The space for the Left in the current political environment

That the left-wing political aspirations of yesteryear were raised to the pinnacles of success by generations of selfless, heroic activists, let there be no doubt. However, in the aftermath of this tremendous, historic victory – a breakthrough for Humankind – who is galvanising the political left today, where is the bond that unites its movements, the only chance it has to survive and present a credible alternative for a governance which respects basic human rights today?

Defining the political Left and Right

In broad terms, we may say that today’s left stands for “nurture” while the right follows what it claims to be the laws of “nature”. Nurturing involves creating mechanisms for protecting the rights of people, whoever they are, it involves creating mechanisms for guaranteeing social equality, which naturally involves a degree of economic interventionism by the State.

Nurturing means government interventionism (after all, what is a government elected for?), it means the implementation of checks and balances to make sure that a clique of elitists does not govern an economy, it involves a high degree of responsibility in economic planning, which passes by a naturally highest possible profile designated to a spatial planning ministry (today relegated to minor secretary of state status in most countries). Nurturing means guaranteeing basic human rights to education, healthcare, housing, employment, leisure activities and a decent retirement pension.

The excuse that human activity should be governed by human nature is the most basic error expounded by the Right, seized upon by criminal elements within all human societies which try to rule through division, symbolic control and coertion. The “nature” approach tries to justify the most base, animal instincts in governance, as in the law of the jungle, from which Humankind, driven by the Left, has been trying to escape for centuries.

The “nature” or “rightist” approach tries to protect the vested interests of the moneyed or propertied classes, hiding behind theories of individual responsibility (within a heavily loaded famework); laissez-faire, without placing the proper checks to guarantee equality; privatization, heavily weighed in favour of capitalist elitists, favouring outsourcing (an excuse for cutting jobs and limiting employment contracts) and basically creating all the conditions for a domination of society by those who hold all the keys to wealth and power.

Failure of the Left

Given the precepts above, it would seem illogical for the Left to be out of power...but it is. Perhaps the greatest enemy of the political Left is its innate fragmentation, whereby activists assume infantile positions more befitting spoilt brats, refusing to dialogue with those who stand by different ideas, refusing to take part in debates where supposed “enemies” will be present, even if these are defenders of alternative Leftist positions.

The result is that those who were elected to represent the “people” (Leftist movements), usually in a minority, fail to represent anything but their own interests, and meanwhile the Right manages to infect the foundations of Socialism like maggots, introducing into the hearts and minds of the internatinal community the notion that the bottom line of accounts is more important than human value.

Therefore the Left has only itself to blame. Valid ideas, valid ideals, valid activists, remain the victims of childish temper tantrums expounded by the armchair Lefist intellectuals who claim to have the rights over the Leftist cause. How many of these people ever worked on the shop floor? How many of these idealists ever knew what it was like to crave for a meal at the end of the day? How many of these well-educated intellectuals ever held a hoe in their hands? How many of them tried to live on a basic pension?

True, the caitalist-monetarist model spent trillions of USD trying to sabotage the Leftist projects, complete with assassination attempts, economic, state and political terrorism and the worst kind of policies which always protected the moneyed classes (usually gravitating around the centres of power) and never the people.

Failure of the Right

Rightist and centre-rightist policies in the majority of states today have led to a situation whereby basic healthcare and education are a question of monetary power. Gone is the concept whereby an education was provided by the State – basic degree courses, Masters´courses and doctorates are today a question of negotiation and not a birthright. Gone is the right to a house, to a job, to a salary. More and more, temporary employment contracts create pseudo-figures to satisfy pseudo-officials in some grey pseudo-governmental environment which protects the interests of the invisible barons who perpetuate such organisms to maintain the jobs for the boys.