tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/socialist-26762/articlesSocialist – The Conversation2020-12-01T19:48:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1135072020-12-01T19:48:20Z2020-12-01T19:48:20ZSocialism is a trigger word on social media – but real discussion is going on amid the screaming<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371807/original/file-20201128-13-1u67y0y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Tug-of-words' posts debating the merits of socialism versus capitalism are all over social media platforms.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-xssmf">pxfuel</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The word “socialism” has become a trigger word in U.S. politics, with both <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/10/07/in-their-own-words-behind-americans-views-of-socialism-and-capitalism/">positive and negative perceptions of it</a> split along party lines. </p>
<p>But what does socialism actually mean to Americans? Although surveys can ask individuals for responses to questions, they don’t reveal what people are saying when they talk among themselves. </p>
<p>As a social media scholar, I study conversations “in the wild” in order to find out what people are actually saying to one another. The method I developed is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netnography">netnography</a> and it treats online posts as discourse – a continuing dialogue between real people – rather than as quantifiable data. </p>
<p>As part of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296319300219">an ongoing study on technology and utopia</a>, I read through more than 14,000 social media comments posted on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube in 2018 and 2019. They came from 9,155 uniquely named posters.</p>
<p>What I found was both shocking and heartening.</p>
<h2>Loyalty and fear</h2>
<p>Both support for socialism and attacks on it appear to be on the rise. </p>
<p>Socialism can <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/243362/meaning-socialism-americans-today.aspx">mean different things to people</a>. Some see it as a system that institutionalizes fairness and citizen rights, bringing higher levels of social solidarity; others focus on heavy-handed government control of free markets that work more effectively when left alone. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, emphasized the right to quality health care, education, a good job with a living wage, affordable housing and a clean environment <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/opinion/bernie-sanders-socialism.html">in a 2019 speech</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/268295/support-government-inches-not-socialism.aspx">2019 Gallup Poll</a> found that 39% of Americans have a favorable opinion of socialism – up from about <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/socialism-rising-plurality-of-democrats-think-it-would-be-good-for-us-to-move-toward-socialism-according-to-fox-news-poll">20% in 2010</a>; 57% view it negatively. </p>
<p>Prominent elected “<a href="https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/what-is-democratic-socialism/">democratic socialist</a>” officials include six <a href="http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/September-2019/How-Socialism-Permeated-City-Council/">Chicago City Council members</a>, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2020/03/bernie-sanders-socialist-or-social-democrat">Sanders</a>. </p>
<p>These and other advocates <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/783700/democratic-socialism-bad-why-norway-great">point to</a> a version of socialism called the “Nordic model,” seen in countries like Denmark, which provide <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/10/16/9544007/denmark-nordic-model">high-quality social services</a> such as health care and education while fostering a strong economy. </p>
<p>Critics call socialism anti-American and charge that it undermines free enterprise and leads to disaster, often using <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelas-collapse-exposes-the-fake-socialism-debated-in-u-s-11549465200">the unrealistically extreme example of Venezuela</a>.</p>
<p>President Trump has portrayed socialists as radical, lazy, America-hating communists. His son, Donald Trump Jr., has posted <a href="https://twitter.com/donaldjtrumpjr/status/925495970032443392?lang=en">tweets ridiculing socialism</a>.</p>
<p>During the 2020 election season, Republican Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell advised that his party could win by being a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/12/mitch-mcconnells-strategy-is-run-against-socialism-it-wont-be-enough/?utm_term=.6c9d5393693f">firewall against socialism</a>. He was on point: Fear of socialism may have been a <a href="https://reason.com/2020/11/06/socialism-2020-trump-biden-rebuke-left/">reason</a> why the Republicans gained seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020. </p>
<h2>A ‘tug of words’</h2>
