反動的労働者階級？

さて注目されていたオランダの下院選挙は、右翼の自由党は議席を伸ばしながらも第２党にとどまり、与党の自由民主党が議席を減らしながらも第１党に踏みとどまった、と報じられていてその通りなのですが、選挙結果を良く見ると、最大の敗者は３８議席を一気に９議席に激減させた労働党であることが分かります。

https://www.mizuho-ri.co.jp/publication/research/pdf/insight/eu170316.pdf

オランダ労働党といえば、労働組合出身のウィム・コックがむしろ福祉国家の見直し路線を進め、ＥＵレベルではフレクシキュリティの唱道役を務めたことで記憶が鮮烈ですが、むしろ足下の労働者の支持を失い、その票が右翼に流れたという面があるようです。

例によって、ソーシャル・ヨーロッパ・マガジンには、「反動的労働者階級？」（Reactionary Working Class?）という刺激的な論考が載っています。

https://www.socialeurope.eu/2017/03/reactionary-working-class/

Large parts of the western working class now seem to congregate around right-wing populists, demagogues and racists. They vote for reactionary and fascistic political parties. They helped to vote the UK out of the EU, to make Trump US president, and they give such massive backing to far-right political parties that these have power in sight in several of Europe’s most populous countries.

西洋労働者階級の大部分は今や右翼ポピュリスト、デマゴーグ、人種差別主義者のまわりに結集しているようだ。彼らは反動的でファシスト的な政党に投票している。・・・

Since working people are traditionally expected to vote for the left, this creates unrest, insecurity and confusion among experts as well as commentators and mainstream politicians – particularly in the labour movement. There is no lack of moralizing condemnation of those who go to the far right. An increasing number of commentators, however, are now beginning to suspect that this shift may be an expression of protest against the prevailing state of society. Not all have benefitted from the globalization success story, they say.

働く人々は伝統的に左翼に投票すると期待されてきたので、これは専門家やコメンテーターや主流政治家、とりわけ労働運動の中に不安と混乱をもたらしている。極右に走った人々を道徳的に非難することに不足はない。しかしコメンテーターの多くは今や、このシフトが広がりつつある社会状況に対する抗議の表明なのではないかと疑い始めている。グローバル化のサクセスストーリーでみんなが利益を得たわけじゃないのだ。

Many politicians and activists on the left have great difficulties orienting themselves on this new political terrain. People who otherwise would have been for Britain’s withdrawal from the authoritarian, neoliberal EU, for example, have told me that they voted to stay, “not to be made cannon fodder for the racists and anti-immigration forces in the Brexit camp.” Thus, they left it to the far right to voice the necessary opposition to the anti-social, anti-union policies of the EU.

左翼の多くの政治家や活動家はこの新たな政治的地勢に対応するのが困難なようだ。・・・それゆえ、彼らは反ソーシャルで反組合的なＥＵ政策への反対を極右に委ねたのだ。

Maybe it would have been more important and more helpful if the left had taken a somewhat more self-critical look at their own role and policies. Could it be that they have failed their constituencies, that left parties are not seen as dependable tools to defend the interests of those who have the least power and wealth in today’s society? Perhaps there has been too much identity politics and very little class politics. Can it even be that the left’s social analysis fails to grasp the essential reality of the current economic and political state-of-play?

多分、もし左翼が自分たち自身の役割や政策をもっと自己批判的に見ていたら、もっと有用だったろう。これは左翼が自分たちの支持基盤を失った、つまり今日の社会でもっとも力と富に乏しい人々の利益を守る頼れる手段とはみなされなくなったということじゃないのか？多分、アイデンティティ政治がありすぎて階級政治がほとんどなかったのだ。左翼の政治分析は今日の経済と政治の状況の本質的実態をつかめていないということじゃないのか？

What most people on the left can agree on is that the situation is serious, even dramatic. In Europe, the level of unionization has almost halved over the last 30 years, and labour rights, labour laws and collective agreements have systematically deteriorated and/or been completely abolished. Most things are worse than here in Norway, but that does not mean that we are unaffected by this development. There is no doubt that Norway is still on the upper deck of the global welfare ship, but much indicates that it is the upper deck of Titanic.

左翼の多くの人々が同意するだろうが状況は深刻で劇的ですらある。組合組織率は過去３０年にほぼ半減し、労働権、労働法、労働協約は体系的に劣化し、完全に廃棄された。・・・

In short, inequalities in society are increasing here too, more authoritarian relations are emerging at the workplaces, including through an Americanisation of organisational and management models. Wage growth for those at the bottom of the ladder has stagnated.

