whats the point of the left?

The video is from June of 2013, and that just makes Mieville’s initial comments all the more prescient . . . as he described the specter of fascism and the rise of the right across Europe and in the UK. This was before Brexit, of course, and before Trump.

Much of the talk involved party business, the SWP, primarily, though Mieville (a fellow anticapitalist), who resigned from it in protest after its sexual assault scandals, briefly touched upon other leftist organizations, like Left Unity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Unity_(UK)

Laura Penny’s discussion seemed more focused on serious issues (feminism and racism, especially), but it was also, IMO, hurt by too much “how we should talk about what we talk about,” which was a theme for all the speakers.

This is something I’ve noticed when our “team” gets together and holds these kinds of meetings. There is too much meta. Too much discussion about how to discuss things. Too many pleas to change the way we present what we present . . . and too little concentration, without being sidetracked, on the issues at hand. Getting sidetracked on getting sidetracked is another problem.

That said, there was more than enough to make the video worth viewing. But I don’t really think it answered its own title question.

To me, the point of the left should be:

1. To fight against hierarchy and inequality, first and foremost, and for equality, human rights and the environment. For an equal chance for every human to achieve their highest heights.

This means . . .

2. Fight hard, without apology or hesitation, against the right.
3. End capitalism. Completely. It’s incrementalist to just fight against its forms, like neoliberalism, and it’s really just a better version of the Democratic Party’s idea of “progressive change.” As in, it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough — and its achingly, agonizingly slow.
4. Fight to implement true democracy throughout society. And it’s not true democracy if the economy isn’t democratized as well. And the economy can’t be democratized under capitalism and still be capitalist. It’s logically, mathematically and physically impossible.
5. Fight with this goal in mind: the end of all class divisions. No ruling class. No state apparatus, once we’ve internalized, naturalized the above. No bosses, no employees. No masters, no slaves. This also means no empires, on the way to open borders.

To me, that’s what the point of the left should be. Because where else are you going to get a vision of human emancipation like that, or the will to fight for it?