What’s Left is a collaborative project of solidarity, love, and passion to add something positive to the struggle for a better world. We have truly enjoyed writing, sharing, and debating the finer points of socialist analysis, our victories, and setbacks. Thank you for all of your support throughout the year. Have a safe, happy, and restorative holiday season. Comradely, Amalia, Ben, Graham, and Roxanne As always, find more thoughtful news and analysis at CPress.org.

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“FEATURE”

What’s Left This Year

As 2016 comes to an end, it is hard to write about politics, policy, and issues affecting the world. Post-truth, anti-fact, fake news, populism, alt-right, and the blame game are the main themes in the media and make it difficult to develop a meaningful narrative. Writing critiques of these motifs requires the rejection of so many layers of populist faulty logic that it seems to be an ever-increasing challenge to make constructive recommendations for moving forward without writing a short book every week.

Part of the issue is the shocked awe and impending doom saturating the commentary of the politically active brought on by the coming Trump Presidency. This sense of doom has been established and fostered through social media and then amplified by traditional media sources.

Then there is the glaring problem of the traditional news industry succumbing to the “disruptive capitalism” of social media companies. The mainstream media is an industry that has acted as cheerleader when this disruption impacted industries with lost jobs and influence, but now the media suddenly expects that things should be different for them. The blinders have been torn away and suddenly they realize the darkness that surrounds them. For those who have bemoaned the loss of in-depth reporting, cut in favour of shock-headlines and higher ratings and ad revenue, the gaping hole left in journalism is obvious and vast. Yet, the question remains of what good journalism and analysis, if any, can fill this hole.

Doom and implosion is a terrible foundation for writing unless you are a dystopian novelist.

The liberal elite – many of whom work in the news industry and in the political system rocked by Trump’s victory – do not seem to grasp what has happened. Their world view – that there is a natural progression toward their notions of freedom, tolerance, and understanding – is shattered. Their conjecture that the Bush years were an abnormal deviation from that progress is being undermined. Their hand-wringing about how they have misjudged working people so much is unending.

For the left and for socialist organizers it is a little more serious. The understanding of the very real possibility of a bigot-in-chief, coupled with the knowledge that the left is not strong enough to combat the coming onslaught, is not a natural mobilizing force. While under existing liberal administrations, the strategy has been to use popular mobilizations to drive pro-worker, pro-rights policies. Under Trump this strategy will have to become more defensive – the fight will shift from moving things forward to a desperate struggle to hold things at the status quo.

That being said, it seems clear that many of the issues raised by What’s Left this year will continue to be rather important. Following twenty years of missed opportunities for the left to shift the course of the US government, the state apparatus has taken on a rather menacing form. Deep connections between the intelligence community, massive technology companies, and the expanding influence of finance capitalists over every aspect of society mean that the interests of the majority, minorities, and working people have been silenced. The militarization of the police forces (a new report shows 1,200 people were killed by police in the US in 2016), surveillance, and attacks on progressive protesters and unionists continue unabated. A preview by Trump came even before taking office, where he targeted an overworked and underpaid local union president simply because he called Trump out for lying about the number of jobs being saved at Carrier. Another one of his first acts as President-elect was to denounce demonstrations against what protestors felt was a broken democratic system in the US – weirdly proving their point.

In the Global South, activists say these developments change little. For them, Trump is a perfect caricature of the USA they deal with on a regular basis. This is probably underestimating the impact that Trump’s cabal will have. Already there have been budgetary shifts in many developing countries due to the economic and foreign policy program changes expected from Trump.

In advanced capitalist countries, technocrats are figuring out how to deal with an autocrat that they did not help place into power. For many of them, the process is an easy one: just ignore it until you are told to do otherwise, then toe the line. The result will likely be a complete capitulation to the global Trump agenda (once they decide what that is).

Already, we see the mood on Wall Street shifting towards an odd mix of nostalgia and enthusiasm. They sense a political climate that will allow their fortunes to grow very quickly over the short term. Deregulation, massive debt financed government spending, ignoring externalities (like the environment), supporting anti-worker laws, and an administration run by Wall Street will pave the way to the exuberance of pre-2008.

For socialists, there is a tinge of fear and more than a little confusion seeping into any conversation about what is to be done. And it is not all Trump and his band of alt-right proto-fascist “conservatives”. It is also the open question of how the liberal establishment will respond to them, and how much deference will be given to more extreme positions. The answer to this will set the boundaries for those on the far right who see the election of Trump as a call to action.

However, there is opportunity in every crisis and this one is no different.

Liberals will not be good at understanding and taking responsibility for why working people have rejected their great historical program of wealth creation (for the wealthy). Many workers voted for Trump to stick it to the elite. And while many on the left have not been clear enough about the differences between the socialist and liberal programs, socialists do have the actual antidote to the Trumps of the world: a program that represents the democratic and economic interest of working people. And, there is historical precedent for the left to come out ahead after such a disaster – if the work is put into organizing.

