Civil Society Watch

 If the project of the Left is to survive the discredit that the collapse of "actually existing socialism" has thrown over the very idea of socialism, it requires a new formulation. Even social democracy is presently suffering from the impact of the events in the East and the proclaimed triumph of liberal capitalism. Claims for social justice, economic democracy and struggles against inequalities are increasingly dismissed as relics of a foregone age dominated by the rhetoric of class struggle.

The recognition of the virtues of pluralist democracy is indeed an important achievement, but it would be a serious setback for democracy if we were to accept "actually existing liberal capitalist democracies" as the "end of history." There are still numerous social relations where the process of democratization is needed and the task for the Left is to envisage how this can be done in a way that is compatible with the existence of a liberal democratic regime.

 As the Berlin wall and the Gulf War underscored, the European Left is out of step with history. As long as Europe remains little more than an alibi for surrendering or converting to liberalism, it will continue to be a non entity.

The basic foundation for a European renaissance is to understand that the reemergence of Europe and the left are one and the same.

The collapse of communism is not a victory for capitalism, but the sign of the failings of Social Democracy. Democracy cannot be restricted to political institutions, but must spread throughout society, internationalism, as well as global and local solidarity. Human rights, citizen rights, and humanitarian intervention rights are inseparable and indivisible.

The breakdown of the Berlin wall and more generally, the failure of communism in the (now former) Soviet Union and eastern Europe has suddenly put an end to half a century of cold war. The division of the world in two opposing blocs is over. The nuclear danger looks much less imposing and real. The existential enemy has vanished and the political, ideological, and military threats that the enemy was supposed to embody have faded within a short period of time. Democracy has become the only legitimate principle of political organization accepted almost worldwide, while the market economy and the autonomy of civil society have simultaneously become universal paradigms.