Global Learning
  • Home
  • Defenders of Cuban Socialism
    • UN Charter
    • Declaration of Human Rights
    • Bandung
    • New International Economic Order
    • Non-Aligned Movement
  • Substack editorial column
  • New Cold War articles
  • Friends of Socialist China articles
  • Global Research articles
  • Counterpunch articles
  • Cuba and the world-system
    • Table of Contents and chapter summaries
    • About the author
    • Endorsements
    • Obtaining your copy
  • Blog ¨The View from the South¨
    • Blog Index
    • Posts in reverse chronological order
  • The Voice of Third World Leaders
    • Asia >
      • Ho Chi Minh
      • Xi Jinping, President of China
    • Africa >
      • Kwame Nkrumah
      • Julius Nyerere
    • Latin America >
      • Fidel Castro
      • Hugo Chávez
      • Raúl Castro >
        • 55th anniversary speech, January 1, 1914
        • Opening Speech, CELAC
        • Address at G-77, June 15, 2014
        • Address to National Assembly, July 5, 2014
        • Address to National Assembly, December 20, 2014
        • Speech on Venezuela at ALBA, 3-17-2015
        • Declaration of December 18, 2015 on USA-Cuba relations
        • Speech at ALBA, March 5, 2018
      • Miguel Díaz-Canel >
        • UN address, September 26, 2018
        • 100th annivesary, CP of China
      • Evo Morales >
        • About Evo Morales
        • Address to G-77 plus China, January 8, 2014
        • Address to UN General Assembly, September 24, 2014
      • Rafael Correa >
        • About Rafael Correa
        • Speech at CELAC 1/29/2015
        • Speech at Summit of the Americas 2015
      • Nicolás Maduro
      • Cristina Fernández
      • Cuban Ministry of Foreign Relations >
        • Statement at re-opening of Cuban Embassy in USA, June 20, 2015
        • The visit of Barack Obama to Cuba
        • Declaration on parliamentary coup in Brazil, August 31, 2016
        • Declaration of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba on Venezuela, April 13, 2019
      • ALBA >
        • Declaration of ALBA Political Council, May 21, 2019
        • Declaration on Venezuela, March 17, 2015
        • Declaration on Venezuela, April 10, 2017
      • Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) >
        • Havana Declaration 2014
        • Declaration on Venezuela, March 26
    • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • International >
      • Peoples’ Summit 2015
      • The Group of 77 >
        • Declaration on a New World Order 2014
        • Declaration on Venezuela 3/26/2015
      • BRICS
      • Non-Aligned Movement
  • Readings
    • Charles McKelvey, Cuba in Global Context
    • Piero Gleijeses, Cuba and Africa
    • Charles McKelvey, Chávez and the Revolution in Venezuela
    • Charles McKelvey, The unfinished agenda of race in USA
    • Charles McKelvey, Marxist-Leninist-Fidelist-Chavist Revolutionary
  • Recommended Books
  • Contact

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Recommended books on Amazon.com; click on image of book to connect

Ideological frames

6/23/2016

0 Comments

 
Posted June 20, 2016  

     In “This Is Our Neoliberal Nightmare: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Why the Market and the Wealthy Win Every Time” (Alternet, June 8, 2016), Asin Shivani sees four ideologies in the modern world: classical liberalism, communism, fascism, and neoliberalism.  He speaks of them in a form suggesting that none of them is good for the human person, with the possible exception of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism, he maintains, elevates the individual; in contrast to fascism, which elevates the state, and communism, which elevates the collectivity.  The new ideology of neoliberalism, which emerged in the 1970s, “has been more successful than most past ideologies in redefining subjectivity, in making people alter their sense of themselves, their personhood, their identities, their hopes and expectations and dreams and idealizations,” in accordance with the demands of the market.  He appears to dislike classical liberalism because it did not practice what it preached, for capitalism under the sway of liberal ideology in practice elevated the market and not the individual.

