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Hurt, Despair, Longing, Rage and Revolt Jonathan Neale This article was originally written for Socialist Review, which did not publish it. It is an attempt to say something about a debate on the British left about whether neoliberalism has changed the wor ing class in ways which ma e struggle wea er. I argue that neoliberalism has changed us in ways that ma e struggle harder, and easier, and different, and more e!plosive. Something has to be fixed For two years I have been trying an experiment in Britain and the US I say to someone! "Lots o# people believe that there is something terribly wrong with this $ountry % it has to be #ixed % it won&t be #ixed % and no one in publi$ li#e spea's #or me ( )lmost everyone nods and says, "*es +hat&s me I thin' that ( ,very so$ial o$$asion I go to now, in the pub, people over #or a meal, a #amily do, the $onversation turns to! what can we do? +his is a $onversation about $lass, although people o#ten don&t put it to themselves that way Let&s remind ourselves what $lass means It&s a relationship ) wor'er is anyone with a manager +he wor'ing $lass is everyone with a manager Some people say $lass has $hanged, and matters less now +hat&s wrong -lass has $hanged, and it matters more now .ur noses have been rubbed in $lass ine/uality every day #or years Ine/uality has grown in almost every $ountry in the world +he power o# management has in$reased at almost everyone&s wor' +here is an epidemi$ o# petty bullying and petty humiliation ,veryone has a story o# something management did that invaded their dignity or a basi$ value Ine/uality in$reases right a$ross our lives ,very in$rease in ine/uality is also an atta$' on some wor'ers ) library $losure, #or example, is also an atta$' on library wor'ers )nd the language and values o# the mar'et are everywhere So people are #ull o# hurt, anger and longing It&s not 0ust that they hate the +ories 1Some do, some don&t 2 It goes deeper +hey despair, and #eel trapped 3hat happened4 3hat $an we do4

How We Got Here .ur union movement in Britain used to be deeply de$ent and re#ormist From 5676 to 5689 our grandparents built various 'inds o# ran' and #ile networ's )t the $ore were shop stewards, short stri'es, and a $onstant struggle over $ontrol at wor' +his was true o# miners, $ar wor'ers, do$'ers, hospital $leaners and so$ial wor'ers Steward, union leaders and wor'ers were all trying to get a bigger pie$e o# a growing e$onomy :eople&s lives were getting better 3or'ers were more and more $on#ident ;ilitants began to believe that $on#iden$e was $ru$ial % ea$h little vi$tory $ould lead on to the next Serious Trouble +hen $apitalism ran into serious trouble :ro#its #ell about 568< and have stayed low -apitalists in Britain and everywhere laun$hed what we now $all neoliberalism +his was an attempt to get pro#its ba$' up by $utting the share o# the national in$ome going to wor'ing people +hat meant holding down wages, bene#its, pensions and servi$es, trying to brea' our unions, and ma'ing everyone more une/ual =eoliberalism was not a hobby #or the power#ul It was $riti$ally important #or them to ma'e it wor', be$ause $apitalism is $ompetitive -ompanies that don&t ma'e pro#its die 3ithout enough pro#its, $orporations #ail But neoliberalism didn&t wor' Sin$e ><<? we have all been trapped in a long e$onomi$ $risis, with low pro#its and high unemployment +he $apitalists& rea$tion has been austerity +hat isn&t wor'ing either But a#ter 568< our side, the wor'ers, the people with a manager, ran into troubles too +he #irst problem was the $ollapse o# "$ommunism( in 56?6 +he Soviet Union was so$ialist li'e $ats are mi$e, and li'e torture is love But even a lot o# people in the Labour :arty thought that Russia was somehow an alternative to $apitalism 3hen that #ell, almost everyone a$$epted the idea that $ommunism had not wor'ed and was not possible .ur se$ond problem was that the moderate so$ial demo$rati$ parties, li'e Labour in Britain, have been eating their own assholes In the 56@<s they #o$used on ma'ing things better by getting a bigger share o# a growing pie #or wor'ers +his wor'ed #or a while But when the pie began to go bad, they then 0ust ran the system so that $apitalism $ould survive +hat made them atta$' the things that mattered to their voters Lots o# people still vote Labour, on a$$ount o# #amily history, and be$ause they&re not +ories But those people have lost #aith in a so$ialist alternative +he vision o# alternative died 3ith $apitalism in serious trouble, that mattered Ba$' when things were getting better, our side didn&t need to have an alternative 3e 0ust wanted our share