<p>Although I wasn’t initially looking for posts on socialism or capitalism, I found plenty of them in my online investigation. Many were what I call a “tug of words” in which people asserted which system was better. People from opposite ends of the political spectrum made pithy observations, posted one-liners or launched strong, emotionally worded broadsides. There was often little dialogue – those who posted were shouting at each other as if using a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/40/1/136/1792230">megaphone</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371389/original/file-20201125-15-31vgbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=307&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A YouTube commenter uses a megaphone-like approach to preach about the perils of socialism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screen shot by Robert Kozinets</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I also found a large number of short, nonconversational, megaphone-like posts on visual social media like Instagram and Pinterest.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370936/original/file-20201124-17-2rbbm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some commentary on socialism on Pinterest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screen shot by Robert Kozinets</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But some people were more circumspect. While they were often reactive or one-sided, they raised questions. For example, people questioned whether business bailouts, grants, lobbying or special tax treatment showed that capitalism’s “free markets” weren’t actually all that free. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372172/original/file-20201201-13-1421u0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372172/original/file-20201201-13-1421u0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372172/original/file-20201201-13-1421u0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372172/original/file-20201201-13-1421u0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372172/original/file-20201201-13-1421u0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372172/original/file-20201201-13-1421u0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372172/original/file-20201201-13-1421u0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Making a historical economic argument against socialism and its slippery slope to totalitarianism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Kozinets' data collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And some considered what “socialism” actually means to people, linking that meaning to race, nationality and class.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370935/original/file-20201124-15-imys5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The meaning of socialism discussed on Twitter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screen shot by Robert Kozinets</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming primitive ‘isms’</h2>
<p>Amid all the sound and fury of people shouting from their virtual soapboxes, there were also the calmer voices of those engaging in deeper discussions. These people debated socialism, capitalism and free markets in relation to health care, child care, minimum wage and other issues that affected their lives. </p>
<p>One YouTube discussion explored the notion that we should stop viewing everything “through the primitive lens of the nonsensical ‘isms’ – capitalism, socialism, communism – which have no relevance in a sustainable or socially just and peaceful world.” </p>
<p>Other discussions united both left and right by asserting that the real problem was corruption in the system, not the system itself. Some used social media to try to overcome the ideological blinders of partisan politics. For example, they argued that raising the minimum wage or improving education might be sensible management strategies that could help the economy and working Americans at the same time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370938/original/file-20201124-17-pw4wwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370938/original/file-20201124-17-pw4wwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370938/original/file-20201124-17-pw4wwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370938/original/file-20201124-17-pw4wwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370938/original/file-20201124-17-pw4wwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370938/original/file-20201124-17-pw4wwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370938/original/file-20201124-17-pw4wwg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This Reddit post explores the benefits of changes that some might label as socialist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screen shot by Robert Kozinets.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>New forum for discussions</h2>
<p>As America’s divisions fester, my work gives me reason for hope. It shows that some Americans – still a small minority, mind you – are thoughtfully using popular social media platforms to have meaningful discussions. What I have provided here is just a small sample of the many thoughtful conversations I encountered.</p>
<p>My analysis of social media doesn’t deny that many people are angry and polarized over social systems. But it has revealed that a significant number of people recognize that labels like socialism, free markets and capitalism have become emotional triggers, used by some journalists and politicians to manipulate, incite and divide.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>To unify and move forward together, we may need to better understand the sites and discussion formats that facilitate this kind of thoughtful discourse. If partisans retreat to echo chamber platforms like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/technology/parler-rumble-newsmax.html">Parler and Rumble</a>, will these kinds of intelligent conversations between people with diverse viewpoints cease?</p>
