An exchange of ideas that took place in the context of the preparations for the WSF-related meetings in Durban, South Africa, and in reaction to the article of Roberto Savio (IPS) "World Social forum : the cradle of global civil society".

Heikki Patomäki (NIGD), 21 July 2006, social forums list and to others

Dear Susan and Antonio,

We should perhaps see this situation also as a result of a slightly pathological learning process that has taken place in the Leftish movements and networks during the last 30 years or so. Everybody is so willing to avoid the problems of both Leninism and mainstream socialdemocracy that they tend to self-isolate themselves:

-from the outset, Leninism amounted to a violent one-party tyranny that soon also adopted the führerprinzip of the German NSDAP (Stalin), and thus lost its credibility even among sympathetic Western Marxists already in the 1950s (and the Gramscians, critical theorists etc was never approved Leninism or the Soviet system modelled on the German war economy)

-particularly since the 1970s, socialdemocratic parties all over the world have become increasingly alienated from any form of spontaneous participation and turned neoliberal in their ideology and policies

In part as a response to these problems, the Left has also tended to adopt poststructuralist and postmodern ideas that emphasise the cultivation of diversity and pluralism at the expense of everything else. These lessons have led to deep suspicion of all forms of "official politics"; many assume implicitly that the only way to avoid violence and corruption is to stay with the likeminded in the "open spaces" of civil society.

By striving for autonomy in this sense - in practice as isolation or independence from the rest of society - many civil society organisations contribute to the heteronomy of their members in their other roles and identities. Logically, a solution to this dilemma would be a total opt-out from the complex modern society, dependent on sophisticated division of labour, by forming independent communities like the anarchists and socialists sometimes tried to do in the 19th century (when they still could find unoccupied land in the New World). Most of these experiments failed miserably, but remnants of this utopia are still with us.

This is the background against which we should understand the fierce resistance in the WSF against any joint positions on any concrete issue of world politics.

Although I wholeheartedly welcome your concrete initiative for an action day or anything similar, it may also be that time is now ripe for new steps to be taken. One important possibility would be the forming of a democratic global political party (see http://www.nigd.org/globalparties for some tentative considerations).

Best wishes,