Anarchism, Poststructuralism and the Future of Radical Politics

Abstract

In the post-Marxist era?in the time defined, in other words, by the eclipse of Marxism and the state socialist projects that emerged in its name?it would seem that radical left politics is adrift in uncertain waters. It would appear that we are living, as Jacques Ranciere would say, in the age of post-politics, where the global neo-liberal consensus is shared by the parliamentary Right and Left alike (an ideological distinction that has become, at the formal level, largely meaningless) and where the very idea of emancipation is now regarded by many as a dangerous and outdated illusion. However, this sterile space has been disrupted in recent years by the unleashing of new reactionary forces? the political emergence of the Far Right, the uncanny appearance of religious fundamentalism (and not just of the Islamic variety), as well as the aggressive and violent reassertion of the authoritarian state under the dubious pretext of security. All this would not seem to bode well for any sort of radical politics of emancipation. Indeed, the dominant ideological message today is to accept the rules of the game?to accept, in other words, free-market economics and the security state, the only alternative being fundamentalist terrorism. Indeed, terrorism has shown itself to be a mobile and infinitely extendible signifier that can now be applied to virtually any form of dissident activity, even?and especially?in our so-called liberal democracies. Despite these constraints, however, there have been signs of a certain revitalization of radical left politics?in particular, the anti-capitalist and anti-war protests that have taken place around the world in recent years. These protest movements suggest new forms of radical politics that break with traditional Marxist categories of class and economic struggles, and at the same time go beyond the particularistic and ultimately conservative logic of identity politics. While these struggles are made up of different and heterogeneous identities, and are not subordinated to the universal subjectivity of the proletariat, they are at the same time mobilized around universal issues and concerns?the current course of capitalist globalization, and the permanent state of war through which it is now articulated.