<p>As Americans confront the financial challenges of a pandemic, automation, precarious employment and globalization, providing forums where we can discuss divergent ideas in an open-minded rather than an ideological way may make a critical difference to the solutions we choose. Many Americans are already using digital platforms to discuss options, rather than being frightened away by – or attacking – the tired old socialist bogeyman.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Kozinets does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An analysis of social media commentary about socialism versus capitalism shows that people are talking past each other, but some are engaging in more nuanced discussions as well.Robert Kozinets, Jayne and Hans Hufschmid Chair in Strategic Public Relations and Business Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and JournalismLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/721392017-01-30T14:53:23Z2017-01-30T14:53:23ZBenoît Hamon wins French socialist nomination as party sees a reassuring bump in the polls<p>Benoît Hamon has been officially named as the Socialist Party’s candidate for the 2017 presidential election. His path to victory has appeared fairly secure for a while. He recently secured <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/22/benoit-hamon-tops-poll-in-first-french-socialist-primary-race">36% of the vote in the first round</a> before this latest vote, finishing ahead of his main rival, the former prime minister Manuel Valls on 32%. But the real clincher was the declaration by Arnaud Montebourg (17%) that <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/video/20170122-france-left-primary-arnaud-montebourg-concedes-defeat-calls-support-benoit-hamon">he would support Hamon</a> in the second round. In the end, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/764e56c6-e65e-11e6-893c-082c54a7f539">Hamon took 58.7% of the vote to Valls’ 41.3%</a>.</p>
<p>There was some speculation in the week running up to the vote that the right of the Socialist party would mobilise and that an increased turnout would work in Valls’s favour, but that never quite materialised. Despite throwing various claims at his rival, Valls could not claw back the deficit. The final televised debate between the two men passed off without major incident, even though Hamon appeared to be rowing back from some of his promises on his much-vaunted <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38723219">universal minimum wage</a>.</p>
<h2>Cranking up the machine</h2>
<p>For Hamon, the hard work begins now. It is one thing to win a primary but quite another to exert your authority over the party that elected you. In the week between the first and second rounds, a number of prominent figures on the social democratic right-wing of the party had been suggesting that if Hamon wins, they would rally to his centre-left rival Emmanuel Macron, who is standing as an independent candidate at the helm of his own political movement. The most prominent Hamon sceptic is former presidential candidate <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/elections/presidentielles/primaires-gauche/2017/01/25/35005-20170125ARTFIG00143-segolene-royal-fait-un-pas-de-plus-vers-emmanuel-macron.php">Ségolène Royal</a>.</p>
<p>Hamon does, however, have a whole party machine behind him – and you need one of those to run a campaign. It still remains to be seen whether either Macron’s En Marche! Movement is anything like as capable on the ground. The same goes for Hamon’s other main left-wing rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon. He too is running as an independent. The socialist machine might be rusty but it is at least tried and tested.</p>
<p>And in fact, thumping Valls in the run-off was not the only piece of good news for Hamon. Up until this point, it looked like the Socialist Party candidate – whoever they were – would be starting the main presidential race from an extremely weak position, in fifth place behind candidates from across the political spectrum, including the far right. But an opinion poll published by <a href="http://www.lefigaro.fr/elections/presidentielles/2017/01/29/35003-20170129ARTFIG00201-presidentielle-fillon-et-macron-au-coude-a-coude-le-pen-en-tete.php">Le Figaro</a> as the left-wing votes were being added up produced some surprising figures.</p>
<p>It places the Front National’s <a href="https://euobserver.com/beyond-brussels/136714">Marine Le Pen in the lead</a>, with 25% of votes, ahead of Fillon on 22% – not bad after the torrid week he has had with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/27/penelope-gate-casts-dark-shadow-over-fillons-presidential-prospects">Penelopegate</a>, in which he faces an investigation into alleged misuse of public funds. Then comes Macron on 21%. So far, so more-or-less what we expected. The real shock comes with Hamon now being credited with 15% of voting intentions (rather than the measly 6% being predicted for the Socialist candidate). That places him well ahead of Mélenchon, who is on 10% – far below his previous showing of around 14%.</p>
