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Book Details
Abstract
What future is there for the left, faced with the challenges of the twenty-first century? Based on a lifetime's experience in politics, Marta Harnecker addresses the crisis facing the left today.
At its heart, this book is a critique of social democratic realpolitik. Harnecker reminds us that, contrary to today's orthodoxy, politics is not the art of the possible but the art of making the impossible possible by building a social and political force capable of changing reality.
She believes that the social experiments being carried out in Latin America today hold out hope that an alternative to capitalism is possible; they are essentially socialist, democratic projects in which the people are the driving force. To create a real alternative to capitalism, though, the left must change.
Rebuilding the Left offers real hope to those who still believe that we can create a different world.
Marta Harnecker is a sociologist, political scientist, journalist and activist. After studying with Louis Althusser in Paris she returned to her native Chile, but was forced into exile following the military coup against Salvador Allende’s government. In Cuba she ran the research institute Memoria Popular Latinoamerica (MEPLA) and continues to write. She has published over 60 books to date, from her classic The Basic Concepts of Historical Materialism to the more recent The Left after Seattle. An ardent defender of the Bolivarian revolution, Harnecker’s most recent books are Hugo Chávez Frias: un hombre, un pueblo; Venezuela: Militares junto al pueblo and Venezuela: una revolución sui generis.
'This book is an illuminating overview of the revolutionary left, particularly in Latin America, and its failings in the second part of the 20th century. Essential reading for all those who are trying to revive the left to meet new challenges.'
Samir Amin
‘Full of observations, analyses and reflections which are extremely useful for the times we live in. Harnecker’s personal knowledge of so many social and political movements makes this book particularly important.'
Francois Houtart
`For Harnecker, politics is the art of discovering the potential in the present in order to make possible tomorrow what appears impossible today. In this book she does just this for Latin America and in particular Venezuela. But first she ditches the dogmas of the past with a disarming frankness. The result is an original and valuable contribution to rethinking left politics.'
Hilary Wainwright, author of Reclaim the State
'Here in Britain, we still have a lot to learn about participatory democracy and this book is an excellent place to start. Charley Allan recommends Marta Harnecker's in-depth study of left-wing movements to anyone aiming to change the system.'
Revolutionary Links, Morning Star
'Marta's ideas about what the left should be doing is a great tonic; and not just for those in Latin America but for those of us on the British left in these dying days of Blairism.'
Hugh O' Shaughnessy, Tribune
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | cover | ||
| About this book | i | ||
| About the author | i | ||
| Title page | iii | ||
| Table of Contents | v | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| PART\r 1 The Left and the New World | 5 | ||
| Chapter 1 Profound Changes in the World | 7 | ||
| A unit in real time on a planetary scale | 8 | ||
| The internationalisation of the production process | 8 | ||
| The nature of the state changes but its role is not reduced | 12 | ||
| The communications revolution in the service of capital | 19 | ||
| Fragmenting strategy | 22 | ||
| The military danger | 23 | ||
| The phenomenon of imperialism has not disappeared, but has taken on new forms | 25 | ||
| Chapter 2 Profound Discontent Among Much of Humankind | 27 | ||
| Decline in the standard of living | 28 | ||
| The new international cycle | 29 | ||
| Chapter 3 Towards the Creation of an Alternative Social Bloc | 32 | ||
| The need to rebuild the Left | 32 | ||
| Building a broad anti-neo-liberal social and political bloc | 34 | ||
| Capitalist sectors in direct contradiction to the transnationals | 35 | ||
| PART II The Crisis of ‘Party’ and Why We Need a \rNew Left Political Culture | 37 | ||
| Chapter 4 Crisis of Theory | 39 | ||
| Threefold origin | 39 | ||
| A crisis of Marxism doesn’t mean we have to deny Marx’s contributions | 41 | ||
| Chapter 5 Programmatic Crisis and the Crisis of Credibility | 42 | ||
| No plan for an alternative to capitalism | 42 | ||
| Crisis of the credibility of politics and politicians | 43 | ||
| Chapter 6 The Organic Crisis | 45 | ||
| There is no political subject equal to the new challenges | 45 | ||
| How copying the Bolshevik model led to deviations | 46 | ||
| Other mistakes and deviations | 50 | ||
| Chapter 7 The Theory Underlying This Concept of Party | 56 | ||
| Kautsky’s thesis | 56 | ||
| How this is reflected in the conception of the revolutionary party | 63 | ||
| Chapter 8 Politics as the Art of Making the Impossible Possible | 66 | ||
| Is it possible to come up with an alternative? | 66 | ||
| Politics cannot be defined as the art of the possible | 67 | ||
| Utopian goals: a source of inspiration | 70 | ||
| Changing the traditional vision of politics | 70 | ||
| Overcoming the narrow definition of power | 71 | ||
| Politics as the art of building a social force in opposition to the system | 71 | ||
| Chapter 9 Why We Need a Political Organisation | 73 | ||
| The effects of the ruling ideology | 74 | ||
| Manufacturing consent | 74 | ||
| Direct knowledge and indirect knowledge | 76 | ||
| Drawing up a social project that is an alternative to capitalism | 77 | ||
| The need to give millions of people a single will | 78 | ||
| PART III \rThe New Political Instrument | 81 | ||
| Chapter 10 The Characteristics of the New Political Instrument | 83 | ||
| Understanding the importance of social practice for creating consciousness | 83 | ||
| An organisation immersed in society | 84 | ||
| Overcoming hegemonism | 86 | ||
| Creating a new relationship with the popular movement | 87 | ||
| No more workerism | 90 | ||
| A body to coordinate all the different emancipatory social practices | 91 | ||
| Democracy: the cause to champion | 91 | ||
| An organisation which is the harbinger of the new society | 97 | ||
| Chapter 11 A New Paradigm for Internal Organisation | 100 | ||
| Unite your members around a community of values and a concrete programme | 100 | ||
| Contemplating different kinds of membership | 101 | ||
| Giving up authoritarian methods | 104 | ||
| There is no political effectiveness without unified leadership | 105 | ||
| A political organisation for those exploited and excluded by capitalism | 112 | ||
| A political organisation which is not naïve but is preparing itself for any eventuality | 112 | ||
| New internationalist practice for the globalised world | 114 | ||
| PART IV From Reforms to Revolution: \rThe Bolivarian Revolutionary Process | 115 | ||
| Chapter 12 Local Governments: Signposts to an Alternative Path | 117 | ||
| The problem of knowing how to govern | 119 | ||
| The party’s weakness vis-à-vis the government | 120 | ||
| The bureaucratic apparatus and how to contend with it | 122 | ||
| Popular participation in the government | 125 | ||
| The participatory budget | 126 | ||
| Chapter 13 The Left and Reform | 130 | ||
| Has the Left become reformist? | 130 | ||
| Varieties of reformism | 132 | ||
| Specific challenges in the election arena | 136 | ||
| A creative approach to the a-legal | 138 | ||
| Chapter 14 The Bolivarian Revolution — Is it a Revolution? | 139 | ||
| The state takes the initiative | 139 | ||
| Participation and human development | 140 | ||
| The communal councils | 140 | ||
| Encouraging worker participation | 145 | ||
| The state from a revolutionary perspective | 149 | ||
| On the political instrument that could move these ideas forward | 149 | ||
| Notes | 152 | ||
| Index | 163 |