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NEWS & LETTERS, October 2004'Life
After Capitalism'?
New
York--A much anticipated conference on "Life After Capitalism," held
here Aug. 20-22, proved to be both disappointing and disturbing. Only a few
hundred people seemed to be in attendance at any time, and very little of the
conference dealt with its ostensible theme. The weak attendance seems to have
been caused, in part, by the organizers’ exclusionary practices. The
conference’s name recalled the subtitle of Michael Albert’s recent book,
PARECON --short for "participatory economics." One plenary session
included an explanation of parecon by Albert, followed by commentaries from
Andrew Kliman, a Marxist-Humanist, and Peter Staudenmaier of the Institute for
Social Ecology. Unfortunately all other panels dealing with "visions"
had to compete against this one in the same time slot. The remainder of the
conference was devoted to life under capitalism and to organizing efforts
against it. Most panels featured either community-based activist groups, or
discussions of "prefigurative" politics, in other words, the practice
of new social relations here and now, within capitalism. Some
of these discussions were important. For instance, Michael Hardt, co-author of
EMPIRE, grappled with how to ensure that "horizontal," anti-vanguardist
organizations are able to sustain themselves. Yet one must wonder why the
organizers promised a conference on "Life After Capitalism," and
attracted an audience on that basis, but then served up something quite
different. Most
disturbing were the authoritarian, exclusionary practices of the organizers. A
student working group on "Alternatives to Capitalism" had asked to put
on a panel, but was not allowed to do so because its members are interested in
the thought of Karl Marx. Moreover the organizers rejected the requests of News
and Letters Committees, the International Socialist Organization, the Spartacist
League and other groups to set up literature tables. A notice on the conference
website stated that the "space" would not be "receptive" to
"sectarian left groupings," and asked them to stay away. However
Judith Le Blanc of the Communist Party was welcomed as United For Peace and
Justice’s representative on the opening plenary. No
definition of "sectarian left groupings" was given; the website notice
stated only that "you know who you are." The vagueness of the category
indicated that the organizers "felt entitled to exclude whoever they
happened to call ‘sectarian,’" as one dissenter put it. Organizers’
subsequent defenses confirmed this charge: the conference was their
"space," and they were entitled to do with it what they wanted. A
critic pointed out that this notion, which was lauded as a "principle"
of "anarchism," was no different from defenses of segregated housing
on the ground that "your home is your castle." The
organizers had originally portrayed themselves and their aims quite differently.
The conference program "envisioned a space in which all voices are heard, a
space in which the concept of ‘horizontalism’ can be both a goal and a tool.
… [I]t is necessary for us to put great amounts of energy and thought into
structuring egalitarian and provocative conversations, ones in which all of our
voices and ideas can thrive." Such pluralistic practice is not merely
ethically sound. As the organizers correctly stressed, "seeing and hearing
one another in our full humanity and confronting the power hierarchies that we
observe amongst ourselves" are crucial aspects of breaking down and
challenging capitalistic ideology and behavior. Unfortunately they failed to
practice what they preached. The
Spartacist League/Spartacus Youth Club and the Internationalist Group set up
literature tables at an empty end of the main hall. The organizers then called
on uniformed security guards to expel them. At this point, people with News and
Letters Committees began to chant "Freedom of Speech, Let them Stay."
As the chanting spread through the hall, an organizer picked up a microphone and
tried to drown it out, but did not succeed. The organizers were forced to
abandon their effort to exclude the "sectarians," but spitefully
continued to harass and bait unwanted groups throughout the conference. "That
this kind of thing occurred within our movement at the very moment when we are
embroiled in the fight against the police-state tactics surrounding the
Republican National Convention protests should give us cause for concern,"
complained the dissenter. "Despite the conference title, ‘Life After
Capitalism,’ they [the organizers] displayed the pitiful state of life under
capitalism." --New York News and Letters Committee attendees |
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