<p>This matters because Hamon is not very far, in many of his policies, from Mélenchon and might well gnaw away at his supporters. It also matters because Mélenchon has repeatedly insisted that whoever wins the Socialist Party contest should throw their lot in with him and the ecologist Yannick Jadot to create a “real” left-wing, red-green alliance. Hamon was unlikely ever to do that and, if the poll is right, he certainly doesn’t need to. Mélenchon, a man who could start a fight in an empty room, will be incandescent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72139/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Victory seems a distant prospect, but the latest polling suggests the ruling socialist party might not be quite out for the count.Paul Smith, Associate Professor in French and Francophone Studies, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/623882016-07-13T17:30:10Z2016-07-13T17:30:10ZTheresa May, prime minister: the ball is in her court on workplace democracy<p>The most radical proposal for the extension of workplace democracy in a generation has been made not by Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, but by Theresa May, the UK’s new prime minister. </p>
<p>May outlined her stance <a href="http://www.theresa2016.co.uk/we_can_make_britain_a_country_that_works_for_everyone">on a number of issues</a> as she bid for the premiership. They formed part of her pitch for a new form of Toryism to appeal to the whole nation, including employees and employers, citizens and consumers, and rich and poor. </p>
<p>Central to her vision was “putting people back in control” and, when it comes to business, having employee representatives on company boards. It signalled that May’s government would neither be a continuation of Cameron’s, nor a bonfire of labour market regulations <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/06/andrea-leadsom-challenged-to-explain-views-on-workers-rights">that her rival Andrea Leadsom favoured</a>. </p>
<p>Any right-minded trade unionist or socialist should welcome May’s proposal. Putting workers on the boards of public limited companies brings the issue of workplace democracy to the top of the political agenda. </p>
<p>But any right-minded trade unionist or socialist will also want to suspend judgement on how far to welcome May’s proposal until they see exactly what she is putting forward. The devil, after all, will be in the detail. </p>
<h2>Lessons from history</h2>
<p>First off, the proposal was made at the beginning of what was expected to be a three-month leadership campaign. Plus, the reaction to it from business leaders – important supporters of the Conservative Party – was lukewarm to say the least. </p>
<p>History offers any intrigued trade unionists and socialists further reason to curb their enthusiasm. The last time they were given what seemed like a simple, unambiguous commitment from a prime minister in waiting was from Tony Blair in 1996. He promised to pass a law that allowed union members to gain legal union recognition from a recalcitrant employer where they constituted a simple majority. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/26/contents">Employment Relations Act 1999</a> was the result. It brought in the right for workers to be accompanied in grievance or disciplinary hearings, but it also allows employers – as a result of their lobbying – to influence whether this legal union recognition is granted or not. So what resulted was a weak form of recognition and not the one that unions had hoped for or expected. </p>
<p>There is no reason to think a similar process of watering down will not happen with May’s proposal. That is assuming it is not a campaign proposal that gets quietly dropped when the so-called “serious business” of being PM – and negotiating Brexit – begins.</p>
<p>But the longer historical record has an even more illuminating light to shed on May’s proposal. Back in 1975, the then Labour government in Britain commissioned a Committee of Inquiry on Industrial Democracy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Report_of_the_committee_of_inquiry_on_industrial_democracy">to look into this same idea</a> of having workers represented on boards of directors and greater trade union involvement in the process of how companies are run. </p>
<p>Led by Oxford academic Alan Bullock, the committee published its main report in 1977. This <a href="http://bit.ly/29vOslO">recommended</a> that in companies with more than 2,000 employees, for every director that represented capital (so the employers or their management) there would be a representative of labour. There were also to be independent third party representatives, like lawyers or academics, to cast the deciding vote or break any deadlock.</p>
<p>The proposals were never implemented so the experiment of industrial democracy in the form of worker directors never took off. This was a result of the then Labour government’s implosion, a lack of agreement among the unions on how it would work, and because new PM, Margaret Thatcher, was determined to reduce worker and union rights upon entering Downing Street in May 1979. </p>
<h2>Equal representation</h2>
<p>But the main report did at least flag up that if workers are to be genuinely influential on a company board, they at least need more than token representatives. Workers must be given equal representation with capital as a core element of any scheme of May’s. This includes sitting on the main board of the company and not auxiliary or secondary ones and being given full access to company information. </p>
