New-generation politics

Robert Buddan, Contributor

September 30 saw a national strike in Spain. On the same day, unions from 30 countries across Europe organised demonstrations centred in Brussels. Some three million pensioners, youth, workers and migrants in France protested against new pension and retirement laws on October 2. Europe is in the throes of desperate measures to rescue its social-market model of capitalism.

The protesters wanted to strike home a message. Adjustments should be gradual. The most vulnerable should be protected. Working and middle-class families were being made to pay for the damage done by banks and market traders. Burdens should be more equally shared. Those who caused the crisis should pay more.

The protesters had some solutions. Very high incomes should be taxed more. Debts should be rescheduled. Jobs should be created in infrastructure. There could be a transaction tax on the financial markets. There could be a banking levy to support government budgets. These would make the perpetrators pay more.

They also wanted a new kind of economy. Jobs should be created. That's the best way to stimulate the economy. If jobs are cut, demand will fall and the economies will sink deeper and longer into recession. Jobless growth is not sustainable. Governments should invest in small business. That is where most people make a living. That is where the economic stimulus should begin, not with tax breaks for the rich.

A rally in Washington on October 2 by 400 organisations (Where Martin Luther King made his 'I Have a Dream' speech in 1963) was directed against corporate America and corporate greed. It was against the job crisis, housing foreclosures, poverty and spending on war.

Different views

The private sector, demonstrators said, must invest in clean technology and, as Obama insists, clean energy too. Europe must follow Germany. It must invest more, not less, in education, including tertiary education. Companies, large and small, need technology to compete and educated people to work for them. Economies must be built on meaningful, socially useful and productive industry, not useless consumption.

There were some angry and profoundly critical views too. One British demonstrator said: "The financial crisis was caused by greed and profiteering, two essential elements of the modern, consumerist, capitalist society. The current economic model is the problem, no matter how big the bailout, the money is simply poured into a system that is fundamentally flawed. Small businesses are, and will be forced to close, while big businesses deemed vital for the global economy will continue to be bailed out. This is unjust. Austerity measures may reset the clock until the next crisis, but the only real solution is a revolution in the way in which we live, to the legal system and to the concept of never-ending conspicuous consumption."

Another one, this time from the Netherlands, rejected the standard, austerity approach, saying:

"I share the view of the workers that those who caused the crisis should be paying for it. Instead, we see the IMF marching in and imposing additional austerity measures to countries like Greece, while taking the opportunity to force the liberalisation of some of the remaining public sectors. This will only cause the gap between the rich and the poor to further increase."

The middle class and workers are talking back to the business and political class. But the latter say there is no alternative. To say there is no alternative is to say they have no new ideas.

New-Generation Economy

The welfare state in Europe fell into a crisis of cost in the 1970s. It was slowly replaced by a liberal turn towards the market economy. A form of the social, market economy was sometimes called the 'third way'. Tony Blair in Britain and Bill Clinton in the US sought to infuse both social and capitalist forms of society with competitiveness, technology and education, but the balance between social policies and market means gave markets too much room. Deregulation caused reckless market practices that led to the massive financial failure.

What comes next? This is what the marches and demonstrations are about. They are demonstrating in words and with feet that there is an alternative. A new generation wants a place in the economy. In the US and Europe, they are saying similar things.

Ed Miliband is the new leader of the British Labour Party (BLP). He beat his brother David in a close race. Both represent a new generation of politicians, but Ed had the backing of the unions. The unions are not as powerful in Britain (or Europe) as they used to be, which explains many of the anti-labour and pro-market policies of neoliberalism, but they do matter, as the BLP election showed.

Ed Miliband plans to tax banks more. He wants more equitable wage differentials (and less inequality between what executives and workers earn). He rejects cuts in universal welfare payments, while supporting cutting the budget deficit.

The story of the Milibands is a story of what has happened to socialists over the generations. David and Ed's father, Ralph Miliband, was a Marxist, well known in academia in the 1970s. David, the elder son of 45 years, was a protege of Tony Blair, and had been widely expected to win the leadership race. Ed, 40 years old, was closer to Gordon Brown, who was left of centre of Blair. Brown succeeded Blair. Brown's BLP lost elections in May.

Marxist ideas

The Marxist ideas of an earlier post-war generation gave way to the moderates of the 1980s and 1990s. Blair's moderate third-way position is giving way to something not yet clearly defined. But it is something that wants to get more closely back to the reality working families face. The BLP won only 29 per cent of the votes in May, but a recent poll showed it and the conservatives at 39 per cent each. The old conservative way of austerity is not gaining support either.

Between May and September, the BLP won 35,000 new members. Ed said he wants to bring the party back to its core values, those of the working class. Unions want the party to defend them against brutal public-sector cuts. Ed's thinking is much the same as that of the demonstrators in Europe and the US. Ed is also a former energy and climate minister, so you can bet he'll be strong on clean energy and environmental protection, as Obama is.

New-generation economy and politics is about renewing and transforming old ways through new models of economy and polity, especially ways that include opportunities for younger people. A crisis of confidence arises when people lose trust in the old ways. Ed Miliband hit the nail on the head at the BLP's September conference when he said, "I know we lost trust, I know we lost touch, I know we need to change. Today, a new generation has taken charge ... a new generation that understands the call for change."

The march on Washington raised the same theme of new-generation politics. The Government of Jamaica-IMF, Golding-Brady issues reflect tired, old ways. Jamaicans must not be deluded to think a new way is readily available, but they can be confident that a better way is possible. They must join the dialogue for a progressive way.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, UWI, Mona. Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm