Whose protest? Post-capitalist transformation and antinomies of “grassroots” political struggle

Abstract

The article raises the question of the role of protest activity in the formation of post-capitalist social relations. It is shown that today the intellectual discourse about post-capitalism is expanding, associated with the understanding of a number of socio-economic and technological transformations that indicate a deep crisis of capitalism and the formation of post-capitalist social relations. At the same time, the situation turns out to be contradictory, since it does not seem that the protest struggle in recent decades has acquired a distinctly class or concentrated anti-capitalist features. Protest movements increasingly clash with the interests of the “silent majority” or focus on local problems, ignoring ones that are more significant. Nevertheless, the author seeks to show that the contradictions of modern protest do not mean that capitalism is eternal, and the idea of post-capitalism has nothing to do with reality. Instead of capitalism, a new antagonistic socioeconomic formation appears, within which the pursuit of money is replaced by the “pursuit of personality”: for a bright individuality, popularity, public recognition, etc. People who predominantly adhere to post-materialist values are becoming the new dominant social stratum. Individuals who have lost their “traditional” class identity due to the rapid development of social media acquire new tools of political influence. This “class of popular persons” (the personaliat) is the main organizer and provocateur of street political activity today. However, as in the days of previous social revolutions, this does not mean that all representatives of society will benefit from the activities of the “new elites”.