<p>There are also a host of other stipulations that are necessary to ensure effective representation. These concern how the creation of worker directors on company boards is to be triggered and the process by which this is managed. </p>
<p>For example, will the law require all public limited companies to have worker directors, without exception? Or what level of support among the workforce is needed to create them? Also, if there are to be referenda on creating worker directors, will employers be able to use their resources (financial, ideological, organisational) to campaign against their creation? And so on and so on. </p>
<p>So right-minded trade unionists and socialists will want to see some serious meat put on the sparse bone of May’s proposal before making a more definite judgement. As she gets on with the real business of government, the ball is now in May’s court.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregor Gall is affiliated with the Jimmy Reid Foundation, where he is Director, and recently published a paper on industrial democracy.</span></em></p>The new prime minister has suggested putting employee representatives on company boards. But how serious is she about the idea?Gregor Gall, Professor of Industrial Relations, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/579062016-04-21T20:40:41Z2016-04-21T20:40:41ZThe Sixties and Red Africa: the decade of searching for African utopias<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119846/original/image-20160422-17369-blf0kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">James Brown fans Bamako</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/patrice-lumumba-38745#death-and-legacy">Patrice Lumumba</a> was a celebrity in <a href="http://geography.about.com/od/politicalgeography/a/fmryugoslavia.htm">Yugoslavia</a>. Lumumba’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/patrice-lumumba-50th-anniversary-assassination">execution</a> in 1961 caused such outrage that the Belgian embassy in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade was <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/19/newsid_2748000/2748931.stm">ransacked</a>.</p>
<p>Yugoslav leader <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tito-is-made-president-for-life">Josip Tito</a> was himself a regular visitor to Africa – he went to Gamal Abdel <a href="http://nasser.bibalex.org/common/pictures01-%20sira_en.htm">Nasser</a>’s Egypt 20 times. Tito’s aim was to consolidate the socialist friendship sweeping through the 1960s.</p>
<p>Such connections in the 1960s-70s and their contemporary legacies are revealed in two striking recent cultural seasons: <a href="http://calvert22.org/red-africa/">“Red Africa”</a> at the Calvert 22 in London and <a href="https://tropenmuseum.nl/en/press/Sixties">“The Sixties</a> – A Worldwide Happening” in Amsterdam’s <a href="https://tropenmuseum.nl/">Tropenmuseum</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119452/original/image-20160420-25597-1pgg6qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119452/original/image-20160420-25597-1pgg6qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119452/original/image-20160420-25597-1pgg6qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119452/original/image-20160420-25597-1pgg6qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119452/original/image-20160420-25597-1pgg6qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119452/original/image-20160420-25597-1pgg6qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119452/original/image-20160420-25597-1pgg6qu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Red Africa’ banner at London’s Calvert 22 gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Calvert 22</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Red Africa” was centred on the <a href="http://calvert22.org/exhibitions/things-fall-apart-1">“Things Fall Apart”</a> exhibition and accompanying special report of the <a href="http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/5324/red-africa-special-report"><em>Calvert Journal</em></a>. It focused on relations between Africa, the <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/union-soviet-socialist-republics.html">Soviet Union</a> and related socialist countries (1960s-80s). It did so via art, film, photography and architecture.</p>
<p>“The Sixties” and <a href="http://www.ideabooks.nl/9789462261501-the-sixties-a-worldwide-happening">its book</a> was more catholic. It foregrounded the non-Western history of this most iconic liberation era. Through fashion, art and music it stressed the promiscuous connections that pulsed across the world.</p>
<h2>Warm clasp of friendship</h2>
<p>One particular idea shone through both exhibitions for me: the importance of globally entangled utopianisms for Africa. It was such thinking that embroidered the martyr icon of Lumumba and conditioned the warm clasp of Tito’s hand of friendship.</p>
<p>Utopianism is the imagination and exposition of a society that does not exist. (“Utopia” derives from the Greek “no-place”.) But it has intrinsically more desirable qualities than what persists in reality.</p>
<p>From philosophers like <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/thomas-more-9414278">Thomas More</a> to <a href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/biography-of-william-morris/">William Morris</a>, the purpose of utopian expression has been to critique existing societies and ideologies. Utopianism gives collective purpose to build a better future, to emphasise the ethical or practical shortcomings of the status quo.</p>
