A delusion revived

Here's a blast from the past in the present. Writing at Monthly Review, Gregory Esteven revives a perspective on the transition to socialism that used sometimes to be called 'catastrophist'. Pared down to its essentials his thesis is that the left saved capitalism. It did this by virtue of the gains that were won for working people through trade unions and political organization, bringing better working conditions, the welfare state and such. This softened the contradictions of the system. It humanized capitalism.

But those days are now over, thinks Esteven. The good news for socialists - or should that be the bad news? - is that 'the more humane version of capitalism is irreconcilable with globalization'. It's 'not at all clear whether capitalism can continue to be reformed'; and 'it seems that the time to revive the socialist project has arrived'.

Keeping the socialist project alive is fine by me, but this isn't an attractive or compelling way of doing it (leave aside the fact that the inability of capitalism to change and adapt is a theme long past its sell-by date). For it does rather look as if it's predicated on the hypothesis that the worse things go for people, the better it will be for a would-be socialist movement. That's not quite the same as saying that you want things to go badly for them but it comes pretty close. It has always been a politics of delusion. Not many are going to rally to a political position according to which the long-term prospects will be better if their interests suffer. Furthermore, the chances of progressive change are not rosier when organizations devoted to defending the interests of working people and to fighting against disadvantage and injustice are weakened or defeated. Those social forces capable of winning change for the better are more well-equipped to do so the stronger they are. Finally, the idea that what comes out of capitalist crisis is likely to be political change of a positive kind is an idea you might have thought had been rendered problematic in the light of historical experience.