Gropefest
I recently was forwarded a report on the open seminar on Attac's status and future, which was organised during the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre last January. Attac and the World Social Forum play an invaluable role in educating people about the evils of neoliberalism and encouraging people to think about alternatives to the status quo. That said, they do seem to have degenerated very quickly into a fairly pointless gropefest - by which I mean a festival where people grope around in the dark for something better than what they know and the only concrete outcome is the decision to get together to do it all again sometime.
Personally, I find it a bit depressing to realize that Attac/the WSF is still 'searching' for alternatives to neoliberalism. Not only does 'searching' involve wasting valuable time which allows the neoliberal order to further entrench itself, it involves trying to reinvent the wheel. So far as I can see, the best alternative to neoliberalism is the best model available, which is Scandinavian-style social democracy (especially in its pre-downsized form). What's more, we know it's possible because it actually exists and reproduces itself extremely successfully.
Of course, I would not go so far as to claim that social democracy was the last word in human social organization, so would not want to suggest that there would be anything illegitimate about endorsing other alternatives to neoliberalism, e.g., Parecon. But it seems to me that the time to start a conversation about going beyond capitalism altogether is when the neoliberal state has been supplanted by social democracy. I often ask myself, Why isn't Attac/the WSF reminding people that solid alternatives to neoliberalism already exist? Ones that work, are compatible with historically high standards of living, historically low poverty rates, nearly full employment, freedom of speech, gender equality, democracy and human rights?
Sometimes I think the rhetoric of Attac/the WSF, which seems to be about how we all need to get together to grope about for alternatives to neoliberalism, is the surest possible way to postpone neoliberalism's demise indefinitely. Or, to sound conspiratorial for a moment, could this be Attac/the WSF's true function? It is not inconceivable that Attac and the WSF are meant to be a maze without an exit.
What it comes down to is this: are people serious about displacing neoliberalism? Or are they only interested in starting an interminable, inconsequential conversation about unattainable perfection? The latter, it seems to me, is precisely what neoliberals would love the left to get bogged down in.
BELOW: WHICH WORLD IS POSSIBLE AGAIN?
