent,
innovative, political institutions; that articulates new forms of governance;
and, most definitely, developes and publicises social and economic policies
that courageously break new ground.
allan
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