Democracy: What a concept

Journal of Canadian Studies, Spring 2000 by Judy Rebick

Democracy has been seriously eroded in the era of globalization and new tactics and strategies are required to resist and reverse this erosion. Judy Rebick describes how the left has moved onto the defensive in the last 15 years, failing to provide the new ideas and policies so necessary to attract a new generation. She proposes some new directions.

La democratie a ete serieusement erode en cette ere de globalisation, et de nouvelles tactiques et strategies sont necessaires pour resister A cette erosion et pour en renverser les effets. Judy Rebick decrit la fagon dont la gauche est pass& A la defensive au cours des 15 derrieres annees, sans reussir A fournir les nouvelles Wes et politiques si necessaires pour attirer les nouvelles generations. Elle propose quelques directions nouvelles.

My whole life, politics has been my passion. I do not mean the sterile, partisan, role-playing in the House of Commons but the sometimes thrilling, sometimes painful, process of struggling for social change. The most joyful moments of my life have come in unexpected political victories; the greatest sense of power has been in moving an issue onto the public agenda; in the excitement of watching a demonstration grow and grow; and the inestimable value of lifelong friendships forged in common struggle.

I have been part of movements, like the anti-Vietnam war movement and the women's movement, that fundamentally changed the course of history. I have led struggles, like the fight to decriminalize abortion and to strengthen the rape law, that made life better for women in Canada. I have participated in battles, like the campaign against the Charlottetown Accord, that stayed the hand of government. I have worked in solidarity with some of the most oppressed people in Canada, Aboriginal and disabled people, and gained inspiration from their spirit and joy in life. I have fought some losing battles too, where people with no formal power none the less managed to have their voices heard, even to mobilize public opinion; for example, during the free trade or employment equity debates.

Yet lately, even my faith in this kind of activism is fading. These days, even when we mobilize thousands of people, like during the 1996 Days of Action to protest the right wing savagery of Mike Harris's government in Ontario, it seems to have little more than momentary impact. Ontario teachers organized and fought magnificently to protect public education, only to see its continuing erosion. Moderate groups like nurses are forced into illegal action just to maintain a decent standard of living and a minimal level of service. And I never thought I would see so many people forced to live on the streets in Canada's major cities.

Political parties are starting to look more and more like each other. Instead of real policy options, we are given a choice among savage right wing politics with no excuse a la Mike Harris; savage right wing policies with smile and a look of concern a la Jean Chretien, and pallid right wing politics with a shrug a la Bob Rae. Almost every person in public life, of any political inclination, tells us that there is no alternative. We have to accept cutbacks to social programmes, massive inequities between rich and poor, unbridled greed in the private sector, because there is nothing else.

In my youth there were other ways. We could look to the south at the civil rights movement and get inspiration there or farther south to the revolutionary people's movements of Cuba and Chile. We could look at the massive revolutions in China and Russia that had taken people from the dire poverty of feudalism into the modem world. We could look at the brilliant uprising in France when students and workers struggled together for a more just society. Ideas poured out of these manifold struggles like a waterfall. It was dizzying and exciting to figure out where you stood.

Thirty years later, the flow of progressive ideas seems to have slowed to a trickle. Fiscal responsibility and lower taxes have replaced peace and love as the theme of my generation. The culture of our movements for social justice has been co-opted by that of mutual funds and banks. The same rhetoric has been captured by centre-left governments to justify war.

I am not just saying that the capitalist elite has recovered from its momentary lapse of total control, but also that it has done so by seriously restricting the democratic space. Globalization (or, more accurately, neo-liberalism), is well on the way to creating a world in its own image. Freedom for countries to develop their own economic strategies is restricted by the triple force of free trade agreements, uncontrolled investment capital and institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. A country that does not follow the neo-liberal orthodoxy, that does not privatize, deregulate, eliminate the deficit, cut taxes and reduce social services, pays a heavy if not catastrophic price. The consequent reduction of the public sector puts even more power in the hands of the corporate elite. Everyone from theatre groups to schools has to rely on private capital which has grown exponentially while public wealth shrinks by the day.