Andre Vltchek
New Eastern Outlook
3 February 2018
New Eastern Outlook
3 February 2018
It really is a shame, and it is tiring,
but it is actually nothing new: there is now total disarray amongst
those countless ‘progressive’ and ‘semi-left’ Western intellectuals,
publications, movements and political parties.
Cowardice, bloated egos, lack of discipline and intellectual pettiness are often to blame, but that is not all.
It is now absolutely clear that the
Western left lost patently and shamelessly. It has almost no power, it
has no courage to fight or to take risks, and it counts on no real
political following in Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand.
‘The masses’, those proverbial ‘oppressed masses’, have lately been
electing and voting in various semi-fascist populists, unapologetic
right-wing demagogues, and mainstream pro-business brutes.
Entire Marxist ‘theoretical certainties’ have been collapsing in front of our eyes. Or at least they have been in the West.
*
To a great extent, what is now happening
is absolutely natural. The European left betrayed as early as in the
1980’s, by becoming too soft, too undisciplined, too cautious and too
self-centered. It put pragmatism above the ideals. It rapidly adopted
the lexicon of the liberal ideological establishment, complete with
Western perceptions of human rights, democratic principles and political
correctness. It ceased to be revolutionary; it essentially stopped all
revolutionary activities, and it abandoned the core element of any true
left-wing identity – internationalism.
Without at least some basic
internationalist principles, the left is now essentially reduced to some
sort of local trade union level: “Let us fight for better labor
conditions and health care at home, and to hell with all that
neo-colonialist plunder of the world which is expected to pay for almost
all of our benefits. As long as we eat well and have long vacations,
why should we rebel, why should we fight?”
The Western left has also failed to
honestly address global history and especially the role which both
Europe and North America have been playing in it. Many so-called
‘progressive’ Western thinkers have essentially adopted the imperialist
rhetoric and revanchist interpretation of various key historic events,
hence becoming ‘anti-Communist’ themselves.
After that, almost everything was lost, went down the drain.
Revolutionary flags were burned, at
least metaphorically. Good old slogans were ditched. Then, instead of
marches and violent demonstrations and clashes with the authorities
representing the regime, increasingly comfortable couches in front of
the latest high-definition television sets got quickly filled with
millions of flabby over-indulgent bodies.
*
Now really ugly fights over the
shrinking pie are raging. Theoretical Trotskyists and theoretical
Maoists are at each other’s throats. There are, of course, Leninists,
and others, many others.
Things went much further, still: these
days, in the West, most ‘progressives’ go ‘by the issues’, refusing to
commit to anything greater, full-heartedly. This position is
increasingly in vogue, and it essentially shouts: ‘I have my own
philosophy. I don’t need any ideology at all.’
No revolution has ever been won like
this. But in the West, there is no desire for true revolution. Belonging
to left is mainly just a pose, with a social media account and a
selfie. It is not serious, and it is not intended to be.
There are, of course,
Anarcho-syndicalists with their air of superiority and lofty theories
that would be outrightly rejected and laughed at by the great majority
of the truly oppressed people in places like Asia or Africa.
Lately, I don’t even know, anymore, who
is who, in that small and petty world. I am not monitoring it, I hardly
participate in theoretical discussions.
I write, using basically just two publications as my platform, from which my writing goes to the world, in various languages.
But that ‘small and petty world’ is obviously monitoring me. And what it sees, it does not like.
*
After launching with one of the
mightiest publications in the West (I don’t really want to name the
publication, but my readers, most likely know which one I’m talking
about) some 300 essays in the last 7 or 8 years, I was literally dumped
by it at the very end of 2017. I will never find out the real reason,
but most likely it was due to my ‘too left wing’ convictions, and too
anti-Western, too open rhetoric. And yes, there was actually some hint:
The editors did not like it that I write for ‘Russian state-sponsored
media’, which in turn has some links to allegedly radical left-wing
sites in the U.S.
In the eyes of the anti-Communist,
‘we-go-by-the-issues’ Western media, any ‘state sponsored’ or ‘state
controlled’ media is bad, extremely bad!
Even if it belongs to those countries
that are heroically fighting against Western imperialism, trying to save
our Planet. Or perhaps it is considered especially bad if it belongs to
such countries. It obviously applies to the Chinese, Russian,
Venezuelan, Cuban, or Iranian media outlets. In summary – it applies to
all media worldwide that is fighting to prevent the Western monstrous
imperialist endgame from taking place; to the media that is fighting
with force and zeal, and with (lately) tremendous success.
Instead of obediently waiting for the
Western right or Western left, to define the world, now the Chinese,
Russians, Latin Americans and the Middle Easterners are suddenly daring
to re-define events that are taking place on this Planet. They are
interviewing Westerners themselves, while holding a mirror to those
monsters that became both the European and North American societies.
And instead of letting only Westerners
speak, there are suddenly African, Asian, Russian, Arab and Latin
American people appearing in front of the cameras.
Instead of that ‘noble’ “look what we are doing to the world”, the true victims but also true revolutionaries are leading passionate debates.
