On Balibar on Europe
On Tuesday the Guardian printed a fascinating and excellent piece by the philosopher Etienne Balibar. Unfortunately they chose to give it the slightly misleading title “Europe is a dead Political Project“. In fact Balibar argues that the European Union, it’s currency, it’s government and its technocrats, is looking doomed, but that this urgently poses the need for a new European civil society, built from the bottom up:
Does this mean that, in order to reverse the course of recent history, to shake the lethargy of a decaying political construction, we need something like a European populism, a simultaneous movement or a peaceful insurrection of popular masses who will be voicing their anger as victims of the crisis against its authors and beneficiaries, and calling for a control “from below” over the secret bargainings and deals made by markets, banks, and states? Yes indeed.
Balibar’s call is timely. Such a movement is a necessity, and it is a movement that must be pan-European. Of course we must direct our fire at our own national states, solidarity begins at home; but we should do so in constant communication with movements in other countries. The first test is Greece. Can effective European solidarity with Greece be built that can overcome xenophobia and austerity?
One place where more discussion is required is Balibar’s mention of the social democratic parties of Europe, what he calls the left. He is certainly correct that they have “surrendered to the dogmas and rationales of neoliberalism”. In Greece they are the ones driving through the austerity measures, in Britain we have just ended 13 years of neo-liberal, third-way Labourism. However, it does not follow that “it has lost every capacity to express social struggles or launch emancipatory movements”. This is a question that we are posed with sharply in Britain at the moment. Our traditional social democratic party has moved from government to opposition. We should not be at all surprised if they begin to more clearly express, and even launch, social struggles. This creates strategic questions for those who have long ago rejected these organisations that cannot be shirked by reminding ourselves of their past crimes.
Balibar’s piece is part of a debate on the European left that needs to happen. This debate itself won’t stop the austerity measures that Europe’s elite want to impose in every single country. However, it is important that there is a debate which can shape the form that resistance to these measures can take, and that can allow us to share experiences across borders. Small steps taken in that direction ought to become big strides as soon as possible.