The right have used a post-truth, fact-light world to advance their agenda. Indeed, such a world is necessary for them to succeed since their agenda is about power over, not empowerment of, working people. Say anything facades do not work if people examine the details and the rejection of facts and evidence have been the hallmarks of the (old and) new rise of the populist right.

A socialist program that is neither post-truth nor fact-light is the alternative to this despair. Facts matter, but unlike the elite program of spoon-feeding certain facts that help an opportunistic agenda, the democratic socialist program is – by its nature – the whole truth and nothing but. The reason for this is that the left’s view of reality is based on critique and alternative.

This orientation will be seen by some as a drag on the ability to engage. Some will think that we must “learn from the right” and incorporate their tactics and simplified talking points. But, this election has shown that, for the left, rhetoric alone will not empower workers to take political control. Anger and uniformed anti-elite rhetoric may have resulted in the rejection of liberal elitism but the lack of substance in these arguments is what made it easy for so many to fall victim to right-wing populism.

Any renewed call of the left must include the phrase “facts matter”. The Left must embrace its diversity and tendency to critique everything as a strength. Now more than ever, socialist activists must make sure they have a fact-based analysis and constructive critique of their own policy and organizing programs, including a clear view, not simply of how we wish it were, but of the existing reality. It is the only way that a real strategy for solidarity and resistance can be successful.

This year, What’s Left has done its best to present a facts matter analysis and a clear-eyed view of where we need to go. We will continue in the New Year to present critique and positive news from across the struggle. We will present recommendations for how solidarity can be won and be there on the ground to make it happen.

Together, we can defend the interests of workers and advance a truly progressive agenda for the future.

 

“ELSEWHERE”

Geopolitics of the Syrian civil war

The initiating of rebellion and civil war in the Middle East can only be understood through a social and economic context and history of imperialism in the region. However, the shape these conflicts take is heavily influenced by the unique geopolitics of the region. Mainly, the tensions between monarchies and republican state governments and interests.

• Read the full article here: Geopolitics of the Syrian civil war | Citizens’ Press

Racism on campus still ever present

Year after year, there is inevitably some incident in the media where an individual or group of people are publicly called out for wearing racist costumes during Halloween or other party seasons. For example, we’ve seen plenty of celebrities chastised for wearing offensive, racist, and distasteful costumes. As if on cue, shortly after Halloween this year, Canada’s major media outlets reported on a party held by Queen’s University students after comedian Celeste Kim posted pictures on her Twitter account that were originally posted in a private Queen’s students Facebook group and denounced the attendees.

• The Cream of the Rotten Crop | Mike Yam

 

“OUR YEAR IN REVIEW”

What’s Left this year has covered a diversity of topics. However, it should be obvious that our writers and contributors find passion in specific issues. We link to some of those below.

Digital Organizing and Security

In our continued work to provide insight and recommendations for the use of digital tools as part of political organizing, we have outlined the risks, analyzed the issues, and promoted secure and effective approaches.

• Lost in technology: The struggles of the modern political campaign

• There should be no rushing the “Internet of Things”

• Open Source Software – a necessary tool to build our movements

• A crash course in digital security

Elections

We have been following the campaigns of numerous left-wing candidates who have lead the way in showing that the left can still win the hearts and minds of workers with rather traditional socialist programs.

• Supporting the Bernie Sanders campaign from Canada | A. Murphy

• Digital Democracy is not easy, but UK Labour under Corbyn has a plan

• Corbyn and the Labour Party

• Looking beyond the candidates: Understanding what’s important in the Democratic Primary

• Dispatch from the US: While Sanders fights to gain momentum, Trump dominates Republican race

New attacks on public services

Several new neoliberal policy programs have been announced or advanced this year, and we have brought you some critical analysis of them and their alternatives.

• Basic Income - An analysis

• In opposition to the Ontario Liberal government’s “Basic Income Guarantee”

• Where does economic critique come from?

• Selling Toronto Hydro is a terrible idea

• Liberal climate strategy more about privatization than green energy

• NASA is becoming a victim of US-style capitalism

• Ontario’s Budget and Tuition Fees

• It’s never too early to start exposing bad Liberal policy

• Revenue Options for Toronto (and other cities)

Precarious economics

Along with the general critique of government policies that undermine economic democracy, we have also reviewed the impacts of the so called “sharing economy” based on the exploitation of precarious workers.

• How can work in the 21st century be better for workers?

• The “precariate”: A new demographic for organizing change

• Young workers, activism, and building a better world

• “Gig Economy” too broad to be meaningful

• Uber business model spreads to food delivery

Environment

The current focus for grass roots organizing has been within the environmental movement. While not all the environmental movement can be described as “left-wing", many of the activists take the view that system change is necessary.

• US Labor and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL)

• Catastrophic wilderness destruction, massive bird population decline, and record low Arctic ice coverage – Everything is not alright

• Government needs to refocus and reinvest in Parks Canada

• Alberta and Just Transition

• The Leap Manifesto, Alberta, and the realities of the demand for oil