       The difficulty with this characterization of modern ideologies is that it implies that ideologies necessarily have negative consequences for humanity.  This negative view of ideology is made possible by not seeing the alternative ideology that has been forged by Third World popular movements during the last 100 years.  These Third World ideologies and movements were conceived during the first half of the twentieth century with the intention of constructing an alternative to the capitalism of the modern West and the communism led by the Soviet Union, rejecting both as different forms of materialism that debased the human person.  In their more radical formulations, the Third World movements were anti-colonial and anti-neocolonial, seeking to establish the independence, equality, and full sovereignty of all nations; and they sought to protect the social and economic rights of all persons.  After the setback caused by the global neoliberal project, they reemerged in the 1990s, with greater maturity, incorporating insights that had emerged in the West, such as the principle of equality between men and women and the need to protect and sustain the natural environment.  When they took control of governments, they proceeded to take fundamental measures in defense of the nation and the people.  The lists of steps that they have taken is impressive: literacy programs; free education; free health clinics; and the subsidizing of food, housing, utilities and transportation.  Being countries that were underdeveloped, a legacy of colonialism and neocolonialism, they took necessary steps to fund their programs: nationalization, agrarian reform, and alliances with “outlaw” nations, thus provoking the hostility of the global powers.  Finding themselves in a situation in which they had to fight both the legacy of poverty and the wrath of the global powers, they persisted, and they never ceased in proclaiming to the world the need for a more just and democratic world-system.

      The significance of this global movement from below cannot be denied in an historic moment in which the world-system is experiencing a profound systemic crisis, increasingly demonstrating its unsustainability.  But the theory and practice of the Third World movement does not appear in the characterization of modern ideologies presented in the Shivani article.  Does this represent a subtle form of Eurocentrism? 

      Equally problematic is the list of bad guys that Shivani presents, each of which is associated with communism or fascism, but not liberalism, classic or neo:  Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao and Franco.  In the first place, we should maintain a distinction between fascism, which is based on the identification and repression of scapegoats, exploiting the fears and confusions of the people, in alliance with the capitalist class; and communism, which at least began as something more noble.  Secondly, the cases of Stalin and Mao should be treated with more care.  Stalin qualifies as an evil dictator, but we should make an effort to understand and explain the fall of the project of Lenin and the rise of Stalinism.  The Trotskyites have done excellent work in this regard (see Grant 1997), but they have made an historic, strategic error in rigidly applying the lessons of the Soviet Union to other lands and times.  The case of China and Mao is complicated and exceptional.  It is an oversimplification to suggest that Mao is a bad guy, as a piece in the construction of a pejorative role of ideology.

     But where are the good guys?  In this list of persons who emerged as leaders who forged ideologies, where are Ho, Nasser, Fidel, Nyerere, Allende, Chávez, Evo, Correa, Lula, Dilma, and Cristina?  I suppose that overlooking Third World charismatic leaders comes with overlooking Third World popular movements.

     If we do not see the Third World movements and leaders and the ideology that they formed, how can we hope to construct an ideology that responds to the conditions of our own nations, thus participating in the making of a more just and democratic world-system?  The characterization of modern ideology presented by Shavani contributes to the cynicism and pessimism of the North, consistent with the realism or pragmatism that is an adjustment to neoliberalism, as Shavani observes.  To overcome cynicism, we must learn to listen to the voices from below, emerging in the Third World, for they are voices that educate and inspire.
 
Reference
 
Grant, Ted.  1997.  Rusia—De la revolución a la contrarrevolución: Un análisis marxista.  Prólogo de Alan Woods.  Traducción de Jordi Martorell.  Madrid: Fundación Federico Engels. [Originally published in English as Russia: From Revolution to Counterrevolution].
 
 
Key words: ideology, neoliberalism, liberalism, communism, fascism, Third World popular movements, Shivani
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author: Charles McKelvey

    Retired professor, writer,  and Marxist-Leninist-Fidelist-Chavist revolutionary

    Categories

    All
    American Revolution
    Blog Index
    Bolivia
    Charismatic Leaders
    China
    Critique Of The Left
    Cuban History
    Cuba Today
    Ecuador
    Environment
    French Revolution
    Gay Rights
    Haitian Revolution
    Knowledge
    Latin American History
    Latin American Right
    Latin American Unity
    Marx
    Marxism-Leninism
    Mexican Revolution
    Miscellaneous
    Neocolonialism
    Neoliberalism
    Nicaragua
    North-South Cooperation
    Presidential Elections 2016
    Press
    Public Debate In USA
    Race
    Religion And Revolution
    Revolution
    Russian Revolution
    South-South Cooperation
    Third World
    Trump
    US Ascent
    US Imperialism
    Vanguard
    Venezuela
    Vietnam
    Wallerstein
    Women And Revolution
    World History
    World-System
    World-System Crisis

    Archives

    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    January 2013

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

More Ads


website by Sierra Creation