IMAGINING OTHER
Political Philosophy
Part 2
Socialism
since Marx (pp17) Part 2 – in the
see
also:
other
notes: British politics,
sm1 labour movement updates,
other notes: economics for
credit crunch…
Contents:
1. Socialism in UK,
outside Marxism, up to mid-20th century:
1.1
Ruskin, Morris, Orwell
1.2 E. P. Thompson: notes on essay “Outside the
Whale” #thompson
2. In
2.1
outside Labour party: John Saville, the New Left
2.2
associated with Labour party: Fabians, Tribunites, Bennites etc
2.3 New
Labour: the ‘third way’ #third way
3. since New Labour – current
issues for the left
3.1 in the
3.2
Notes:
1.
Socialism, outside Marxism, in UK, up to mid-20th century:
1.1 NB English tradition
includes many figures such as Robert
Owen, (see socialism before Marx), John
Ruskin and George Orwell:
In 1859 Ruskin
started writing Unto this Last (1860): inspired the foundation of the welfare
state, inspired Gandhi; for ‘health, education, hope, welfare and decency’
(Jonathan Glancey, G June 2009). Biblical tone, attacked political economy for
assuming the human being is ‘all skeleton’ and ‘founds an ossifiant theory of
progress in this negation of a soul; and having shown the utmost that can be
made of bones, and constructed a number of interesting geometric figures with
death’s-heads and humeri, successfully proves the inconvenience of the
reappearance of a soul among these corpuscular structures.’
‘There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its
powers of love, of joy, of admiration. That country is the richest which
nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is
richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life, to the utmost, has
also the widest helpful influence, both personal and by means of his
possessions, over the lives of others.’
On George Orwell:
recently released papers show how intelligence services spied on him – perhaps
explains his paranoia (says Gordon Bowker, G).
Not a communist, though had “unorthodox” opinions –
seemed to want to be seen as separate from the British establishment in
On George Orwell,
good piece by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Guardian 25.8.12:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/24/george-orwell-relevant-today-ever?INTCMP=SRCH
– he was attacked by the quasi-Stalinist left: R Williams: Orwell ‘created the
conditions for defeat and despair’, and Isaac Deutscher: 1984 had created a
‘Bogey-cum-scapegoat... to frighten the masses.’
Paine and Orwell: June 8th 2009 marked 200 years since the
death of Tom Paine, and 60 years since the publication (?) of 1984… There is a
petition calling on 1984 to be taught in schools on the GoPetition website
(‘1984 in Schools’).
1.2
Notes on E. P. Thompson’s essay: “Outside the Whale”: DATE?!
we have been swallowed up by Natopolitan culture e.g. Alistair Cooke report of Russell
speech....
i.e. "consensus" was based on view that we
"free",
also that idealistic visions are illusions (impact of defeats again...: soviet purges,
Munich & WWII, Sp Civil War, popular front and moscow (and fascism),
Russo-German pact...
human predicament, condition, to fail (sin - or
acquisitiveness, or sexual repression or gullibility of masses...in all of
us?), so no point in political action - human condition includes evil (cf.
Stalinism: evil a historical necessity) i.e. both accept evil, and try to show
that revolutionary potential fails
e.g. Orwell, Kingsley
Amis: individuals' motives, relations with your parents, fear of self... (cf.
Fromm)
why Natopolis?
context of imperialism defending self against soviets: have to reject
utopian goals - no society can ever be good
also shows in reduction of progressive ideas connected
with industrial expansion (militant imperialism), to crude materialism,
consumerism; politics becomes art of possible, nad aim: piecemeal social
engineering
quote p 29, 33.
Peculiarities of the English: p 77, re Marxism:
1. problem of models and how use (esp re history)
2. metaphor of base and superstructure
3. economic process = ?
4. concept of class
5. problems from teleological model wh preoccupied with
power
1. model = metaphor (parts and relp)
history reducible to a model: or "all that
happened"?
may draw up model, but danger of it "petrifying
into axioms" - and of "taking the model to reality" (e.g. French and English revolutions very
different...but Marxists try to compare) - of selecting parts of the whole
picture etc
how to use models? dialectic between model and evidence
(bewteen "synthesising and empiric modes" = "creative quarrel at the heart of
cognition" - habit of model may prevent adaptation
2. basis and superstructure again, dialectical intercourse between social
being and social consciousness, culture and not culture is at heart of
any comprehension of the historic process within Marxist tradition, but:
metaphor is wrong as excludes human attributes
hasn't helped explain events such as Nazism, Stalinism,
racialism (except by showing superstructure interfering with base!)
