Other Roads: Politics and policy after Neoliberalism

1
Other Roads Politics and policy after
Neo-liberalism

• Presentation to Conference on
• Other Worlds Social Movements and the Making of
  Alternatives
• Sydney April 28-29, 2005
• John Wiseman
• Professor of Public Policy, Victoria University
• john.wiseman_at_vu.edu.au

2
Building other worlds Learning from the rise of
Neo-liberalism

• Social and political paradigm shifts are built
  on
• Other voices Clear, compelling stories about
  what is wrong - and why
• Other views Clear, compelling stories about
  better ways forward
• Other actions Institutions and practices
  capable of turning alternative ideas into reality
• Other movements Broad, strong networks and
  alliances
• Other knowledge Learning new ways of seeing,
  living and working

3
Other Voices The importance of critique and
resistance

• The naming of the intolerable is itself the
  hope. When something is termed intolerable,
  actions must follow.
• John Berger
• Resistance, exodus, the emptying out of the
  enemys power and the multitudes construction of
  a new society are one and the same process.
• Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri

4
Other Voices Whats wrong with
Neo-liberalism?

• The world run as a market without edges by and
  for the rich and powerful is a world of
• Deepening inequalities and exclusions
• Rising levels of fear and insecurity
• Unsustainable environmental damage
• Stifled democracy
• Shrivelling political imagination and hope

5
Other Views The importance of alternative
ideas

• The world suffers under a dictatorship of no
  alternatives. Ideas are not enough to
  overthrow that dictatorship. We cannot,
  however, overthrow it without ideas.
• Roberto Mangabeira Unger
• The affirmation of alternatives goes hand in
  hand with the affirmation that there are
  alternatives to the alternatives. The other
  possible world is a utopian aspiration tat
  comprises several possible worlds. The other
  possible world may be many things, but never a
  world with no alternatives.
• Boaventura de Sousa Santos

6
Other Views Sources of alternative political
ideas

• Anti-corporate globalisation movements including
  World Social Forum networks and participants
• Peace and anti-war movements
• Socialist, trade union and labour movements
• Ecological movements
• Feminist movements
• Indigenous peoples movements
• Spiritual and faith communities
• Local and community development movements
• Movements for democratising global governance
• Alternative economic perspectives
• Alternative public administration perspectives

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Other Views Sources of alternative political
ideas

• New Democracy
• Subsidiarity
• Ecological sustainability
• Protecting and respecting the common heritage of
  humanity
• Diversity
• Human rights
• Jobs, livelihood and employment
• Food security and safety
• Equity
• The precautionary principle
• John Cavanagh and Jerry Mander
• International Forum on Globalization

8
Other Views Deepening Democracy

• It comes back to deepening of democracy. What
  we have at this moment is democracy reduced to
  the rule of liesIt's a vicious cycle, and we
  need instead to create virtuous cycles that allow
  economic democracy to feed political democracy,
  cultural identities, and cultural diversity.
• Vandanna Shiva
• We define the reinvention of democracy to mean
  the reinvention of a society such that the mode
  of economic production, the structures of
  political governance, the dissemination of
  scientific innovation, the organization of the
  media, social relations and the relationships
  between society and nature are subject to a
  radical participatory and living democratic
  process.
• Thomas Ponniah and William Fisher
• Another World is Possible

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Other Actions The importance of alternative
institutions and practices

• The importance of experimentation and attention
  to detail
• deepening democracy at
• local, global and national levels

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Other Actions Local knowledge and local
democracy

• I think democracy is going to be reclaimed at
  the local level in a globally networked fashion
  Im not talking about retreating into localism,
  dropping out of the international debate, but I
  think that what were seeing internationally is a
  trend to resist a further erosion of democratic
  rights globally and a reclaiming of participatory
  democracy locally.
• Naomi Klein
• Local resistances and experiments
• Chipko
• Kerala
• Chiapas
• Porto Alegre

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Other Actions Democratising global governance

• Defending national sovereignty
• Regulating and replacing corporate globalisation
• Reforming and replacing the World Bank, IMF and
  WTO
• Revitalising the United Nations
• UN Economic Security Council UN Conference on
  Trade and Development UN International
  Insolvency Court UN International Finance
  Organisation and Regional Monetary Funds UN
  Trade Disputes Court UN Environment
  Organisation UN Organisation for Corporate
  Accountability John Cavanagh and Jerry Mander
• Exploring new forms of transnational civil
  society

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Other Actions Democratising national governance

• No internationally-focused movement can sustain
  itselflet alone fundamentally challenge
  capitalismwithout also sinking the deepest
  domestic roots. Any politics that is
  anti-capitalist must carry the fight into the
  national states which remain the ultimate bases
  of capitalisms power, and any anti-capitalist
  politics with staying power can only evolve out
  of the collective experiences and struggles in
  workplaces, neighbourhoods, universities, and
  within historic communities such as nations.
• Sam Gindin

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Other Actions Democratising economics

• Strengthen long term productive investment,
  reducing power of finance capital and mobilising
  social savings
• Endow citizens and workers through social
  inheritance mechanisms and universal life long
  education
• Democratize the market, decentralising and
  broadening access to knowledge, capital and
  resources
• Expand investment in the caring economy and
  opportunities for social solidarity and
  co-operation
• Broaden and deepen participatory, deliberative
  representative democratic process radically
  expand access to information and communication
  media
• Strengthen role and capacity of civil society
  organisations and networks
• Roberto Mangabeira Unger
• Democracy Realized

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Other Actions Democratising economics...

