We live in a global society, in which the increased globalisation and liberalisation of free trade offers the only answer to the problem of global poverty and injustice. At least, that is what the ruling classes of the 21st century would have us believe. This has firmly become the dominant ideology of our time. The reality is somewhat different, this being a world where four McDonalds open every day and the rich are free to exploit (almost) as they choose.
The dominant ideology has always consisted of two different ‘ideologies’; the truth and the lie. The truth is what the ruling classes actually believe, while the lie is what they require ordinary people to put their trust in. The lie is the spin. The truth, as will always happen in classist society, is that the ruling classes care only about profit generation and preserving their privileged position in an often-hostile society. To combat such hostility the ruling classes, physical repression aside, invariably elect to lie to their subjects. This lie takes the form of a pretence that their own politics, economics, culture and class structure will ultimately lead to a better world for all.
Even Nazism, as evil and reactionary as it was, did pretend to have the ultimate goal of a perfect world, albeit a world without ‘racial pollution’. This was the lie. The reality was that Nazism offered a chance for a group of racists to make money, live a privileged life at the expense of its subjects, get rid of ‘racial impurities’ and crush opposition. In this regard, one can only have a perverse admiration for Joseph Goebbels’ skill as a propagandist and his success in moulding and influencing public opinion to suit the Nazi agenda. Stalinist Russia was also based on a falsification, i.e. that Stalin, scourge of Socialism, was operating on behalf of the workers and peasants of the Soviet Union and not vice versa as was later revealed to be the case.
So we too, at the dawn of the 21st century, face an attack from a double pronged dominant ideology. The lie, as stated in the opening line, is just that, a lie. The truth is that the so-called ‘third way’, neoliberalism, is truly reactionary and concerned only with the ruling classes own interests. The goal of the ‘third way’ is not only making money for politicians and their rich backers but the policy envisages the ultimate death of democracy. This is the truly scary aspect.
Democracy is to be replaced by the unelected and extremely unrepresentative capitalist elite that controls the WTO, IMF and World Bank. Profits will increase. As will poverty. Corporate control and economic dictatorship will both escalate and the cycle will continue. This is the real long term objective of the capitalists of the early 21st century. Obviously the lies propagated about neoliberalism do not reflect this aspect. Nor do they reflect the harsh, sometimes Dickensonian, conditions imposed on the working classes of ‘lesser developed’ countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Globalisation, contrary to what governments and capitalists claim, does not offer a viable way out of the quagmire; it offers only better tools for and a more favourable environment in which an economic dictatorship of the capitalists can operate. In this society poverty will grow, the rich will get richer still, and both workers’ and individuals’ rights will be eroded.
Even today in Britain, under the Thatcherite policies of Blair's so-called Labour party, one in four children now live below the poverty line. This is in a supposedly ‘developed’ country. Under a Labour government the gap between the rich and the poor has grown more than any time before Thatcher was elected.
The pace of globalisation has quickened in the past few years, as has the fightback. However, the pace of the fightback must be quickened, as I fear that if the neoliberal process continues there will come a future stage where, in a quasi-Orwellian state, the fightback will become an impossibility. This will be because the dominant ideology of the neoliberalists will be securely in place. People will be fooled by the media, or will simply not want to know, while voices of dissent will be mercilessly crushed. There will be no rights, only privileges. There will be no argument, only acceptance. There will be no democratic discussion only dictatorial rule. People will not matter because people will be insignificant, pushed to the margins by capitalist profiteering.
This is the world into which neoliberals such as Blair, Bush and Schroder want to deliver us. Therefore the fightback must be escalated now. Socialists must place themselves in the front lines, not only of the trade unions but of the so-called anti-Capitalist movement, and must give political direction to the movement, for without a clear alternative we are lost.
However, it is in the institutional press, the expounders of the current dominant ideology, that we face our greatest opponents. These institutions of capitalism, owned by and subjective to the rich and powerful, play a major role in forming and moulding public opinion among all classes. Such rags as The Sun, The Express or The Daily Mail are nothing but mouthpieces for different capitalist groups, united their anti-revolutionary/pro-capitalist stance. One only has to look at how the mass media portrayed the recent Mayday and Genoa protests to understand the nature of the media. We can only wonder what kind of response the Brussels demonstrations will get. The State is already trying to achieve the criminalisation of protest, through Draconian 'anti-terrorism' laws, in their search for complete hegemony, Gramsci style. These are forces that have to be defeated if globalisation is to be stopped, and socialism to be built. Socialists must unite, try to limit the factional bickering in the ranks and aspire to destroy the current dominant ideology and bring social revolution back onto the political agenda.