The left has always been fundamentally optimistic. Its critiques of the state of things have always con- tained an implicit celebration of the world as it could be. This cele-
bration has not been of incremen-
tal improvements-though the left
has fought for these-but of what humanity could pos-
sibly become. Historically, parts of the left have cele-
brated and been mobilized by very specific visions of
possible futures. Many social experiments have been
driven by this celebration, though more than a few have
fallen under its weight.
For much of the twentieth century, many on the left
defined their politics in relation to various socialist
experiments. The old “new left” of the 1960s tried to
opt out of having to take a position on the USSR, China
and Cuba by simply calling itself “non-exclusionary,”
and inventing the term “real existing socialism” to draw
a line between vision and reality. But the mere existence
of those experiments proved to us-even to those
among us who had little or no sympathy for those
experiments-that alternatives to capitalism were avail-
able, and that humanity was capable of holding a hand
up to fate.
We on the left have always been animated by a
strong belief that a worldly alternative to the present
state of affairs was not only desirable but possible, and
that struggle–of one sort or another–could bring it
about. No serious part of the left ever held that struggle
would be easy, or that victory was inevitable. We have
always had our share of defeats and martyrs, and the
memories of those defeats and martyrs has animated
further struggle.
But we now face a challenge that is new to this cen-
tury. The collapse of the Soviet Union, much to our
surprise, has removed from public discourse not one
particular alternative model, but the belief that any
real alternative is possible. This potentially creative
challenge is powerfully reflected in the interviews that
follow.
To celebrate our thirtieth anniversary, we at NACLA
sought out a wide variety of activists from throughout
the Americas, and spoke to them about the current
social and political moment. While making no attempt
to be all inclusive, we tried to capture the diversity of
the current Latin American and Caribbean left (with one
foray into U.S. trade unionism) by speaking with this
broad sample of left activists about the resurgence of
activity on the pan-American left. The activists inter-
viewed come from political parties, labor organizations
and a variety of social and political movements. We
asked them to reflect upon the state of popular mobi-
lization and the possibilities for change through the lens
of their own political experience.
We recognize, of course, that our spectrum of the left
may have excluded certain voices, particularly young
and marginalized ones, which have not yet found an
institutional form of expression. “The Zapatistas,”
Bishop Samuel Ruiz tells us, “emerged without faces
because they represent many unseen faces from else-
where which are now emerging as new subjects.” These
new subjects will surely create their own forms of polit-
ical expression, and when they do, they will reconstruct
the institutions of social transformation-under as-yet
unknown names-and become new faces and voices on
the left.
Among their tasks will be the reconstruction not only
of credible alternatives to capitalist development, but
alternatives to the most savage forms of capitalist
development. Those alternatives have been declared
dead and buried by powerful “opinion makers,” mostly
based in the North. Aided by the proliferation of U.S.-
supported free-market think tanks, all the models of
growth and development that involve some state inter-
vention have been lumped into one and that one model
has been declared a failure. It is not only existing social-
ism, but existing social democracy that is deemed to
have collapsed. In fact, leftists are now portrayed as
5VOICES ON THE LEFT
The times are at once explosive and
non-revolutionary. This is a function both of the
hegemony of neoliberal ideas and the power of
neoliberal institutions.
conservatives, as antiquarians holding out against the
one true faith of free-market capitalism.
In some cases this thinking has reached the left itself,
but even when it hasn’t, it has created the context in
which the left must organize. We are living therefore, not so much in a time of defeat as in a time of doubt.
The left has been defeated before and risen resolutely
from the ashes. The left has been disenchanted before
and divided, subdivided and changed course. But not in
a long time has the possibility of constructing an alter-
native set of economic and social arrangements seemed
so doubtful and so remote.
All the more remarkable then, that in this age of
doubt and cynicism, the activists interviewed in
these pages maintain a radical commitment and
enthusiasm. And more impressive, they maintain a faith
that their activities can accomplish something. These
activists are not engaged in moral witness here. They are
not lone voices in the wilderness, but social activists
engaged in the struggles of their times and places. Some
of those interviewed here have been active over many
generations. But while there is some personal history in
these pages, there is no nostalgia. Those who have been
around long enough to speak personally of the past con-
tinue to struggle for the future, though in altered cir-
cumstances.
In some cases, as in the calls for “electable” coali-
tions, or in the give and take of government-guerrilla
negotiations, these interviews reflect a scaling down of
historic demands and positions. In other cases, as with
post-Peace Accord organizing in Guatemala, or with the
resuscitation of the moribund U.S. labor movement,
they reflect a cranking up of old demands.
These are voices that by no means lack the facility of
self examination. The following pages are filled with
self criticism and critique of traditional left projects, from the gentle critique of Cuban Communism by Juan
Vald6s Paz, that “the planning of the future should be
accompanied by a much higher level of social participa-
tion,” to the harsher “the left in Latin America was never
really in contact with the masses,” of Argentine Senator
Graciela Fernindez. Indeed, the broad political move-
ment reflected in these interviews seems to be carefully
committed to a left project that will rethink old certain-
ties without giving in to neoliberal hegemony.
In any case, the fall of the left’s traditional projects
have-at least for now-produced a fundamentally dif-
ferent kind of organizing. The times are at once explo-
sive and non-revolutionary. This is a function both of
the hegemony of neoliberal ideas and the power of
neoliberal institutions, both flowing from the lack of a
concrete-or easily imagined-alternative. Even most
armed opposition groups now articulate goals well
short of revolution. Raill Reyes of the Colombian
FARC guerrillas calls here for “a government of recon-
struction and national reconciliation,” and Bishop
Samuel Ruiz speaks of the Zapatista’s desire for peace
and structural reforms.
To be “in contact with the masses,” movements and
parties of the left have adopted concrete demands and
become more participatory. “It has taken 500 years to
address the problem of women,” says Guatemala’s
Rosalina Tuyuc, and in so saying, articulates a demand
for a politics that is more congruent with daily life-a
politics that is rooted in the community. There is noth-
ing new about community politics, but it is now a much
more important part of the left project than it ever was
before. “How can a man be trusted to defend the rights
of children if he won’t even take care of his own chil-
dren?” asks Benedita da Silva. And the Zapatista rebels,
as a people in arms, reflect in their politics all the hopes,
fears and contradictions of the lives of the communities
in which they live.
There is an emphasis in these interviews on democra-
tic models of development, mass participation in politics
and structural, “achievable” reforms. There is also a rad-
ical sense that a left project must create not just a safety
net for the poorest and jobs for the unemployed, but the
bonds of solidarity that come from sharing both the hard-
ships and joys of daily life. Despite the collapse of the
old models, the conflicts and contradictions that gave
rise to the old models are very much still with us.
“Indeed,” said Cheddi Jagan, the President of Guyana
who spoke to us just a month before he died, “the devel-
oping countries will continue to be marginalized if we do
not collectively seek a new order.” Not out of nostalgia,
but out of necessity, the left is re-inventing itself.
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