Social-democracy, the NPP’s tasks and global extremism

by Kumar David

The first illustration I have reproduced today is from a publication called ‘weforum.org’ (World Economic Forum) related to the Pew Research Centre and shows how satisfaction with democracy (which I am using as a stand-in for human-rights-and-social-democracy) has been shifting across the world from 1996 to 2020. One can be sure that dissatisfaction is continuing to rise in the current post-Covid, near-recession, unpredictable inflation, uncertain central bank interest-rate, global context. The short period from 2004 to 2008 when there was decline in pessimism corresponded to the dot.com bubble. After that bubble burst pessimism has continued to rise again steeply.

I guess it’s correct to say that in recent times there has also been a tilt to right-wing populism and racist trends in some parts of the world and a loss of sympathy for leftist ideas. The old order, that is religion, and race are reclaiming their place. Socialist and humanist values such as “From each according to his ability to each according to his needs” have a hard time raising their head. In truth it has always been like this, since, alas, history only inches forward over millennia. Gautama’s manifest truths have not made much progress but the 30 million deities of the Hindu pantheon are basking in the noonday sun and putrefying on the banks of Mother Ganga. As a card-carrying agnostic I had better shut up before I get lynched and had better stick to moaning about the apparent global drift to the right.

The second illustration I have replicated shows the level of satisfaction with democracy in 12 countries. Clearly except for the first three (India, Germany and Canada) the scores are not impressive. Right across Western Europe, the USA and all the way to Greece, people are cheesed off. The most unusual case is India at the top of the list which proves that its millions of phoney idols are doing a good job ladling out opium by the shovel-full to the masses. It also proves, rather frighteningly, that Modi-nationalism, “Making India Great Again as in the days of the Mahabharata”, is still a saleable commodity.

I have made the point that human story inches forward very slowly and that in this post-Covid, near-recession global context it pushes the world backwards. I cannot hold back from repeating it because it is so pertinent to my case today. Society and history stutter as they progress. A fine example of how to fight this is Brazil, the most important of the South and Central American countries. The remarkable Lula was framed and wrongfully imprisoned in 2018 but freed on appeal when the charges were exposed as trumped up. Dilma Rousseff who had succeeded Lula as President was herself, again wrongfully, removed from the office of President in 2015-16. This was the state of affairs!

Hundreds of thousands if not up to a million supporters filled the streets of Sao Paulo (the nation’s 11 million strong largest city) calling on Lula to defy the arrest order and not to turn himself in. There was no way the authorities could have reached him because of the throngs blocking every street. But at that point Lula made a remarkable decision notwithstanding his popularity rating of 87%. He decided that democracy must have its way. “Let them arrest me, let’s go to trial. There is no way forward if the people themselves do not grow up. The millions of you must fight on. They can pluck a flower here and a hundred rose there, but can they prevent the coming of spring?”. The wisdom of this decision payed off when Lula, probably the most popular politician in the world at the time, won the Presidency again just a few weeks ago despite another raft of conspiracies against him by outgoing President Bolsanaro. I am making a song and dance about this because there are lessons here for National People’s Power (NPP) to pick up. The NPP must defy extremists in yellow robes and religious and racial fanatics. Democracy, as Lula declared in 2018 cannot grow up until the people themselves grow up.

Last week ( Feb 5) I resolutely argued that the NPP should boldly declare that its political platform is Social-Democracy. If not, what? Obviously not capitalism. Then what – a one-party state, a USSR-type rigid centralised economic-and-authoritarian system, or a theocratic-state and feudal dictatorship as in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf countries, or a Burma style military regime? All balderdash! The NPP should declare its philosophy to be social-democracy and tell the JVP to line up behind it.

This is the context in which Lula’s defiance of his own nearly million strong mobilisation chanting “Don’t turn yourself in” has resounding meaning. It is not the authorities, the crooked Congressmen, nor the corrupt bourgeois politicians that he primarily sought to educate. His primary mission was to educate his own base and the people of Brazil. Often one hears it said in this country “If the people themselves are narrow, corrupt and racist, then nothing can be achieved”. Lula by accepting the challenge of democracy was demanding that his closest mass base take up the challenge of standing up. “The fresh air brings vigour and the open spaces have a splendour of their own” to quote Russell speaking in another context.

I have said that National Peoples’ Power must openly declare that its economic and political philosophy is social-democracy. I need to define my terms more carefully and to remind readers that there is a window of say three months before the next election (Local Govt or Provincial) for a thorough internal discussion. The NPP/JVP’s electoral prospects are improving by the day and three months is time enough. The NPP must hold a formal Conference and adopt a definitive statement of programmes and principles; to say this is the primary purpose of my article today. It is a contribution to the formulation of such a Resolution and I look forward to inputs from other comrades.

I have said in previous versions of this column that National Peoples’ Power must openly declare that its economic and political philosophy is social-democracy. I need to define my terms more closely. Social-democracy is a twentieth-century concept and it first raised its head in a fuzzy form with the Ramsay McDonald governments of January-November 1924 and 1929-1931 in the UK. From 1931 to 1935 McDonald led a Tory dominated National Government which Labour opposed (he was expelled though with Keir Hardy he was one of the party’s founders). The National Government was routed at the 1935 elections. Altogether a sad story that Labour would rather forget.

Aneurin (“Nye”) Bevan was a much happier experience. As Minister of Health in Attlee’s 1945-51 government Bevan spearheaded the formation of National Health Service and was an architect of the Welfare State. Previously he was a leader of the 1926 General Strike.

Across Europe social-democracy initially emerged as welfarism in the middle of the eighteen-hundreds. Religious organisations and charities sought to protect the needy. The traditions of the French Revolution and Bismarck’s old-age pensions and accident insurance helped. Later the Nordic (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland) welfare model ensured remarkable improvements. Gender egalitarianism and income redistribution were funded by heavy taxation in the Nordic model. The huge revenues generated by North Sea oil has been diverted into improving standards of living.

There are two sides to social-democracy as a philosophy that the NPP must digest; one is welfarism that I have touched on in the previous two paragraphs, the other is the commitment to democracy against human-rights violations, narrow nationalisms, religious obscurantism and neo-fascism. The 1800s was the age of revolution when the values of the French Revolution, Marxism and progressive anarchism prevailed. A compromise with capitalism followed with the rise of Empire, colonialism and mercantilism until the end of WW-I. This was reversed by the Russian Revolution, the liberation of China, the end of colonialism in the Indian Subcontinent and more gradually in Latin America and Africa. Nevertheless, as I said in the second paragraph of this article, there appears to be a global drift to right-wing extremism in some parts of the world, mainly Eastern Europe. Therefore the NPP should internationalise its discourse and fraternise with socialist movements fighting against such trends all over the world.

It is not my intention to review this variegated history in just the three paragraphs, I only wish to point out that the NPP needs to thoroughly assimilate the history of social-democracy in preparation for the political and philosophical journey it has to undertake. Such a review will be the backbone of a political document drafted within say three months. If it puts its mind to it, it has the intellectual resources to get the job done. The JVP then following the NPP’s lead will be in a strong position to face electoral challenges. I look forward to contributions from other comrades in widening this discussion.