The International Journal of INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Spring 2009)
Editorial
In the last few months, and as a result of the widening and deepening present economic crisis, which began as a financial crisis and by now has developed into a deep recession, social explosions erupt all over the place. The transnational elite, in view of the imminent risk of a significant increase in the level of political consciousness, which could threaten the viability of the system itself, has begun a systematic campaign to communicate the message of a new “capitalism with a human face”.
In the first section entitled “capitalism gets a new image”, this campaign is examined, first by Takis Fotopoulos, with reference to the G20 summit held in London in April 2009, which was called in order to address the required steps to restore some confidence, not so much to the markets, as to the “subjects” of the political and economic elites, who have already become restless. The tactical divisions within the transnational elite on dealing with the crisis, which became obvious in the summit, are examined. Also, the crucial issue is discussed whether the crisis does indeed mark “the end of an era”, or whether instead the present globalisation is here to stay and the supposed rise of a new world order based on a caring capitalism and a kind of mixed economy is just a myth promoted by the transnational elite itself (and supported by the reformist Left!) to deal with the social unrest that is spreading proportionately to the deepening crisis. Next, John Sargis demystifies the image of the “progressive” President Obama and shows in detail, why nothing effectively is going to change, whether as regards domestic policies, or concerning foreign policies because of the selection by the elites of a master of communications from the African-American elite. No wonder Obama’s first act was to use Pentagon’s bestial military power to slaughter some poor teenage Somali “pirates”, who had the nerve to attack the interests of European and other ship owners in order to survive, following the pillage of their fishing grounds and the pollution of their coastline by foreigners!
However, as the second section entitled “the old image lingers on” illustrates, despite the best efforts of the transnational elite and the associated local elites to create a new image, a series of significant events in Palestine, Finland and Greece shows that nothing has really changed. As regards Palestine and Greece, Takis Fotopoulos shows that while the Zionist slaughter in January seems to have succeeded ―through the sheer brutality of it and the catastrophe it entailed on the Gazan people― to “pacify” them (as the similarly brutal Zionist war seems to have pacified Hezbollah), it still remains to be seen whether the strategic plan by transnational elite and the Zionists to isolate the elected, by the Gaza people, Hamas and achieve some sort of settlement with the powerless and completely discredited Abbas will also succeed. Similarly, the social explosion, which erupted last December in Greece still lingers on, despite a massive campaign by the mass media, with the help of an intensification of suppressive state policies, to smash the rising antisystemic movement. Finally, as Mika Pekkola shows, in an insightful analysis of the emergence of a strong student movement in Finland fighting against the current attempt by the local elites to “marketize” the education system in particular and Finnish society in general ―under the usual excuse of making it more efficient― a global opposition is rising there as well. As the author concludes, “what remains to be seen is whether the increasing control over all aspects of life and the coming social instabilities will be passively accepted or whether they will materialise in a new radicalisation of the antisystemic movements”.
Lastly, in the third section on theoretical issues, Steve Best, in a provocative article that will surely stir a debate in the Left raises various questions concerning human identity politics and situates Left humanist views as a variant, rather than rejection, of Western anthropocentrism, speciesism, and the pathology of humanism. His controversial conclusion is that Leftist humanist theories (including “eco-humanist” variants) fail to advance a truly revolutionary break with the mindsets and institutions underpinning hierarchy, oppression, violence, species extinction, and the current global ecological crisis. We hope that in the next issue of the Journal we will be able to begin a discussion of this important paper.
The Editorial Committee
Spring 2009