Everything encompassed in it is the precise result, not of economic inevitability, but of a politics, conscious and calculated, which has led the liberal and even social democratic gover
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T he term ‘globalisation’ suggests the
inevitability of economic laws This
masks the political reality It is an
altogether paradoxical reality which relies upon
a politics of depoliticisation
It is a politics which threatens to confer a lethal
status on economic forces unleashed from all
control or constraint It is a politics which
secures the submission of governments and
peoples to those very economic and social forces
it says must be ‘liberated’
The term ‘globalisation’ is simultaneously
descriptive and normative Everything
encompassed in it is the precise result, not of
economic inevitability, but of a politics,
conscious and calculated, which has led the
liberal and even social democratic governments
of several economically advanced countries to
divest themselves of the power to control
economic forces
They have at best relinquished those powers to
see them concentrated in the ‘green rooms’ of
big international concerns, such as the WTO; or
in such multinational ‘networks’ as the network
made up of fifty multinational companies, which through all manner of ways and means, including legal ones, are in the process of imposing their will
A different politics
We need to counter this politics of depoliticisation and disempowerment To do so
it is necessary to retrieve a politics both of thought and action: a politics capable of addressing itself beyond the nation-state at the same time as it engages with the political and labour movement battles within the nation states For many reasons, this is a dauntingly difficult task
In the first place, it poses sets of political challenges which appear to be removed from one another, are apparently inaccessible and seemingly have little in common, either in terms
of they way they work or with the familiar, formative political battles of the past
Second, the powerful agencies and institutions which today dominate our world, economically and socially, can draw upon an extraordinary convergence of all forms of capital – economic,
Globalisation is not a fate, but a politics For this reason, a politics of opposition to its concentration of power is possible This alternative must be international, and draw on the experience of both trade unions and the newer social movements
The politics of globalisation
Pierre Bourdieu
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political, military, cultural, scientific,
technological – amounting to a fundamental,
unprecedented symbolic hegemony over all
channels and means of communication through
which opposition will be reported
It is important to concede that some of the
instruments for the politics which is needed are
to be found at the European level (at least to the
extent that European institutions and
businesses can have a causal effect on the
dominant forces of the world stage) It follows
that the construction of a
unified Social Europe, capable
of bringing together the
different forces in all their
divisions, as much in the
national arenas as in the
international, is the priority of
all those who wish to resist
effectively the dominant forces
of our time
Coop er atio n wi th ou t
unification
The social movements that are
essential to a politics of
resistance are very various,
thanks to their different origins, aims and
objectives Nevertheless they undeniably share a
set of what we might call family traits
In the first place, this is because they are often
the result of a refusal of traditional forms of
political mobilisation, particularly those typical
of the soviet-type communist parties Typically,
they reject any kind of monopolisation of their
organisation by a minority, and positively
elevate and encourage the direct participation of
all the various stakeholders, resembling in this
regard the libertarian tradition
They are particularly prone to those forms of
individually motivated politics requiring a light,
streamlined apparatus which will allow its
members to maintain control over their own
activity (in stark contrast to those party
machines with which they battle for political
hegemony)
A second common characteristic of social movements is the way their priorities lie with specific social issues such as housing, employment and health
A third typical feature is a fondness for direct action, a desire that protests and demands should manifest themselves in exemplary actions which have a direct bearing on the relevant campaign
The fourth distinctive and shared characteristic
is that solidarity is the tacit moving force behind the greater part of their activities
Such similarities in the objectives
of disparate political struggles highlight the usefulness, if not of the complete unification of the disparate movements that young militant groups often urge, at the very least of some coordination of their action and demands Such coordination might take the form
of a network able to bring together groups and individuals
in such a way that no one group dominates another; a network able to conserve all of the advantages of the diversity of experiences, perspectives and programmes of each group
Its main function would be to direct social movements away from dispersed and fragmented actions, ensuring that they do not become entangled in the specifics of one-off local struggles (whilst at the same time avoiding concentrations of bureaucracy) This would have the benefit of empowering the groups to overcome the inconsistencies between the moments of intense mobilization and the latent, slower forms of existence essential to their preparation
Any such network would seek to define a set of shared objectives at the intersection of the interests and concerns of all the different groups, a set of values that they could all recognise and collaborate in, at the same time as
The construction of
a unified Social Europe is the priority of all those who wish to resist effectively the dominant forces of our time
Trang 33
bringing to bear their own competencies and
methods
Reviving trade unionism
The neo-liberal politics of globalisation has also
contributed to the weakening of trade unions
The flexibility and precariousness of a growing
number of workers’ jobs has had the effect of
hindering any unified action, at the same time
as social security is extended to fewer parts of
the workforce
This illustrates simultaneously just how difficult
and how indispensable the task of reviving trade
union action is It will entail rotating
responsibility, and re-examining the model of
unconditional delegation, as well as inventing
new techniques that are essential for mobilising
the fragmented and insecure workforce
Any such organization would have to be capable
of overcoming the fragmentation both in terms
of objectives and nationalities, in addition to the
divisions within movements and trade unions
Bringing trade unions together in circumstances
of lively debate and discussion must have a
revivifying effect upon them
The existence of a stable and efficient international network should allow the development of an international trade union movement which has nothing to do with the official bodies in which unions are represented, and would integrate the actions of all the movements which are tackling very specific, and therefore limited situations
In addition to the development and coordination of new social movements and the willingness to work at a European level, it is also important to renew the more traditional area of trade unions, in any politics that seeks to respond to globalisation and defy the efforts to
‘depoliticise’ the way we are ruled
20 February, 2002
Copyright © Pierre Bourdieu, 2002 Published by www.openDemocracy.net Permission is granted to reproduce articles for personal and educational use only Commercial copying, hiring and lending is prohibited without permission
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Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002)was one of the foremost sociologists of French society and the
modern world His 25 books include works on Algeria, taste, power, television, intellectuals, and poverty His later years were marked by increasingly public engagement with issues of globalisation
and state power This article, translated by Sarah Verblow and Anthony Barnett, was published in Le
Monde on 24 January 2002, the day on which the paper reported Bourdieu’s death as its front-page
lead story