‘If everybody listened to me, this world would be a perfect world’.
This is a quote taken from the old Snoopy cartoons, yet it seems to be the order of day.
In the United States, the riots that emerged as a reaction to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis have transformed into a nationwide state of civil unrest, that seems to be lurching closer to an outright revolt with the passing of every evening. The seemingly endless stream of videos that have flooded social media over the course of the last week have exposed the institutions of U.S policing for exactly what they are; violent, thuggish paramilitary forces, only too eager to lash out at the populations they are supposed to protect, with the military arsenal provided to them as a result of the neoliberal state’s infatuation with profit at all cost. The response to this, amongst that section of the public that can boast possession of a spine, has been one of overwhelming solidarity. Millions have marched, donated and pledged support to the emancipatory movement not just in the United States, but across the globe. From Hong Kong, to Idlib in Syria, to Paris, the beating heart of the Western world, a sense of unity has arisen amongst the masses who are simply unable to tolerate the grinding boot of Capital on their necks any longer.
Despite this, the hope I hold for the movement, and its ability to deliver meaningful change, is rapidly ebbing away.
I wrote previously about the necessity of ensuring that the movement that has burgeoned out of the death of Mr Floyd remain a movement of the people, free from the groping hands of Capital that corrupt all they touch. Nonetheless, what we have witnessed over the course of the last week is the grand banquet of the neoliberal class, feasting on the pain and destruction that has erupted in the U.S and consolidating their parasitic hold over society. It is a testament to the success of their operation, and it presents a challenge that I (even I), do not know how to begin to tackle.
Every time a colossal multinational conglomerate, or a tech giant that is rapidly mutating into a universal monopoly, or a candidate-elect for the United State’s Democratic Party’s representative in the forthcoming presidential election, does not explicitly denounce the movement, not the rioting, they express their satisfaction and comfort with the predicted outcome of recent events. All five companies at the top of the NASDAQ 100 index have released statements expressing their ‘solidarity’ with the resurgent Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of Mr Floyd’s murder. Every one of these statements is tantamount to the display of the severed head of a rebel above the city gate. They are symbols of the destruction of resistance, and completely undermine the genuine and moving work of the millions of ordinary people who have done, and are doing , whatever they can to promote the message of black liberation.
Unless the exorcism of the neoliberal scourge becomes the centrepiece of the movement, the efforts of the masses who have stood steadfast in the face of brownshirts on American streets, and goodwill of those who have supported them across the world will go to waste. As will the martyrdom of George Floyd. This is by no means a condemnation of that anger, as Shakespeare wrote, ‘these violent delights have violent ends’, and the sadomasochism of the neoliberal order and their irredeemably rotten law enforcement bodyguards, is reaping the seeds of violence that its has sown, but this on its own is not enough. Rioting and civil unrest cannot be accompanied by pleas for moral support from our corporate overlords. Moreover, the destruction of small businesses, without a plan for their recovery in a just, equal society, merely serves to wipe out local competition for corporations who can sustain long periods of financial loss. It should come as no surprise that in the absence of any long-term direction, the Dow, NASDAQ, and FTSE are all up.
The energy fuelling this burgeoning movement must be channelled, and the unique historical moment in which we find ourselves in must be seized upon if there is to be any hope to prevent its castration by Capital. Anger must remain a driving force to it, and the brave men and women resisting the military occupation of their streets in the United States must hold fast, and we must show solidarity with them. We should also begin to assemble. Millions of people taking to the streets across the world must come together and do more than protest, we must organise and propose an alternative to the neoliberal order on our own. In doing so, we will demonstrate how we are the essential components to its perpetuity, not the slobbering barons who sit in ultra-minimalist boardrooms built on the backs of our labour.
In doing this, we must reject the leadership of the wealthy who, despite all their best intentions, cannot divorce their own interests from those of the masses; their material stake in the success of this evidently broken society is simply too high. John Boyega, for example, should channel his burning passion and powerful oratorical skills to call for the break-up of the giants such as Fox and Disney that dominate his industry, not make asinine and obviously untrue claims about the precariousness of his future job prospects for toeing the same line Capital is toeing.
The time for the involvement of mainstream political parties is similarly over. They have shown, across the Anglosphere, a total unwillingness to upset an economic order that has trampled their own status and sovereignty into the ground. All they are now bureaucratic mazes, filled with largely honourable and decent people, who no longer know how to conduct themselves in the best interests of their constituents. They will kill any meaningful movement at birth through a toxic combination of rigidity and incompetence. One must only look to New York, and the legitimately dangerous idiocy of its twin pronconsuls, city mayor Bill De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who broadcast thinly veiled threats concerning their willingness to crack down on the constitutionally guaranteed right of their citizens to free assembly from dystopian billboards across the city, to understand that they and President Donald Trump are pages from the same book; middle managers of the neoliberal project.
As the late, great Christopher Hitchens used to say, ‘politics is division by definition’. If the legacy of George Floyd’s death, and the tidal wave of human compassion and anger it has released is to be a truly positive one, we must reject the search for consensus, and accept the duties and responsibilities that will accompany the construction of an anti-racist, economically just, and morally rational society. It is a truly colossal task, but with thousands on the streets and millions in support, it is real, and it is achievable.
Twitter-@bf3_sam
