RISING POPULAR RESISTANCE

The European sheeple is rebelling. The old political parties that have been professing, ad infinitum, to uphold the core values/interests of their various human constituencies seem to have lost touch with their bases. The old parties have been captured, politically that is, by transnational capital. During the last forty years, the operating principles of these parties succumbed to the logic of capital (dead labor), abandoning the interests of humanity or life! They are now reaping the consequences. Many of the old European parties lost significant number of seats in their respective parliament.

Given this newly developing scenario, obvious questions come to mind. Why are the new parties easily destroying the old established ones that have been around for centuries? What are some of the core values on which the newly emerging political parties are formulating their policies; political, economic, etc.? More relevantly, are there lessons to be learned? If so, how can they inform those of us in the peripheries/semi-periphery (Africans, Asians, South Americans, etc.?) As we have been trying to point out repeatedly, the old classification of left and right doesn’t seem to work anymore. Putting it bluntly, this dichotomous notion is painfully outdated. It is time to be less gullible and more critical when examining political inclinations these days. It might make more sense just to look at the various programs of the different parties (on which they have been campaigning), rather than assigning old labels to them. It is also important to notice some of the obvious commonalities between the emerging political parties. It is not only the right but also the greens that made significant headways, obliterating the traditionally dominant parties. Analyzing these commonalities will be very critical if one wants to foresee, to some extent, what would probably unfold in the years to come.

Some of the common values or convictions expressed by the emerging parties are; national sovereignty, away from the heavy handed centralized governance of Brussels. The concern for the wellbeing of the average European sheeple; by rejecting some of the excessive policies of the EU (ECB/EC) that primarily promotes the interests of oligarchs/transnational capital. The concern for the environment and the need to do something concrete about it, rather than just talk around these critical issues, as the status quo is now doing. To live peacefully and harmoniously, both within their own countries as well as amongst the larger European community, mostly by distancing themselves from the belligerent postures of the EU/NATO. The desire to retain cultural identity, away from the rampant commodification project of transnational capital! The old doctrinaires in the traditional parties acquiesced to the destruction of Libya, Syria, Iraq, etc. and consequences are now obvious. Unrestrained immigration heading towards West Europe are clear signs of the failed policies of the pro-war old guards!

In days gone by, many center left parties were anti-war; today, they start war all over. Also, they used to be pro-labor; today, they implement policies that are decidedly anti-labor and antipoor. Because of the distorted picture of reality the status quo continuously paints, many have become disillusioned about the very objective and sincerity of the old parties. The emerging rightists of Europe, for example, are not as racist or as fascists or as anti-immigrants as the main stream media make them out to be. Le Pen of France is coming around and has tempered many of her extremist ideological positions. Yet, globally entrenched interests, instead of elaborating and trying to analyze this new and ascending development, is content only in cheap smearing campaigns. Common sense is what is lost in the bureaucracy of the EU, which is allied with the extreme advocates of neoliberalism and wars. What we are witnessing is resistance to this entrenched lunacy! Unlike the European situation, many of us in Africa do not have the democratic and financial means to set up viable opposition that can vie for state power. The resources required to create wellendowed political machineries that can canvas a whole country is out of reach, at least to many of the African opposition groups. For example the territory of the Congo, which is larger than the whole of West Europe and lacks modern infrastructure, is not conducive to conduct intensive political campaigns, to say the least. In addition, the incumbent power holders of Africa systemically stifle meaningful opposition from emerging. As a result, opposition to the status quo can only be formed in the ways of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, etc., In other words, along the lines of the formative years of the Arab Spring. The current situation in the Sudan is one such example. Fixated establishment thinking, particularly in regards to processes of political succession/government change, is hitting the wall, so to speak! In this regard, the AU and the African nation states are at pain on how to handle the current Sudanese situation. Believe it or not, political battles are being waged on all fronts and on a continuous basis throughout our continent. A number of these insurrections might not be willing to follow, to the letter, the existing protocol of the dominant institutions of governance, be them of the continent or otherwise.