Beyond the politics of left and right

Real Left’s Chris Rea is interviewed by Richard House

"CR: Real Left – which was originally Left Lockdown Sceptics until our name change in 2023 – was founded in January 2021 by David Fletcher and his colleagues from the Marxist theoretical journal Marxist World. Since then, through members leaving and joining, the demographic of the editorial has changed to a more libertarian left (anarchist) weighted makeup, although we still have active members/supporters who identify as communists, Marxists and socialists.

The founding purpose was to provide an online publishing platform for critiques of the ‘new normal’ or bio-security state from anti-capitalist perspectives. Such critiques were, and mostly still are, absent from left-wing discourse. We have since broadened the focus of our critique to all aspects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, platforming ‘dissident’ positions on issues like net zero, for example.

RH: Where does Real Left stand on the vexed question of ‘wokeness’ and the culture wars – assuming you have a definable position on these issues?

CR: Usually, phenomena labelled ‘wokeness’ connote a trickle-down manifestation of the transition to stakeholder capitalism – with its introduction of diversity, equality and inclusion; environmental and social governance, and social impact corporate frameworks. This, to eventually align all economic activity with the Sustainable Development Goals: the new rules of the (digital prison) game. Global techno-fascism has constructed socially and environmentally conscious sounding PR – green/sustainable, people-powered, inclusive, etc. – to disguise its real goals.

Finally, a note of caution regarding the way the term ‘woke’ is sometimes used to disparage or dismiss past or present grassroots activities towards improved social justice. We live under a hierarchical system designed by highly adept predators. The raison d’etre of essentially all institutions and mass media-propagated culture is to disseminate, manage and normalise the abuse and exploitation of the population in a myriad of ways. If we are serious about egalitarian revolution, that must include a willingness to examine the culturally-imbibed attitudes and behaviours that make us complicit in the oppression of those with (even) less social and economic power than ourselves."

https://realleft.substack.com/p/real-left-interview-in-the-light

📱 ROBINMG