+he long e$onomi$ $risis and the death o# alternative ideas present an a$ute problem #or the "leadership( o# the wor'ing $lass .n one level this means union leaders hold ba$' and $lose down struggle But the problem goes deeper than this +hat approa$h $ould not deal with the long e$onomi$ $risis 3hen the employers or the government or the Labour :arty said we have to $ut, most union leaders and most militants protested But they had no vision o# an alternative De#eat led to de#eat +hat does not mean it&s harder to win a stri'e now ,mployers may want to $ra$' down hard, but they also need the $ash#low #rom our wor' AustBinBtime and international supply networ's mean stri'es in produ$tive industry $ut harder and #aster )usterity means any publi$ se$tor stri'e is a powder 'eg #or governments It also does not mean people won&t stri'e 3hen we are balloted #or stri'e a$tion, we vote yes by mu$h larger margins than we did during the militant years o# the 568<s But the de#eats have demoralised our leaders )nd we $an&t go ba$' +he union movement we had @< years ago was built on expanding $apitalism and #ull employment 3hen we as' ourselves how to get out o# this hole, our best examples are not the British ran' and #ile movements o# the 568<s or the ;inority ;ovement o# the 56><s It is more important to loo' to Cree$e now, or ;ari'ana in South )#ri$a, tea$hers in -hi$ago, or textile wor'ers in ,gypt :eople who are wrestling with the same problems we are wrestling with )lso, we need to 'eep one lesson #rom the old ran' and #ile tradition +he union leaders negotiate between employers and wor'ers +hey live and wor' in the middle So sometimes they $all stri'es and sometimes they sell out 3hat de$ides that is pressure #rom above and pressure #rom below +he strongest pressure we $an organise #rom below is anything that ma'es the leaders believe the stri'e will get out o# their $ontrol But at the same time, when a struggle threatens the system, they will be deeply $onservative Longing and Revolt )ll this sounds blea' It is But there is another side )ll that hurt, rage, despair and longing is not the property o# the le#t It&s everywhere Be$ause it&s everywhere, there is a $olle$tive longing #or solutions, and #or revolt )lmost everyone is waiting #or someone else to really #ight I# someone really #ights % not a oneBday stri'e or a mar$h o# 5<,<<<, but what everyone will 'now is the real thing, by real people % then everyone will see them Small allBout stri'es and small o$$upations $an be$ome enormous $hallenges to the system, pre$isely be$ause so many people are desperate and the e$onomi$ system is in su$h trouble

Union leaders 'now this, and not 0ust the national leaders It goes deep in a generation o# people who $ame o# age with re#orm unionism and then lived through de$ades o# de#eat +hey now don&t believe in, $an&t imagine, a real alternative But they $an easily see what another de#eat will #eel li'e So they ra$e to $ompromise .rdinary people are deeply s$ared o# revolt too +hat&s what all the $ameras are #or % to s$are us +hat&s how Syria is now being used % to terri#y us o# the $onse/uen$es o# revolt :eople long #or and #ear revolt +hose $ontradi$tory #eelings at war inside so many millions o# people mean struggle $an release enormous energy It&s why we see the revolt o# the s/uares all over the world :eople want to #ight, and are too s$ared to #ight at wor' So they o$$upy CeDi :ar' and s/uares in every $ity in +ur'ey But not their wor'pla$es )nd wor' is where the daily grind o# bullying and $ontrol and exploitation is really #elt 3or' is where the relationships o# $lass are made +here were oneBday and twoBday stri'es