This isn't going to be a huge post.
Basically, when we think of a "revolution" I think we tend to imagine some sort of romantic event, where "the people" make a clean break from a detested past and start to build the new society. (Okay, fuck it, I don't care if you don't see it that way! That's the way I imagine you see it, SO THERE!!!) In this light, a "revolutionary consciousness" would be the realization that the old order is bankrupt and has to go. And then the individual's spirit is enthused by the new values of the new society.
If that's anybody's idea of "revolution" and "revolutionary consciousness" then I say that I don't think reality will work out that way. For one thing, I believe that we've almost got all the political power we need to bring about a revolutionary transformation of society and that the boring, hum-drum of electoral politics can achieve this in a way more gradual than the romantic idea of a great event making a clean break with the past, but the revolution will be just as transformative nonetheless.
I also believe that what will be more enduring than a sudden, romantic transformation, will be a gradual process (not too gradually, obviously) of people becoming masters of their own lives and their own societies, in a way that is impossible to achieve with an abrupt change that will tend to push charismatic leaders to the fore. One way that I believe this can happen is to make workers citizens within their own workplaces, but another way (and one which will perhaps be easier to achieve in the short run) is to put citizens in charge of public sector institutions.
I believe that any provincial or federal government could easily create a new system of governance for the public sector. There would still be democratic accountability and leadership through elected ministers, but beneath that level institutions should be run in a tripartite fashion with one-third worker, one-third administrative and one-third citizen representation on boards of control.
As the employer, governments have the complete right to implement worker control over the public sector. At the same time, without creating to great a split with the past I think there's call for having managers who have a sense of the big picture remaining on the board. But there should be all sorts of positions (at levels of local control) for elected citizen representatives. As the recipients of the services provided and as representatives of the taxpayers, these citizens can voice complaints about service or service delivery and get a sense of who has a just case in things like work hours, job stability and costs, workers or management.
It will help ordinary people understand how their society works and will not seem to radical for all the people out in suburbia.
And with that abrupt, graceless ending, I'm off for the day.
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8 comments:
"For one thing, I believe that we've almost got all the political power we need to bring about a revolutionary transformation of society"
What you mean "we", white man?
"We," the people. Canadian citizens. Citizens of virtually every industrial democracy.
If we really applied the electoral process to get the things we want, AND we ignore threats of the capitalists (and use the political process to take away the power of those who would presume to threaten us) we really could get the things that we want.
Certainly there's a lot of cultural baggage to get rid of (authoritarianism, authoritarian religions, corporate propaganda, sexism, racism, etc.,) but we'll have to get rid of that one way or another regardless of whether we're voting or fighting.
"AND we ignore threats of the capitalists"
It's a little more than threats that they hold over the working class.
And again with the "we" stuff. At this point in time, given the state of consciousness of much (never mind most) of Canada (much less the rest of the planet), "we" is a dead issue. There are far too many cleavages, real and imagined, to start talking about "we" (it's hard enough to talk about "the working class" and get them to believe it) right now. We have to still work on making the right kind of "we" (and we get that with raised consciousness and organized political action).
Besides, you're asking that we turn away from one "singularity" ie The Revolution to look for another one: spontaneously raised consciousness in the masses (and how that's different from people who've had their consciousnesses raised enough to force one or more decisive struggle[s] I don't know).
There's a shit-lot more work (if not pain) that needs to happen before we can come to these:
"people becoming masters of their own lives and their own societies"
"to put citizens in charge of public sector institutions"
"governments have the complete right to implement worker control over the public sector"
That last point already happens, strictly speaking, but what you're asking for, for all that I don't see a problem with it in itself, is only a half-measure. Why not go all the way and demand the legalization of workers' control of every business?
Sure, we're the working class is riven with all sorts of other loyalties, but there still is such a thing as the working class and this proposal doesn't demand any arbitrary unity.
And capitalists don't hold empty threats over us, but their power is going to have to be confronted one way or another and I've seen precious few strategies for doing that in present day North America.
I do advocate worker control. I call it "workers as citizens." This proposal of public sector reform is a step in that direction. Eventually I would like to see markets dismantled in favour of participatory economics.
"and this proposal doesn't demand any arbitrary unity."
So where does enough impetus come from to make this happen? The only thing I can see in your idea is that spontaneous consciousness.
"their power is going to have to be confronted one way or another and I've seen precious few strategies for doing that in present day North America."
Sure because there are so few of us currently who see that as a condition for real change. The Left (wish I could do superscript here; I'd trademark that term at this point, like I wanted to do earlier with The Revolution) in North America right now is largely a centrist/liberal left with a right-wing social-democratic rump. There are so few of us after the world wars and the Cold War (not to mention the Right Resurgence of the 70s) to the left of that formation who are both serious and not infantile in their politics. Even with a crisis like the 30s, it's been pointed out (chillingly) to me that we have so little influence socially that the continent is just as likely to take a radical _right_ turn (and I'm certainly seeing more authoritarianism, not of the fascist kind but still bad, and its acceptance in public discourse).
"This proposal of public sector reform is a step in that direction."
Right. So why not go all the way?
Since there is so little public sentiment towards truly leftist ideas (let alone demanding and creating a genuine revolution) I think we'll (there's that "we" again!) have our hands full arguing for radicalizing the public sector.
I propose this as a first step because as a legitimately-elected government, socialists can do whatever they want with the public sector, no constitutional ifs, ands, or buts.
It's a big leap to simply impose these reforms on private firms. But if people get used to the idea in the public sector and the reforms turn out to be successes, then the ground has been laid to expand those reforms.
Where is the sentiment to vote for such a government to come from? Well, I truly believe that the decline in the left's fortunes comes from the weakness of social democracy in general and their floundeing in milquetoast neoliberalism since the 1980s. They don't propose anything new with any sort of theoretical grounding.
People are asking for something else. As neoliberalism continues to fail and fail somebody has to propose something big and different but not too big and different. at least regarding practical policy.
What do you mean by "revolutionary consciousness"? Someone recently asked me on my blog and I sort of shrugged it off as something "basic", like I was just mentioning it in passing. But what happens to someone, and what goes through their mind, when their consciousness is raised, when there is a paradigm shift? How would you define revolutionary consciousness - what makes it a specific consciousness?
http://utopiaorbust.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/a-permanently-car-free-times-square/#comment-880
Well, by "revolution" I mean a transformation of power relations in our society.
A "revolutionary consciousness" would be comprised of:
a) An acknowledgement that we need such a transformation.
b) The desire for such a transformation.
c) The ability to achieve such a transformation.
At the moment people believe that capitalism and its attendant authoritarian work practices is the only viable political-economic framework.
Getting people to see how irredeemably chaotic and inhuman this system is, getting people aware that there are alternatives, and getting people aware of the fact that they can have a lot more control over their own lives than they now think is possible, is what would create a revolutionary consciousness.
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