Instead of some PhD professor in London
debating whether China is truly Communist or not, it is now Chinese
people speaking up, clarifying what their own country is and is not.
And the Western left does not like it. It is clear that it does not like such developments at all.
The Western left ‘does not like any
state-sponsored media’. It does not like it when others are speaking.
Well, it may be even deeper than that: it appears that it does not
really like anyone who is really fighting and who is winning: it does
not like the left that is actually holding power!
Because the Western left is much more part of the West than of the left.
Because deep down, it is comfortable, even obsessed with its exceptionalism.
Because despite those horrid centuries
of colonialist and imperialist plunder of the world by Europe and North
America, it does not truly believe that the crimes were committed
because of Western culture and way of thinking.
Because, deep down, it really does not
think that the non-Western nations and their media and thinkers are
capable of defining and describing the world accurately, or even
describing their own countries accurately. Non-Westerners simply cannot
and should not be trusted. Only Western intellectuals have some sort of
inherited right to make fully qualified decisions on such important
topics as: whether China is Communist or not, whether Russia under
President Putin is a progressive country or not, whether Iran is
socialist or just a brutal religious state, whether Assad’s government
is ‘legitimate’, whether the North Korean leadership is ‘insane’ or
whether President Maduro of Venezuela ‘just went too far’.
*
As the world is finally preparing to
defend itself against the inevitable Western aggressions, as the people
of Asia, Russia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are
discovering their own voices silenced for centuries by colonialist
barbarity, as it is while the governments of these countries are making
such discussion platforms possible, the Western left is howling at the
moon, beating its chest in self-righteous narcissist gestures, and
essentially insulting those who are fighting, standing tall, building
much better world and yes – governing!
In several countries of South America,
the left has recently been defeated precisely because it was too
influenced ‘ideologically’ (or more precisely, ‘anti-ideologically’) by
those weak, obsolete and overcautious Western pseudo-revolutionaries.
Latin Americans should not, and hopefully will not, make similar
mistakes in the future.
No revolutionary country can aim at
perfection, yet. Revolution is not a bed of roses, said Fidel. Defending
one’s country against brutal foreign invasions is not always a pretty
business: it is thoroughly messy and bloody stuff.
The weak and soft-skinned Western left
can demand from non-Western revolutionary governments both ‘purity’ and a
‘silk-gloved-approach’, simply because it has no idea (or it doesn’t
care) what it is like to govern in countries consisting of millions of
men, women and children who have been forced to live in absolute shit,
after being robbed of everything by European and North American slave
drivers. One simple mistake which those governments make, one sign of
weakness, and their countries will go up in smoke, end up in ruins, in
oblivion: like Iraq, like Afghanistan, like Yeltsin’s Russia, or like
China during the “century of humiliation”.
*
The ‘over-sensitivity’ of the Western left is actually only a façade, it is not real.
Just as an example, the editors of the
above-mentioned magazine, which has so unceremoniously stopped
publishing my work, never showed any interest in my well-being or
safety. I think if I would have dropped dead in one of the war zones I
have covered, they’d hardly notice. Articles and essays signed by me
would simply stop coming. Everyone is, after all, replaceable. To offer
any support would be below their dignity. But to ask, regularly, for the
reader’s financial support, never has been.
The ‘State-sponsored’ media in the revolutionary countries does treat their people differently. At least some of it does.
*
And quarreling goes on. I lost interest in the details. It is all time consuming and irrelevant.
In
the meantime, I feel more and more comfortable writing for those new
and proud media outlets, worldwide, edited far away from the West. I
like it when my comrades are getting strong, when they are winning. I
want them to govern and to govern well. And I want their countries to
survive.
Things are that simple!
It is a great honor to show my
films on TeleSur and Al-Mayadeen, to write for the New Eastern Outlook,
China Daily, Countercurrents, and Russia Today. I enjoy appearing life,
regularly, on PressTV.
I feel that each word that I write and
utter through those media outlets are intended for my friends, for my
comrades, for our struggle and for a much better world.
And let me repeat: I want my friends and comrades to win, to succeed, and yes, to govern!
The Western left can keep quarreling,
chewing itself: ‘Who said what? Who is real left and who is not? Who is
pure Marxist and who is simply some social democrat?”
Not all Western left media outlets are
as described above. There are still some wonderful writers and editors
in the West, too. But the overall situation in Europe and North America
is deteriorating.
The governing and struggling
revolutionary and internationalist left in the independent countries
does not usually have time for lofty debates. We have Moscow, Beijing,
Caracas, Havana, La Paz, Damascus and many other wonderful cities behind
our backs – to defend. We will deal with the theory later, much later,
after we win, after there is real peace, accompanied by justice, after
all of us on this planet can proudly be what we really are – ourselves
and defined by ourselves!
Andre Vltchek is philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He’s a creator of Vltchek’s World in Word and Images, a writer of revolutionary novel Aurora and several other books. His latest book: The Great October Socialist Revolution. He writes especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
Comments
Post a Comment