要するに、社会はますます不平等になり、職場では権威主義的関係が生まれ、･･･下っ端の賃金は上がらない。

At the same time, we experience more and more offensive and aggressive employers, who, among other things, escape an employer’s responsibility through outsourcing and the increasing use of temporary agency workers – weakening trade unions. Furthermore, employers strongly benefit from the ever more anti-trade union policies of the EU/EEA and their courts. Work is increasingly emptied of content in many parts of the labour market. It is becoming more and more fragmented and standardized, employees are being subjected to increased monitoring, control and management – and work intensity is increasing.

同時に、アウトソーシングや派遣労働者を活用し、労働組合を弱体化させて使用者の責任を免れようとする攻撃的な使用者が増えている。さらに、使用者はＥＵ／ＥＥＡとその裁判所の反組合的政策から強く利益を得ている。・・・労働はますます断片化され標準化され、労働者たちは監視と管理の下に置かれ、労働密度は高まっている。

In addition, welfare-to-work ideology contributes strongly to shifting attention from organizational structures and power relations to individualization – with moralizing, suspicion and a brutal sanctions regime against individuals.

さらに福祉から労働へのイデオロギーが注意を組織構造や権力関係から個人化へ向け、個人に対するモラル化、疑いの目、暴力的なサンクションをもたらしている。

・・・In Europe, it becomes increasingly clear that important goals of this policy are to get rid of welfare states and defeat the trade unions. This is indeed what is taking place – under political leadership of the EU Institutions. That millions upon millions of workers worldwide become “losers” in this process of globalization should not surprise anyone. Nor that they will eventually react with mistrust, rage and blind rebellion. That part of the working class, given the absence of left political parties with analyses, policies and strategies to address and meet this crisis and offensive of capitalist forces, is attracted by the extreme right’s verbal anti-elitism and anti-establishment rhetoric, is against this background understandable.

欧州では、この政策の目的が福祉国家を廃棄し労働組合を倒すことだということが次第に明らかになってきた。これはＥＵ機関の政治的リーダーシップの元で進められてきた。このグローバル化のプロセスで「敗者」となった世界中の何百万の労働者たちに驚くべきではない。彼らが遂に不審と怒りと盲目的な反逆でもって反応したからといって驚く必要はない。左翼政党にはこの危機と資本主義勢力の攻勢に対処する分析と政策と戦略が欠如している以上、労働者階級の一部が極右の公然たる反エリート主義と反エスタブリッシュメントのレトリックに惹き付けられるのはよく理解できる。

・・・The reality is that worker’s exploitation, increasing powerlessness and subordination now hardly command a voice in public debate. Labour parties have mainly cut the links with their old constituencies. Rather than picking up the discontent generated in a more brutal labour market, politicizing it and channelling it into an organized interest-based struggle, middle class left parties offer little else than moralizing and contempt. Thus, they do little else than push large groups of workers into the arms of the far-right parties, which support all the discontent and do their best to channel people’s rage against other social groups (immigrants, Muslims, gays, people with different colour, etc.) rather than against the real causes of the problems.

労働者の搾取、増大する無力さと従属は今や公的議論の声を動かすことが滅多にない。労働党は古い支持基盤との関係を切ってきた。より野蛮な労働市場で生み出される不満を引っ張り上げ、それを政治化し組織的利益の闘争に流し込むのではなく、中流階級の左翼政党はモラル化と侮蔑以上の何者も提供しなかった。それゆえ、彼らは労働者の膨大なグループを、その不満を全て支持し、問題の真の原因ではなく、人々の他の社会集団への怒りに流し込む極右政党の手に委ねる以外ほとんど何もできないのだ。

・・・In summary, the balance of power at workplaces has shifted dramatically – from labour to capital, from trade unions and democratic bodies to multinational companies and financial institutions. Over a few decades, capitalist interests have managed to abolish the main regulations that made the welfare state and the Nordic Model possible; international monetary cooperation, capital controls and other market regulations. In this situation, social partnership ideology constitutes a barrier to trade union and political struggle.

要するに、職場のパワーバランスは劇的にシフトした、労働から資本へ、労働組合から多国籍企業と金融機関へ。過去数十年間、資本家の利益が福祉国家･･・を可能にしてきた主な規制を廃棄してきた。・・・

The left’s main challenge today is to organize resistance against this development. Only in this way can right-wing populism and radicalism be pushed back at the same time. Once again, we must be able to construct the vision of a promised land – i.e. perspectives of a better society, a society with a radical redistribution of wealth, where exploitation ends and where human needs form the basis for social development. If so, statements, protests and appeals to a tripartite cooperation that is constantly drained of content will not suffice. It is all about power – economic and political power. This will require massive social mobilization – in the way that trade unions built their strength to win power and influence at the beginning of the last century. Are we prepared for that?

今日左翼の課題はこの展開に対する抵抗を組織することだ。このやり方でしか、右翼ポピュリズムと急進主義を追い返すことはできない。・・・・・・・・

タイトルも過激ですが、内容もそれに劣らず過激です。