i.e. tends to reductionism, to "economy in last
instance" and esp. of actors to classes, of beliefs to interests, of works
of art to class etc etc
3. "to
find a model for the social process which allows an autonomy to social
consciousness within a context which, in the final analysis, has always been
determined by social being"
Engels: quote p 81..
if only in crisis,
what point? - and if just means productive forces and relations? only an
analytic category that cannot be confirmed empirically i.e. imaginative etc
faculties (planning, organising, enjoying) come into act of labour itself
economics as a
separate category is a creation of capitalism cf. "moral economy" of
"just price" vs. "economic price", and how long took to
make change so people only work for economic rewards...
quote p 83 on mature Marx and economics... modes of
exploitation have been other than economic; also capitalism is also a moral,
cultural etc phenomenon (cf Wm
Morris...)
resistance to capm takes economic and cultural forms
(i.e. both to reduce exploitation and to reduce reduction of people to economic
categories)
4. class
again a metaphor, not a thing...(p 85...)
5. power/teleological model can all human phenomena be reduced to class and
power? is history just a train heading
for workers' power? (if so, what of the passengers who live and die on the
way?) what of individuals' quality of life, experience etc (not just their
actions as bearer of class relations)?
other things missing: e.g. work ethic (applied in
stalinism..) problems of industrialism (anti-nature, dehumanising etc)
end quote p 87-8 re dismissal of "impossible
utopian rejection" by Morris et al
time for a few words from Morris biog??
2.
Socialism in
2.1 outside Labour Party
John Saville (obit G 160609): co-edited Dictionary of Labour Biography,
with Joyce Bellamy (1972 – 2000); Essays in Labour History, with Asa Briggs (1960, 71, 77). Born John
Stamatopoulos in
New Left Review…
See obit of Peter
Gowan, G 170609: involved Black Dwarf, VSC, organised youth wing of IMG
(Spartacus League), taught at
Founded Labour
focus on
On the NLR board
from 1990, taught at London Met (previously North London Poly).
1999: The Global
Gamble.
Article in NLR
Jan-Feb 2009 on current financial crisis.
Eric Hobsbawm –
what Nick Cohen (Observer 31.03.13) calls a ‘conservative communist’ or
‘revolutionary traditionalist’: he stayed loyal to the
And another
review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/20/fractured-times-eric-hobsbawm-review?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Obituary: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/01/eric-hobsbawm-died-aged-95?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
2.2 associated with
the Labour party:
A spread of views today: Fabian, Tribunite, Bennite…
2.3 New labour and the
How new is the
third way?
From: New Labour:
Government and Opposition, by Michael Harris, Political Quarterly, Blackwell,
Vol 70 No 1, Jan - March 1999:
"New Labour
is a project to improve the working of a capitalist economy and society for
progressive ends, primarily the fuller development of its citizens, that is
necessary for
New:
Blair: “we are
re-writing some of the traditional rules of politics” (Labour Conference 1999)
“A new political
synthesis is taking shape. After a
period of stasis and confusion, a modernised centre-left (NB) has won power in
much of the western world.” TW (Demos) p 1… (but see below!!)
not just private
vs. public sector, but “third sector” i.e. non-profit, mutuals, co-
operatives,
voluntary sector [Ian Hargreaves] – though note is now only 4% of
GDP, and why is
third sector part of third way and not socialist or liberal?
centre:
important is
“centre ground, (because) the extremes are becalmed” TW p1 “far right” and far
left are largely irrelevant (though “primitive populist nationalist” politics
is not dead!)
cf. Gray 1998: “The truth is that free markets are creatures
of state power.. they are products of artifice, design and political
coercion. Laissez faire must be
centrally planned" (p 17) - and that its rationalist project of social
engineering is akin to that of soviet communism – and its costs in global
terms: increasing social inequalities, widespread poverty, social chaos and
political instability, and in USA: “crime, incarceration, racial and ethnic
conflict and family and community breakdown” (p 216) Note Gray was pro-Hayek and Thatcher…now
supports New Labour, and advocates
“plural capitalism” and “global governance” i.e. government/transnational
organisations must create and uphold framework of regulations within which different
capitalisms may flourish
note Bourdieu 1998
has also criticised market capitalism, but from old-fashioned state socialist
perspective (BM in Freedom
to the right?: “It
has had to accept some of the right’s agenda…” TW p 1 (!!) also: new synthesis
which not yet “a fully-formed ideological position”
old welfare and
education structures are breaking down - divorce is bad for children, and
stable families are good for the economy etc [Helen Wilkinson] (though claims
to be beyond liberal/traditional conflicts)
Giddens 1998: we
need to orient ourselves to a world where “there are no alternatives to
capitalism” and all to do is decide “how far, and in what ways, capitalism
should be governed and regulated”
Left?
