Q: Why are people not turning to the left as a result of the economic crisis?
A: It has always been an error to assume that an economic crisis is good for the left. When citizens are scared for their jobs, salaries, and for the future of their children they vote defensively and stay with conservatives. Alas the left parties remained trapped in national cultures. While capital and culture and communications are now transnational, the organisation of left politics is unable to escape the prison of the nation.
Q: In your Newsweek article you say the left must accept the market economy. Why?
A: The question is irrelevant. What matters is not more or less market but efficient markets and inefficient markets. The right can be nationalist and protectionist but this weakens the economic strength of Europe and workers will lose jobs. The left must have a more sophisticated analysis of the new economy. Denunciation of neo-liberalism or the rich or capitalism sounds good on a platform but does not offer a way forward. Without a deep understanding of the new materiality which people experience in different ways the left just repeats the slogans of the last century which are not relevant today.
Q: Why are British voters so hostile to Gordon brown?
A: There are three crises converging in British politics. First the crisis of the end of the 30 year period of deregulated globalised capitalism ending in the banking disaster and the current economic problems which hit the UK like Italy and other nations. Second, the crisis of the end of the Blair-Brown-Mandelson new Labour project shaped in the last decade. It gave Britain its longest period of hegemonic social democratic rule but now has lost force. Third, the crisis of the end of a parliamentary culture and manner of behaving of MPs in Britain, exposed in the expenses scandal. All countries suffer from the first crisis – the end of the 30 year “Enrichissez-vous” era with the consequent collapse of credit, growth and jobs. But Britain has to face the two other crises – the end of the new Labour era and the end of a parliamentary system. This triple crisis coincides with prime minister Gordon Brown who is brilliant at economic policy but less strong at populist communication via television with citizens. But as prime minister he gets the blame.
Q: What models can the left follow now that the Tony Blair 3rd way appears to have died?
A: There is no single model to follow. The differences between the German Social Democrats and the French Socialists are bigger than between Blairism and other European models. There are elements from each successful European democratic left model that can be transferred from country to country but political responses must be flexible and varied, not a simplistic imitation of a programme rooted in the time and space of one part of Europe
Q: Immigration now seems as big a theme as unemployment as the victory of the BNP or the Northern League in Italy and other xenophobic parties shows. Has the left an answer?
A: Immigration can be accommodated by a growing economy. But it is true that many, if not most, asylum seekers are in fact trafficked by criminal gangs. The left should be much clearer in exposing criminal trafficking of fake asylum seekers. But Europe’s protectionist agricultural policy keeps Africa in poverty. If Africans cannot export their goods to Europe they export themselves.
Q: For progressives is it also a question of leadership?
A: One cannot divorce politics and personality. The left lacks convincing leaders but leaders must be convinced and confident themselves and this is not the case in many countries. There may be some hope in Nordic nations where a new generation of younger women leaders are shaping a 21st century social democracy in place of 20th century former communists and statist socialists who are not really convinced by the historic compromises of social democracy in the style of a Willy Brandt or Felipe Gonzalez. The left’s vulgar anti-Americanism is rejected by workers who understand the fascism of a Saddam Hussain or Al Qaeda and want strong action taken to defend universal values against terrorism and Islamist anti-democratic fundamentalism.
Q: Which are the most interesting left parties at work globally today?
A: Zapatero’s combination of open economics and cultural-social reform is interesting though the Spanish economy which depended so much on housing now looks very weak. The left-liberal parties in Australia and Canada should be examined as well as progressive political experiments in some US states. We should look at Brazil and Chile. The left in Europe is content to run cities and regions but remains uncertain about the conquest of state power which requires alliances with the bourgeoisie and global capital.
Q: Can the left learn from Obama’s victory?
A: Obama is a response to Bush. No Bush, no Obama. He maintains a strong military profile and is increasing the war on terror in Afghanistan. It is not clear that the US Congress will vote universal health care and Obama may start to look like Jimmy Carter soon. I hope not, but the European left lives in a different region of the world with its own history and ways of seeing the world and changing it. America remains a world centre of freedom and democracy where the rights of women, of ethnic minorities, gays, journalists, university researchers as well as a clear separation of powers is much stronger than in Europe. Thus the crude anti-Americanism of the European left dating back to post-war communism and endorsed by the European progressive intelligentsia has been a disaster. The real enemies of the left are those who deny freedom, stone gays, place women under men’s control, and stop free publishing. But the left finds it easier to excuse a Putin or admire the tyrants of China or even the brothers Castro and their island dictatorship than make common cause with American progressives. So the best lesson to learn from Obama is to stop hating American freedom and democracy and denounce the true enemies of liberty and justice.
This was originally published by the Italian journal Europa