We Make Our Own History - Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neoliberalism

We live in the twilight of neoliberalism: the ruling classes can no longer rule as before, and ordinary people are no longer willing to be ruled in the old way. Pursued by global __elites__ since the 1970s, neoliberalism is defined by dispossession and ever-increasing inequality. The refusal to continue to be ruled like this - "ya basta!" - appears in an arc of resistance stretching from rural India to the cities of the global North. From this network of movements, new visions are emerging of a future beyond neoliberalism. We make our own History responds to these visions by reclaiming Marxism as a theory born from activist experience and practice. This book marks a break both with established social movement theory, and with those forms of Marxism which treat the practice of social movement organising as an unproblematic process. It shows how movements can develop from local conflicts to global struggles; how neoliberalism operates as a social movement from above, and how popular struggles can create new worlds from below. Contents 6 Preface 7 1 'The This-Wordliness of their Thought' 16 Why Do Activists Need Theory? 19 Marxist Responses to the Current Conjecture 29 Marxism as a Movement-Relevant Theory 31 2 'History Does Nothing' 36 Theory and the Struggle to Change the Game 38 Human Needs, Capcities and Praxis 42 Constancy and Change in Human Species Being 45 The Social and Historical Dimensions of Praxis 51 Concluding Remarks 67 3 'The Authors and the Actors of Their Own Drama' 70 'At the Heart of Society Burns the Fire of Social Movements' 70 Social Movements From Above 74 Social Movements From Below 87 Organic Crisis and Social Movement Struggles 111 4 'The Bourgeoisie, Historically, Has Played a Most Revolutionary Part' 114 Primitive Accumulation 116 Bourgeois Revolution 120 Resistance in the Era of Primitive Accumulation and Bourgeois Revolution 123 Capitalism and Its Changing Historical Forms 127 The Era of Liberal Capitalism 131 The Transition to Organised Capitalism 137 The Political Economy of Organised Capitalism 140 The Unraveling of Organised Capitalism 148 Neoliberalism as a Social Movement From Above 151 The Economic Crisis of the Neoliberal Project 168 5 'The Point is to Change it' 174 Premature Obituaries and Zombie Neoliberalism 174 The Movement of Movements and the Crisis 182 Understanding Movement Waves 189 What Does it Mean for a Movement From Below to Win? 197 The Irish Experience of Insurgent Architecture 203 Beyond the Stalemate 210 Notes 225 Bibliography 239 Index 260 Annotation We live in the twilight of neoliberalism: the ruling classes can no longer rule as before, and ordinary people are no longer willing to be ruled in the old way. Pursued by global elites since the 1970s, neoliberalism is defined by dispossession and ever-increasing inequality. The refusal to continue to be ruled like this - "ya basta!"--Appears in an arc of resistance stretching from rural India to the cities of the global North. From this network of movements, new visions are emerging of a future beyond neoliberalism. We make our own History responds to these visions by reclaiming Marxism as a theory born from activist experience and practice. This book marks a break both with established social movement theory, and with those forms of Marxism which treat the practice of social movement organising as an unproblematic process. It shows how movements can develop from local conflicts to global struggles; how neoliberalism operates as a social movement from above, and how popular struggles can create new worlds from below A rethinking of popular political movements, this book looks at new, emerging, mass visions and analyses their impact and potential in new ways