<p>For independent Africans in an era of new <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cold-war-history">Cold War</a> opportunity, utopianism was not ethereal or naive (as the term is commonly understood). It was steeped in a realist understanding of the trajectory of global power. Utopian thinking created new international friendships and would construct a brighter, very possible postcolonial future.</p>
<p>There hasn’t been enough space for utopianism in the consideration of independent African nations and their foreign relations.</p>
<p>We don’t delve enough into the imaginative lives of Africans struggling to build a postcolonial world. Looking backwards, we have tended to dismiss idealised communities of solidarity. The security of “realism” and dark pall of neocolonialism pervade.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119453/original/image-20160420-25631-1mxwwhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119453/original/image-20160420-25631-1mxwwhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119453/original/image-20160420-25631-1mxwwhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119453/original/image-20160420-25631-1mxwwhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119453/original/image-20160420-25631-1mxwwhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119453/original/image-20160420-25631-1mxwwhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119453/original/image-20160420-25631-1mxwwhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was a global icon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Wayland Rudd Collection</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Increasingly, however, pioneers – artists, academics and activists from the progressive world – are seeking out what African citizens <em>dreamed</em> at the buoyant moment of independence and its tumultuous aftermath. </p>
<p>They assess how utopian hopes entangled with wider global currents to build a free future in the 1960s. From the 1970s, utopian expression has creatively criticised the very deficiencies of liberation.</p>
<p>As demonstrated at “Red Africa” and “The Sixties”, art is at the vanguard of such real-world concerns.</p>
<h2>‘Red Africa’ and ‘The Sixties’: socialism and optimism</h2>
<p>Utopianism was under the surface of “Red Africa”. Behind-the-scenes snaps of Tito’s <a href="http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/5337/red-africa-tito-presidential-tour-unofficial-scenes">safaris</a> sat next to the beguiling 2016 film “<a href="https://vimeo.com/88701475">Our Africa</a>”. Here Russian filmmaker <a href="https://vimeo.com/user3714560">Alexander Markov</a> unravels how Soviet filmmakers recorded the “joyous” expansion of socialism. Footage of African leaders dancing Russian jigs on state tours of the Soviet Union illustrates how propagandists presented the Tanzanian ideology of “<a href="http://www.juliusnyerere.org/index.php/resources/speeches/ujamaa_-_the_basis_of_african_socialism_julius_k._nyerere/">Ujamaa</a>” and Africa as integral to world socialist development.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119458/original/image-20160420-25634-9epvk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119458/original/image-20160420-25634-9epvk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119458/original/image-20160420-25634-9epvk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119458/original/image-20160420-25634-9epvk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119458/original/image-20160420-25634-9epvk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119458/original/image-20160420-25634-9epvk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119458/original/image-20160420-25634-9epvk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eva – a photograph by Ghanaian photographer James Barnor at ‘The Sixties’ exhibition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Barnor / Tropen Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Korean photographer <a href="http://www.photoquai.fr/2015/en/photographes/che-onejoonen/">Onejoon Che</a> uncovers the fascinating story of the <a href="http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/5336/red-africa-che-onejoon-north-korea-statues-africa">Mansudae Art Studio</a>. Established in 1959, it aided the construction of macho “socialist realist” African monuments as part of North Korea’s controversial charm offensive.</p>
<p>It was an interesting ride. But “Red Africa” prompted me to think more about how Africans themselves shaped and utilised such utopian <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/internationalism">internationalisms</a> in those heady days of independence. </p>
<p>A visit to “The Sixties” with our new <a href="http://afroasiannetworks.com/">Afro-Asian Networks</a> research group reinforced the feeling. The collection powerfully evoked a moment of intense optimism and global connection. For example, soul superstar <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/james-brown-mn0000128099/biography">James Brown</a> provided the soundtrack for youth in <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13881370">Mali</a>’s capital of Bamako. It got portrayed in the vivacious <a href="http://warholfoundation.org/grant/paper11/paper.html">photos</a> of the late <a href="http://www.okayafrica.com/news/remembering-malick-sidibe/">Malick Sidibé</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hRubq5D-3kM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">James Brown was hugely popular with young people in Africa during the 60s and 70s.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We were reminded to take seriously those future-oriented visions of the ebullient and utopian 1960s.</p>
