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/194/ Anti-Politics & Non-Movements (Patreon)

Published:
2021-05-25 06:00:03
Edited:
2021-05-28 11:09:09
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

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Content

On global insurrection and identity politics.

We discuss an essay by the ultra-left collective 'Endnotes' that deals with the same political questions as we do, but comes up with different answers. Are the fragmented and ephemeral movements that have taken to the streets in France, Chile and the US, for example, the future of politics? Anti-political rejections of the establishment seem radical, but can they overcome their own negativity? And are identity politics the necessary form that repoliticisation has taken? 

Readings:

Essay discussed

Onward Barbarians, Endnotes

Background

The Bleak Left, Tim Barker, n+1

Endnotes no.5: A melancholic goodbye…, Angry Workers of the World

On communisation and its theorists, Friends of the Classless 

Files

Comments

Davka Smolah Collective

Speaking of the crisis of representation from the ground, I just recently left a "democratic" organization because there was simply no pretense that I would be allowed to have my own politics. There's an endless jockeying of DSA caucuses rising, falling, issuing manifestos, but they're all actually run by a Twitter/Slack adhocracy in which the rank and file members are a legitimation story, not a constituency being represented.

Joel

Organized labor's absolute decline is just not a good reason to dismiss its relevance for the rebuilding of an emancipatory politics. In the context of the decimation of pretty much all voluntary organizations, the persistence of unions as the last remaining organs of mass collective agency would seem to make them more central than ever, even with all their flaws and weaknesses.

J P 3

The claim on page 17, "traditional movements formed around relatively stable ideological structures . . ." should include the qualification [after a transitional period that lasted decades]. With respect to movements, there's an ebb and flow. However, I do think with each movement of the tide, a foundation is being built up that may materialize into "relatively stable ideological structures" that could serve as the basis for a new mass politics. Obviously we don't have them now, but we live in a dynamic process. In the U.S. the simple fact that there is even the idea of a politics centered around "class" identity is an entirely novel idea for many of us. The axis for politics in recent decades has tended to operate on a spectrum that moves between social liberalism and social conservatism with economic questions restricted to "how much should we cut taxes and public services?" As conditions have gotten worse for a lot of people, the class identity question has started to become harder to ignore.

cap

The German politician Sarah Wagenknecht is a good example for citizen nationalism, continuously enraging the PMC parts of her party with hot takes such as that immigrants are to blame for lower wages

Paul Brewer

I found this a fascinating episode and it highlighted I concern I have that too often the Bungaverse knows what they don't like when they see it, but are less forthcoming about what is to be done. I came across an interesting piece of polling data today, which showed that health care was not a particularly important issue to African-Americans. When you think about the fact that Bernie never gained any traction among the mass of African-Americans with M4A as his signature issue both times, you've got to wonder if any white candidate on the Left focusing on this issue could win the Democratic party nomination with African-American votes front-loaded into Super Tuesday. If so, what is to be done? I feel like it's time to map out the institutional structures that need to be built, using the materials that lie around us, and at least the 'Endnotes' collective is making an essay at that.

Sith

Enjoyed this episode a lot. I'm still kind of new to your podcast, but this episode convinced me to buy your book since I think your guys' concerns with politics are similar to my own in that I've come to the conclusion in my own thinking that a lot of anti-establishment politics in the last decade has been overly negative, and how you guys have developed "anti-politics" as a theoretical lens seems like it will be productive for me. Can't wait till your book comes out!

Andrea

Wow. I coundn't bevieve my ears when I heard Phil recycling the right wing manipulation of Pasolini's poem about 68ers. That episode is really much more complex than an independent communist thinker siding with "authoritarianism" (since that is what he has been reduced to by Phil's usual reductionism when it comes to justifying his prejudices). But anyway, here's a good article about that. It's in Italian of course. https://www.internazionale.it/reportage/wu-ming-1/2015/10/29/pasolini-polizia-anniversario-morte