As Trump ridicules European leaders again and again, as there is no force willing to stop the genocide in Gaza, as it is clear that we will not reach the climate targets set and confirmed endlessly by world leaders, as economic stagnation and the push for rearmament negate any suggestion that economic and social inequalities must be addressed if political instability and the rise of the far right is to be checked, many find puzzling the strange fact that no sign of resurgence of the centre-left is in sight. Many go further and demand its revival as a way out of the mess that we are in. But most do so without really articulating what the centre-left is, or should aspire to be, what are its core beliefs, values, and aspirations. Even fewer are willing to engage in a discussion of either the structural limits, or the social and economic forces that would fight to ensure that those beliefs, values, and aspirations could not be transformed into a concrete set of policy alternatives.
So, what is the centre-left? Obviously like all other political currents, one would not expect a great deal of uniformity on all the key questions, but my contention is that it easier to specify the core ideas of say the conservative or alt-right or a number of left currents than it is to get a grip on those of the centre-left.
Let me start with international relations and war. Bill Clinton very early on aligned himself with the ideas of the neo-conservatives in the Republican Party on the use of US force throughout the world in favour of “liberalism” and “democracy”. Obama, while advocating a withdrawal from Bush’s war on terror, in practice only managed small corrections to the key doctrine and torture as a weapon in the “war” continued, and drone attacks on various countries reached new levels. And of course, Biden will always be remembered for his support of Israel’s genocidal war. The Labour party’s Keir Starmer has, if anything, been even more supportive of Netanyahu, making protests against the genocide more difficult, and leading together with Scholz, until his coalition fell apart, the drive for rearmament. Where, in respect to the war in the Ukraine, is the European social democratic leader that has the vision of a De Gaulle (let alone of a Brandt) who aspired to a Europe of peace between the Urals and the Atlantic? That could stand up to Putin but also navigate a path to peace? Who would insist on sanctions against Israel?
The answer might be Pedro Sánchez and his socialist party’s alliance with the Left. Perhaps even, at least in opposition, Elly Schlein and the PD. And of course, there is always Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. But if this is the right answer, then we are entitled to ask centre-leftists elsewhere some further questions. Are the above on the left fringe of the centre-left or is their approach to international affairs central to the core of the centre-left. For instance, in Greece is Nikos Androulakis in solidarity with Sanchez in his stance against raising defence budgets, or not? It doesn’t seem like a trick question. But if the above make up a fringe of the centre-left, then the more important question is what constitutes a centrist position amongst the centre-left on the war on terror, Rearm Europe, Atlanticism and other related questions? Many liberals and centre-leftists since 1990 argued that interventions in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and countless other cases would lead to a revival of liberty and democracy. We now know that in fact they have led to state failure, other wars, torture, the rise of Isis and powerful regional warlords, and widespread misery. Is it too much to ask of centre-leftists their view on these disastrous outcomes and what approach they should adopt to international relations in the future?
The questions in the economic and social spheres are even more pressing. Clinton and Obama specifically opted to pick their economic team from the ranks of the financial “community “, who, shall we say, are not noted for their sympathy for social democratic policies. Simitis and Jospin championed privatisations, Schröder the neoliberal inspired “reforms” of the welfare state and labour markets (Agenda 2010). Margaret Thatcher when asked on her finest achievement, replied with two words: Tony Blair! What would be a mainstream centre-left response: that these approaches were right for their time and are equally effective now, that they were right for their time but now a move to the left is called for, or that they were wrong for their time and what is needed is to build an anti-neoliberal social and and economic coalition? Again, it doesn’t sound like a trick question. And the same goes for questions like the following: are markets a source of social inequalities or is the problem just that markets are not competitive enough, is a developmental state necessary or is it the case that production should be left to the “private” sector that knows best what the consumers and the real economy need? A final question: who are the super-rich, the rich and the comfortably well-off and how and by how much should they be taxed?
The last question leads naturally to the question of power. In my last book, Manifesto for a Sustainable Society, I argue that many of the problems we face -climate change, social inequalities, unstable politics – result from the shift in power under neoliberalism to the financial sector, BigTech, fossil fuel industries and so on. The other side of the coin is the hollowing out of democracy, the move to illiberal democracies where people feel that they cannot seriously influence all those things that affect their lives. I would not expect centre-leftists to accept the whole of my analysis, let alone my policy proposals. But does the mainstream centre-left have a conception of power, and how economic power has been transformed into political power? What are the primary sources of power that block their aspiration to a more just society? And how can power be clawed back from such centres? This seems to me to be the most fundamental question of all because it seems obvious that there are social and economic forces that have gained enormously from the rise in inequality over the last decades. And it is on this question that I have no idea what a middle-of-the-road centre-leftist thinks. On the earlier questions I could hazard guesses, with the risk of getting it wrong of course. But on the question of power, I am at a loss. My fear is that, unlike the previous social democratic tradition where power relations were explicitly, if inadequately in my opinion, addressed, actually existing centre-leftists would just prefer not to address the issue. And that is why they are always reacting to the agenda set by others, why they seem to be so easily incorporated into the ruling ideas of our age, that is to say, those that reflect and reinforce the interests of the dominant social block.
Published (in Greek) on TVXS.gr