<h2>Utopianism in Africa: a necessity?</h2>
<p>Utopianism is a particularly neglected prism through which to view Africa’s varied independent landscapes. </p>
<p>Through African literature, which leads the charge, academic <a href="https://sam.arts.unsw.edu.au/about-us/people/bill-ashcroft/">Bill Ashcroft</a> argues for the very “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18186874.2013.834557"><em>necessity</em> of utopia</a>” in Africa. Utopia – “the un-place” – is the key space where ideas of colonialism or catastrophe undermining African people can be challenged. Ashcroft says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What is remarkable about African literature and cultural production is the stunning tenacity of its hope … conceptions of utopian hope – the ‘not-yet’ – is always a possibility emerging from the past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And it was the <em>global</em> entanglement of varied utopianisms that shone through at “Red Africa” and “The Sixties”.</p>
<p>It was bright in the work of Russian artist <a href="http://yevgeniyfiks.com/section/408212-The-Wayland-Rudd-Collection-2014.html">Yevgeniy Fiks</a>. His <a href="http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/5323/red-africa-yevgeniy-fiks-history-soviet-relations-africa-art-ideology">collection</a> of Soviet art depicting African and African-American life revealed racism of representation. But Fiks saw, as he explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a very complex and contradictory legacy in which there is room for genuine internationalism, anti-racism and solidarity, alongside racial stereotyping and objectification.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That African intellectuals and those in the diaspora found such sanitised images empowering is genuinely important. </p>
<p>In the words of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_harlem.html">Harlem Renaissance</a> titan <a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/langston-hughes">Langston Hughes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/langston-hughes-goodmorning-stalingrad/">Good morning Stalingrad!</a>/ You’re half a world away or more/ But when your
guns roar,/ They roar for me —/ And for everybody/ who wants to be free.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Engaging globally connected utopianisms – the un-places; the spaces of hope – is necessary to properly comprehend the intricacies of African decolonisation and independence.</p>
<h2>Science fiction</h2>
<p>It seemed fitting to depart “Red Africa” in one major arena of utopianism: science fiction. </p>
<p>Angolan photographer <a href="http://www.frieze.com/article/focus-kiluanji-kia-henda">Kiluanji Kia Henda</a>’s 2007 installation “<a href="http://calvertjournal.com/features/show/5312/red-africa-icarus-13-africa-journey-sun-space-mission">Icarus 13: The First Journey to the Sun</a>” presents the “pliable fiction” of an African space mission. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119454/original/image-20160420-25592-gwc3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119454/original/image-20160420-25592-gwc3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119454/original/image-20160420-25592-gwc3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119454/original/image-20160420-25592-gwc3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119454/original/image-20160420-25592-gwc3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119454/original/image-20160420-25592-gwc3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119454/original/image-20160420-25592-gwc3gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From ‘Icarus 13: The First Journey to the Sun’ (2008), Luanda-based artist Kiluanji Kia Henda’s imagining of an African space mission.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Calvert 22 Gallery</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But his images point to something unsettling for Angola, that “<a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/magnificent-and-beggar-land/">magnificent and beggar land</a>”. His utopian critique creates “a memorial to a future that never came to pass”, an indictment of an independence failed.</p>
<p>For Henda, there are two things that are of vital interest for Africa: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the ability to know about and write your own history, and the ability to plan for the future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Looking to utopianism seems one fruitful route for these enmeshed historical and contemporary civil society agendas. We need, ourselves, to be more utopian perhaps.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerard McCann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Utopianism is a neglected prism through which to view Africa. It is the space where the intricacies of decolonisation and independence can be properly comprehended.Gerard McCann, Lecturer in African and Transnational History, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.