in +ur'ey But i# wor'ers had o$$upied ten wor'pla$es in Istanbul, there would have been a thousand o$$upations a$ross +ur'ey What We Can Do So what $an we do4 3hat $an a revolutionary party do4 3hat $an a networ' o# a$tivists do4 .r let&s put it li'e this! what $an you and I and people li'e us do4 .ne /uestion everyone as's is! where will the #ight start4 =o one 'nows ;aybe it will be $ivil servants ;aybe #ast #ood wor'ers, shopping mall o$$upations, or $all $enters ;aybe it will le$turers =o on $an 'now )#ter the de$isive $on#rontation begins, it will be obvious later to every historian why it began right there, that moment, with those people But let&s be very $lear! until it happens no one 'nows Does this mean we ignore union bran$h meetings, union $on#eren$es, and "organised wor'ers(4 =o I# you have a union wor'pla$e, that is your #irst networ' o# resistan$e I# you don&t have a union, believe me, you need one )nd every wor'ers struggle, as soon as it starts, is organised In two senses % people are organised be$ause they 0oin unions, but also be$ause struggle never starts without some organisation )nother /uestion people as' is how $an a small revolutionary party ma'e it happen4 3e $an&t Creat so$ial movements $ome out o# billions o# $onversations among millions o# people But a party, or even a networ' o# a$tivists, $an be li'e a midwi#e at a birth +he midwi#e does not ma'e the baby or $arry it She does not push But she has studied birth, and wat$hed it, and in

an emergen$y her 'nowledge and /ui$' sure a$tions $an ma'e all the di##eren$e .ur tas' now is not to reassure people about how easy or how li'ely struggle will be +here are reasons to thin' struggle will explode But maybe it won&t .ur #irst tas' is to 0oin other people in their despair and their longing +his is not hard % it is what we #eel, but try not to say .ur se$ond tas' is to loo' #or every little possible explosion ,very time bin wor'ers o$$upy a $anteen, or people riot over #are rises +ime is o# the essen$e here .ur rulers move #ast Union leaders arrive /ui$'ly to $alm things down ;ost important, a$tion explodes be$ause people are volatile now +hey are volatile be$ause despair, rage and longing are $lashing inside them In the moment they a$t, the anger, the 0oy and the #ear are all intense I# they don&t go #orward, they go /uiet So in the moment, at the #lashpoint, we have to move #ast to suggest an o$$upation, now +hen we get three people to start streaming video #rom the o$$upation to the world within the #irst hour 3e phone and message a networ' o# a$tivists and urge them to have a meeting in every wor'pla$e to tal' to our o$$upation 3e beg everyone to $ome stand outside our o$$upation and de#end us )nd everyone we tal' to, we say, do it too, li'e us, please, now +hat&s one way *ou $an also spread a stri'e .r $onvene a meeting at wor' to dis$uss how to spread the spirit o# the o$$upied s/uare to this building we&re sitting in here For all that, you need a networ' o# a$tivists )nd you absolutely need the idea that a total alternative is possible Be$ause the union leaders will $ome and say you&re going too #ar, the management $an&t do that, or the government $an&t do that, or they $an&t a##ord that +he voi$es in the wor'ers& heads will say those things too +hen maybe one voi$e in the room says i# your system doesn&t wor', we $an ta'e it over +hat voi$e supplies the lost vision o# an alternative .r silen$e #alls, and de#eat #ollows 3e&re not happyB$lappy, not $heerleaders 3e 'now what everyone 'nows % we $ould lose, or worse, go down without a #ight But everyone also 'nows the global system is in trouble )nd everyone 'nows something has to $hange So we have to be in$lusive, and open, be$ause only ma0orities $an #ight at wor' )t the same time we have to be the most radi$al people in the room % the people everyone 'nows want to $hange ever thing Be$ause the other people in the room #eel despair, and 'now this is no time #or small measures +hree things #ollow 3e are part o# the o$$upation o# every s/uare 3e ta'e the s/uares into the wor'pla$es 3e never shut up about so$ialism and revolution )nd sometimes a midwi#e ma'es a baby o# her own