• Social rather than private ownership
• Nested worker and consumer councils
• Balanced job complexes rather than corporate
  workplace organisations
• Remuneration for effort and sacrifice rather than
  for property, power or output
• Participatory planning rather than markets or
  central planning
• Participatory self management rather than class
  rule
• Michael Albert Parecon

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From neo-liberalism to new democracy?
Alternative directions in public policy

• From competitive and acquisitive individualism
  toRediscovery of importance of connectedness,
  co-operation and creativity
• From narrow economic and market logic toValuing
  and linking environmental, social, economic and
  cultural perspectives, strategies and outcomes
• From short term profit and consumption toLonger
  term investment in sustainable, resilient
  communities and environments
• From inevitable growing gap between winners and
  losers toStrategic action to strengthen
  inclusion and respect for diversity
• From maximising privatisation to..reinvesting in
  community and public sector capacities,
  infrastructure and partnerships
• From opaque and unaccountable bureaucratic and
  corporate hierarchies toengaging and involving
  citizens and communities in informed, democratic
  decision making.
• From contracting and risk managementto
  Co-ordinating and connecting multiple sources of
  knowledge and expertise
• Wayne Parsons

16
Other Actions Alternative institutions and
practices?

• Cancel public debt of countries in the South
• International taxes on financial transactions
  (eg. Tobin tax)
• Dismantle fiscal, legal and banking havens
• Defend right to work and to receive social
  security
• Reject WTO free-trade regulations
• Defend nutritional sovereignty and security
• Prohibit patents on the mind and on living
  things.
• Strengthen policies against sexism, anti-Semitism
  and racism
• Strengthen measures to end the destruction of the
  environment
• Dismantle foreign military bases and remove
  foreign troops
• Strengthen right to information for all citizens
• Profoundly reform and democratize international
  organizations
• Manifesto released at WSF, Porto Alegre, 2005

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Other movements The importance of building
broad, strong networks and alliances

• The movement of movements The World Social
  Forum - One No and Many Yesses
• Key debates
• Reform or revolution?
• Socialism or social emancipation?
• The state as enemy or potentiality?
• National or global struggles?
• Direct or institutional action?
• Principle of equality or respect for difference?
• Boaventura de Sousa Santos

18
Other movements The importance of building
broad, strong networks and alliances

• Exploring new relationships between social
  movements, political parties, government and
  stateslearning form recent Latin American
  political experience
• Brazil
• Venezuala
• Uruguay
• Bolivia

19
Other Knowledge The importance of new sources
and spaces for learning

• Democracy is about the utilization of
  knowledge. A democratic society is one in which
  all members are able to develop and express their
  capacities to the full in the running of that
  society. One of the tasks of a democratic state
  is to create the conditions for this. Democracy
  is threatened by by institutions that appropriate
  and, in effect privatize knowledge.
• Hilary Wainwright
• Learning spaces
• Political and social movements (eg. WSF)
• Civil society and NGOs (eg. MSF)
• Governments (eg. Venezuela, Porto Allegre)
• Universities (eg. International Network of
  Scholar Activists)
• Internet (eg. Open Democracy)

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Reality check?

• How widely understood and accepted are the
  criticisms of Neo-liberalism?
• How widely understood and accepted are ideas
  about alternative political directions?
  (Capitalism as the least worst system?)
• How strong are the alternative institutions,
  practices and movements compared to the
  strength of dominant institutions and practices?
• Are spaces for learning about new political
  directions expanding or shrinking?

21
Other Roads Key policy and research challenges

• Document and communicate evidence of the
  damage and dangers of Neo-liberalism
• Identify, share and learn from the most promising
  alternative
• Political and policy ideas
• Institutions and practices
• Networks and movements
• Knowledge and skills
• Continue to open up space for learning and
  dialogue about key dilemmas and debates

22
Other Roads The Importance of Hope

• Against the International of terror, that
  neo-liberalism represents we must raise an
  International of Hope. Unity beyond borders,
  languages, colours, cultures, sexes, strategies
  and thoughts, of all those who prefer a living
  humanity. The International of Hope. Not the
  bureaucracy of Hope. Not an image inverse to and
  thus similar what is annihilating us. Not power
  with a new sign or new clothes. A flower. Yes
  that flower of hope. A song Yes. The song of
  life.
• Zapatistas, First Declaration of Realidad
  For Humanity and Against Neo-Liberalism
• Chiapas, 1997