Thread by @docrussjackson

In 'After neoliberalism: analysing the present', Stuart Hall, Doreen Massey & Michael Rustin, the founding editors of Soundings, set out their framing analysis for their 2013 online 'Kilburn Manifesto'.

Stuart Hall diagnosed the conjuncture: "The breakdown of old forms of social solidarity is accompanied by the dramatic growth of inequality & a widening gap between those who run the system or are well paid as its agents, & the working poor, unemployed, under-employed or unwell."

In 2013, The Sunday Times Rich List was topped by two Russian oligarchs and an Indian billionaire.

Stuart Hall said "They live a life totally divorced from and almost unimaginable by ordinary people, fuelled by an apparently unstoppable appetite for profit."

Since then, well...

"Neoliberalism's victory has depended on the boldness and ambition of global capital, on its confidence that it can now govern not just the economy but the whole of social life."

"On the back of a revamped liberal political & economic theory, its champions have constructed a vision & a new common sense that permeate society. Market forces begin to model institutional life & press deeply into our private lives, as well as dominating political discourse."

"They have shaped a popular culture that extols celebrity & success & promotes values of private gain & possessive individualism. They have thoroughly undermined the redistributive egalitarian consensus that underpinned the welfare state, with painful consequences for...

...socially vulnerable groups such as women, old people, the young & ethnic minorities.

Corporate exploitation of cheap labour, natural resources & land has worsened the crisis in the developing world."

"Environmental degradation, poverty, disease pandemics, poor education, ethnic divisions and civil wars are paraded as inevitable postcolonial failures and provoke the old powers to intervene to safeguard the conditions for capitalist accumulation."

"The neoliberal victory has reasserted the powers & position of the dominant classes. But this victory was not inevitable. No social settlement is permanent, & this one was fought for, from the coup in Chile & the defeat of the miners in Britain to current attacks on...

...workers' rights & the benefits system. There is more than one way out of the current catastrophe. There is always an alternative. Today, the founding editors of Soundings, the new left journal first published in 1995, launch a manifesto attempting to outline ways forward."

"New Labour's collusion with the neoliberal project – through an agenda of privatisation, outsourcing & the marketisation of the public sector – has left the party unable to draw a clear line with the coalition."

"Having driven forward many of Thatcherism's gains under Tony Blair, New Labour is constrained by timid leadership, by a lack of clear vision & new ideas."

"Outside party politics new social movements, including environmental, anti-cuts and feminist groups, have not come together sufficiently with the old, defensive organisations of the working class to produce the coalition that might make them an effective political force."

"Turmoil in the Middle East shows us what happens when democratic demands are not met, while in Europe resistance to austerity is twinned with the revival of fascism. This is no time for simple retreat. What is required is a renewed sense of being on the side of the future..."

"We must admit that the old forms of the welfare state proved insufficient. But we must stubbornly defend the principles on which it was founded: redistribution, egalitarianism, collective provision, democratic accountability & participation, the right to education & healthcare."

"All of us who oppose the current direction, whether from inside or outside party politics or other organisations, must invent. We must set about disrupting the current common sense, challenging the assumptions that organise our 21st-century political discourse."

"We hope our manifesto will open a dialogue with a new generation shaped by different political experiences. This is a moment for challenging, not adapting to, neoliberalism's new reality, & for making a leap."

Free download of the Kilburn Manifesto:

lwbooks.co.uk/product/after-…