In his Prison Notebooks, Antonio Gramsci, languishing in Mussolini’s fascist jail, wrote that “the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear”.
Today, more than a century later, “morbid symptoms” are acutely present in our society. Rather than a cause for despair, this is a challenge to all those confronting the system on every continent to create practical pathways to the new.
It is our joint task for 2023
You don’t need medical training to spot the symptoms in the body of our dysfunctional neoliberal society:
- a cost-of-living crisis – aka inflation – produced by a debt-driven capitalist economy that has spiralled out of control
- widespread social deprivation and poverty, leaving some nurses dependent on food banks, pupils going hungry at school and around 125,000 children are currently homeless
- a slow-moving collapse in basic infrastructure like the National Health Service and rail system, putting people’s health at risk and making it difficult to travel to work
- the scapegoating of migrants and asylum seekers by mainstream politicians
- a systematic attack on basic rights to protest and to strike, accelerating the push to authoritarian rule
- deepening climate chaos, reinforced by the ongoing failure by states to reach any meaningful agreement to eliminate fossil fuels and put the planet before profit.
But … resistance is fertile
Against this background, countless millions from Ukraine to Sri Lanka – from McDonald’s workers, to train drivers, nurses, ambulance staff, post men and women, to climate activists are fighting back against bosses and governments – not to mention invading forces intent on destroying a country’s culture and right to determine its own future.
That’s why the incredible resistance by the people of Ukraine is not something over there but a thing for us. We also need to advance self-determination against a common enemy. The old – capitalist society and the increasingly corrupt state system that rules over us – is indeed dying, to return to Gramsci.
But despite our anger and anguish, the system won’t simply walk away. The birth of a new, co-operative, democratic, people-centred society will require a concerted effort and, above all, a plan to achieve what will necessarily be a revolutionary transition.
Unite the strikes and form citizens assemblies to solve the crisis
In 2023, we should aim to make serious advances along these lines. Let’s step up the campaign for a General Strike to remove the Tories and create Citizens’ Assemblies as the foundation of a new democracy in place of the present, oppressive state.
The Real Democracy Movement is working on a manifesto of revolutionary solutions and a draft for consultation will be published shortly. Look out for it in the New Year and take part in turning it into an appeal that can inspire the leap beyond capitalism so urgently needed.