Why Social Movements Matter by Laurence Cox

Why Social Movements Matter by Laurence Cox

Author:Laurence Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786607836
Publisher: Book Network Int'l Limited trading as NBN International (NBNi)


Two Dimensions of the Left

We can think about this in two ways. First, from a historical point of view, ‘the left’ as it exists at any concrete point in time represents something like an archaeological sediment of movement history, a combination of more or less fossilised forms that once helped to shake empires and force capital to organise redistribution and provide welfare, as well as many individual elements of this history – particularly intellectuals, theoretical traditions, periodicals and small organisations – which have taken on a life of their own, for good or ill. (As with language and culture, so too in any political tradition we often practise and justify given ways of doing things as an identity marker, with little real idea of where they have come from.)

The left is thus only in part made up of people who have entered the left from movements. It equally includes people who have entered this left directly, in its discrete forms (today often via social media or the university), and are only aware of its roots in this longer movement history to the extent that they learn about it through sectarian circuits, reproducing the many blind spots particular to that specific tradition. This is one important reason why many people think of ‘the left’ as a sort of Platonic entity, existing prior to and even against actual popular agency.

Second, however, what gives ‘the left’ real life is that in one way or another it includes – although it is by no means restricted to – the best of many movements. Many people, having become involved in movements, come to see a wider picture and come to feel the need for some form of theory, organisation and vision which goes beyond that particular experience and connects multiple struggles – over time, across space and between different social groups and conflicts.

This is, incidentally, the vision Marx presented for his imaginary communist party (faction) in 1848: a coming together of the most determined, most insightful and most strategically minded activists from the struggles of the day. Comparable visions have been conjured up by many since: from Gramsci’s idea of the party enabling a proto-hegemonic alliance between the most conscious elements of urban workers, the rural poor and for that matter intellectuals (under working-class leadership), to some of the best radical left and left-green visions after 1968 of a ‘social movement party’. To mention these different histories is at once to indicate a sense of the common challenge, but also the vast differences that lie between them.

It is also worth noting that this ‘party’ role can be carried out within an anti-authoritarian framework, geared to the coming together of grass roots struggles which do not seek to have a common line or electoral programme, but rather seek to find what could be called their ‘highest common denominator’ in the same process of mutual radicalisation that goes together with movement development in general. As in the nineteenth century or under conditions of clandestinity, it is important not to fetishise electoral politics or ideology as defining what a ‘party’ is.



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