The space for the Left in the current political environment
Dental care is no longer a birthright, and more and more adults die as a result of infections from blood poisoning due to bad teeth. Patients are treated according to strict monetary guidelines and not the Hipocratic Oath. Job security is non-existent. Crime is rampant. Insecurity breeds stress and bad quality of life. The laws of nature, the laws of the jungle. This is what the Right stands for. It simply does not work.
The way forward
To claim that the Left does not work and that the Right is the only viable alternative, is basically an insult to human intelligence. The Left can work, after all Leftist governmental theories guarantee schooling, healthcare, employment, leisure activities, housing, basic needs, transportation and pensions and Rightist government practices have proved to be the enemies of all these basic and fundamental rights.
What the Left needs to do is to create space for openness and dialogue, a frank examination of criteria in the public interest and not the private domain of the intellectuals who have destroyed the Leftist cause and the ability to communicate to the public that to vote Communist does not mean eating babies at breakfast or throwing people out of their homes.
What the Left needs today is to launch an internationalist approach to policy in a global environment of ever more common values, reaching the hearts and minds of the average citizen and naturally, the Leftist ideals are more attractive than those expounded by the Right.
The New Left
The notion of a New Left must necessarily begin with a thorough examination of the causes of the failure of the Left as we see it today. How is it possible for Rightist governments to take away and systematically attack the heroic gains of the last two centuries, in a world where war crimes, torture and rape are committed, and the culprits go unpunished...or worse, preen themselves on TV while everyone applauds and votes them back into power?
It is possible only because those who lead the Left are inept, inconsequential and incompetent intellectuals whose grasp of real life is confined to a breakfast served on a silver platter, lunch in a comfortable club and dinner in an expensive restaurant, paid for by the “idiots” who support their causes.
Marxism-Leninism is a very broad concept, but the underlying tone of it is that the real power must always be in the hands of the masses. This can only be the result of human beings standing up for their basic human rights. In today’s world, violent revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist oligarchs does not make sense (although the precept remains valid). However, dialogue, discourse, political activation of the population and the instigation of a desire to demand what is right and basic human rights is a valid starting point for future Leftist leaders.
These are the fundamental precepts upon which the Leftist movements of tomorrow must base themselves. And let this article be the starting point for the New Leftist Movements of tomorrow. There remains a lot of work to do.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
