(I am unable to find any biographical information about Ms. Roberts. It appears she's British, and she's obviously an academic of some sort. But I don't know where.)
She begins with a strange but useful redefinition of the word politics, which becomes "the contestation of power." Specifically, "it contests the balance of power wielded by different class interests." The contrast is with the apolitical--"concerned more with ameliorating the excesses of capitalism than with challenging the system itself."
These new [apolitical--ed] players comprise a panoply of “Global Social Justice Movements,” (GSJMs) and “Non-Governmental Organizations,” (NGOs) which impose themselves on inchoate civil society all over the globe. Whilst the range of their particularistic interests is vast, they are generally united in the denigration of working class politics. These movements, which tend to be managed by western, middle class personnel, and are very often funded, directly or indirectly by western corporate interests and unelected bodies, eschew the representational demands of the “old” class politics, insisting instead that their “individualistic” agenda wields a higher moral authority. In the eyes of these new global players, “collective” politics, with its demands of representation, constituency and even democracy are discredited artifacts of a broken system, which needs to be superseded by a more moral form of global governance. [Footnotes deleted--ed]Ms. Roberts elaborates on the themes of this paragraph. The denigration of working class politics is, in her opinion, purposeful. There's a whiff of a conspiracy theory in the plot--the ruling class has purposely substituted apolitical action precisely for that reason. That funding comes from "western corporate interests and unelected bodies" is evidence, along with "western, middle class personnel" hired to do the dirty work.
I think this is the weakest part of her argument. Such a conspiracy would be impossible to keep secret; would require impossible unity among the myriad ruling class actors; and implies an ability to predict and manage an exceedingly complex future from 1970 to the present to ensure that the outcome comes out just right.
There is no conspiracy, and nobody is doing the bidding of the ruling class in any intentional way.
A second argument is more profound. The apolitical movements are principally concerned with moral arguments rather than power relationships. Traditional working class movements were ultimately about money and power, and not about saving whales or eliminating malaria. (The implausible conceit is that proletarians will successfully take on these important issues after they get power.)
The apolitical movements are aided by post-modernism, which suggests that
...a range of social interest groups, (e.g., feminism, anti-racism, environmentalism, etc.) can, through “moral and intellectual” leadership, (as opposed to mere “political” leadership) combine to effect such a challenge. Workers remain relevant to that amalgamation of interest groups, but only through their lived, concrete experience and not because of the historicity of their position.The rejection of historicity strikes at the heart of Marxism. Post-modernism denies the objective truth of any history--including Marxist history--substituting instead "lived" fables and tales.
Ms. Roberts recalls the bygone days of working class politics:
In the UK of the 1970s strikes, sit-ins, worker occupations and even work-ins (most famously perhaps at the Upper Clyde Ship Building works (UCS) were common events. Angry grey men, huddled around braziers, were a regular sight on the nightly news, and everyone seemed to be locked in debate about the economic and political future of the country.Today those angry, grey, faceless men are replaced by climate demonstrators, women's marchers, and pleas to close Guantanamo. A demand for power has yielded to middle class, moral lobbying.
She faults the apolitical organizations.
By elevating a spurious moral leadership above class politics a platform has been created for an open-ended plurality of apolitical causes. The effect of which has been to radically depoliticize democracy by removing from its preserve the defining issues of working class contestation.In her view, the social justice movements and NGOs have killed off the working class--and given the supposed conspiracy theory that was precisely the point.
She's quite right about the effect--and that's what makes her article so interesting. But I think she's got cause and effect wrong. I think the NGOs, etc., are as much a symptom as is the decline of working class politics. The causes of both phenomena are to be found in automation, globalization, and social media.
The decades since 1970 have largely put paid to the angry grey men. The Upper Clyde Ship Building Works were closed for good in 2001. A similar transition has occurred in American manufacturing. For example, Peabody Coal Company--still the largest coal company in the US--only employs 7,100 people total, including white collar workers. Membership in the United Automobile Workers has declined from 1.5 million in 1979 to under 400,000 today. Even retail companies like Walmart, McDonalds, and Starbucks are shrinking their work forces (along with raising the pay of their remaining employees). The era of cashierless stores is nearly upon us.
Globalization has mostly ended the labor strike as a useful weapon. Production can be sourced anywhere in the world. If the UAW strikes against General Motors, it may lead to the bankruptcy of the company, but it will have minimal impact on the ability of consumers to buy cars. The vehicles will be manufactured elsewhere by other people.
The result of these trends has (so far) not been higher unemployment, but rather different employment. Unskilled labor is devalued in this new world. The angry, grey, faceless men are no longer needed. Instead, one wants smiling, skilled, customer-friendly women. These new employees, far from being faceless, are required to invest their personality into their jobs.
When I was a cab driver back in the 70s, my colleagues were 99% male. And for good reason--cab driving was a dangerous job back then, especially for women. We were faceless, unskilled labor.
Today, with Uber, it's quite different. The app mostly ensures safety for both passenger and driver, and accordingly many drivers are today women. Customers and drivers are rated by each other, with consequences for both. A smiling woman is much more likely to get a high rating and a big tip than an angry, grey, faceless man. He's gonna get left by the side of the road.
So one reason one doesn't see "angry grey men huddled around braziers" anymore is that such gentlemen are no longer employed. It's got nothing to do with any conspiracy theory.
I strongly commend to Ms. Roberts' attention the book by Martin Gurri entitled The Revolt of the Public. Mr. Gurri explores in great detail the effect of social media on our politics. In the past people had no good way to communicate with like-minded folks around the world. The best they could do was listen to the nightly news and latch on to some lowest-common-denominator mass movement--e.g., opposition to Thatcherite economics. Just as there were only three channels on television, there were also only a handful of opportunities for political activism.
Social media changes all of that. This blog, for example, reaches people interested in the residue of Trotskyism, including many on the Right. It's a very small audience, but it is global. Such an effort is impossible absent social media.
Martin Gurri argues that social media empowers the "public," under which he includes all the "particularistic interests" that "impose themselves on inchoate civil society all over the globe." In the 1970s one had a mass movement--called Earth Day. But that has fractured, and today there are undoubtedly Facebook pages devoted to saving whales. And more--there are likely Facebook pages devoted to saving specifically Blue whales.
Each tiny cause attracts its own public, and each public sees its particular cause as reason for revolt. The publics, cumulatively, have buried mass movements. When it's so easy to create an association to promote the specific interests of trans females, for example, it's much harder to maintain a unified LGBTQ community against the rise of all the narrower publics.
We've ceased being a mass movement of angry, grey, faceless men, and instead become members of a myriad of angry, colorful, Facebooked men and women. Politics, as Ms. Roberts notes, is fractured beyond repair.
There is much more to Ms. Roberts' essay than I've discussed here. It is well worth reading. Make sure your pencil is sharp.
Further Reading:
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