reversing trends
to inequality and social exclusion
opposes myth that
govts are powerless (= left view?)
protecting the
environment (nether right nor left?)
racial and sexual
equality
preventing
poverty, poor education, poor health etc rather than trying to “cure” or
patch up
trite:
new technologies
must enhance our lives
we live in an
“information economy” (see below)
supporting parents
and education so children flourish
improving
international co-operation and democratising trans-national governance
not just =
pragmatism…
connect
progressive politics with imperative of ecological sustainability (ecological
arguments not progressive?)
questionable:
information
economy: “citizens live in the same information environment as those in power
over them” (Giddens 1999) – and the traditional authoritarian politics won’t
work any more, so must “deepen democracy”
unstable:
recognition of
globalisation and market plus sense
of progress and justice
prosperity with social inclusion
capitalism with community
welfare, public
systems and labour markets modernised
(i.e. flexible labour force)
contradictory (?):
socialism can be
achieved through market
conservative ends may
require interventionist government (but Thatcher…)
green goals may
depend on deals with business (“deals” with is the key…)
confused (or old
liberal):
a “social
investment state” (Giddens 1998) – what’s new, and what is a state for, and
what implications for power of state?
differs from
conservative view that human wickedness needs to be kept constrained by strong authority, and from liberal
view that human goodness needs to be freed from restraints – instead,
optimistic view of human nature because (?) now industrialised world has
opportunities for learning, travel and exploration
(Demos – also
self-govt, respect for autonomy, communities of interdependence, citizenship as
opportunities which prevented by social exclusion – but nb “the very prosperous
voluntarily exclude themselves from social institutions” (? I.e. the ruling
class rules but doesn’t govern?)
[Tom Bentley]:
back to Ivan Illich and de-schooling (right of parents to create own school) –
assessment of educational performance by external bodies e.g.
employers; use of
school buildings for variety of community purposes
and cf. Chomsky on
American politics: there is a one-party system – the property party and its
various factions (1984 interview…) – Americans are voting for Coca Cola or Pepsi
Cola - the packaging has to make them
look different [cf. Ralph Miliband 1974)
and in practice New Labour has:
proposed Freedom
of Information Act which criticised as being the opposite!!
Cf. Bauman 1998:
mobility of capital means “unprecedented disconnection of power from
obligations”
Removed right to
trial by jury for some 18,000 cases a year
Asylum bill
Terrorism
redefined in Prevention of Terrorism Act: “the use of serious violence against
persons or property, or the threat to use such violence to intimidate or coerce
the government, the public or any section of the public for political,
religious or ideological ends” – and police can arrest without warning any one
they suspect of being involved in preparation, commission or instigation of acts
of terrorism – civil courts will be used more, where standard of proof is lower
(Freedom 27/11/99)
Prison population
risen fastest ever to 65,000 (Cohen
1999), conviction rates rose by 6% (to 1,470,000) [Freedom
£34 million to be
spent on new DNA database to test evidence at scenes of crime on known
offenders
Minimum wage £47
per week – but cf. new millionaires and fat cats (Kingfisher paid £350 per head
to attend Labour conference dinner…) – Capital Gains Tax reduced from 40% to
22% for investments held for more than three years (and to 10% for more than 5
years)
Under Enterprise
Management Initiatives, firms can award up to £1million in share options free
of tax - cost to exchequer: £45 million,
which = what saved under new rules for incapacity benefit… taking from poor to
give to rich?
32 cases of
insider dealing referred to DTI in 1997 – 8, and not one has been acted on
Health and safety
Executive fails to investigate 90% of reported major injuries, and of those
investigated only 10% resulted in prosecution ( – no company
prosecuted for
workplace injury or death between 1996 and 1998)
Redefined
“conservative” to include opponents on the left… “those idiotic workers who
believe in, at the very least, true industrial democracy and, at the very most,
the infamous ownership by themselves of the means of production”
Will Self in
Independent on Sunday (date?)
Cf. Clinton:
Number in jail up
from 1,200,000 to 1,800,000 (&
Elite/ etc
evidence for
Lack of
participation/involvement evidence, and meaning of