“The policy of giving a free hand to capital in certain delineated areas of the country in the framework of the one-China policy is responsible to the vertiginous growth experienced in the last years and is consistent with my understanding of non-essentialism”

Twenty years after the visit to Malta by Presidents Bush and Gorbachev which sealed the ending of the Cold War, last week we had another historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI, with a clear message not to be afraid to face change that is taking place around us.

It is undoubted that change is taking place around us and one social theory that I believe is proposing itself with consistency, one out of many I am sure but appealing just the same for its simplicity, is the Althusserian non-essentialist reading of Marx.

During the period 1917-1991 – referred to as the short 20th century – one paradigm which established itself authoritively on the Left was a Marxism which set as its objective the getting hold of the operations of the state by the working class party or parties, in order to countervail the exploitation created by capital.

This theory whether in its Leninist formulation exemplified by the storming of the Winter Palace by the military forces of the Bolshevik Party in October 1917 – or in the reformist versions of social-democracy or eurocommunism of acquiring state power through the ballot box – is now considered pointless since in today’s world the state and capital are so intertwined that the capture of the state will not be sufficient to bring about the changes that the theory purport to bring about.

The putting into practice of this theory has resulted in the market either being eliminated completely and so stopping the historic process or that it continues to operate as before with no real change taking place.

After a long period of soul-searching the new formulation of revolution or change is being based on a non-essentialist reading of Marx. This theory is today not only clearly formulated but taught in universities and propagated by means of specialised reviews and articles in the press. Unfortunately to my knowledge this is so far not the case in Malta.

I believe that this theory is also being put into practice as is evidenced by a new way of doing politics emerging in several countries where a new unity of state and capital is being sought and sometimes obtained. It is noted that in such cases the functions of both the state and capital are being clearly delineated with a view of permitting increased participation while at the same time not abandoning the ground on which the state is based. The market is not only permitted to operate freely in the industry among other fields but also encouraged to do so. At the same time human development in fields like education and health care are undertaken by the state to safeguard that new injustices are not created in the process.

This distinguishes this new paradigm which is being termed postcapitalism from neo-liberalism which seeks to integrate all activity under the auspices of the market and therefore of the profit motive with the catastrophic consequences which are evident for all to see.

The most illustrious example of this new paradigm is China – a country which has experienced consistent accelerated economic growth for many years, so much so that its influence is now considered second only to the USA. The policy of giving a free hand to capital in certain delineated areas of the country in the framework of the one-China policy is responsible to the vertiginous growth experienced in the last years and is consistent with my understanding of non-essentialism.

Lifting people out of poverty in Africa and Latin America in this way is the challenge I believe the 21st century has in store for us, with the consequence that there would no longer be the people disruption taking place in Africa today, where millions are making arduous journeys to cross over to the industrialised countries of Europe. This massive clandestine immigration is in turn creating enormous problems for the recipient countries as we well know.

The new paradigm of postcapitalism is so glaringly being established that I do not believe there could be any remaining doubt that it is before us for all to see, if only we would put aside the ideological blinkers of yesterday.

Mario Mifsud