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TARIQ ALI: MEMORIES OF THE STRUGGLE RELOADED  
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Michael Lavalette interviews Tariq Ali
December 13, 2024
Counterfire
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_ Over the last few decades, we have witnessed the growth of dynamic
movements, like Stop the War. But we need to think about
organisational outcomes, establishing networks and rebuilding a
progressive political alternative. _

At the Stop the War protest at Whitehall in London, , source: Garry
Knight - Flickr / cropped from original / CC0 1.0.

 

 

Following the publication of Tariq Ali's latest memoirs, he spoke to
Michael Lavalette about the contrasting periods covered in his
autobiographies and the prospects for the left today.

Tariq Ali has been intimately involved in and written about,
progressive, left politics in Britain for over sixty years. He has
recently published _You Can’t Please All (Memoirs 1989-2024), _a
follow-up to his earlier volume_ Street Fighting Years: An
Autobiography of the Sixties_.

_STREET FIGHTING YEARS_ COVERS A PERIOD OF GREAT ADVANCE AND
EXCITEMENT FOR THE LEFT. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE PERIOD?

The period from 1967 through to 1975 was a unique period in global
politics, it was also an era of immense excitement and hope.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, there were revolutions in
China and Cuba and the national liberation movements in Africa. But
events in South East Asia were very important. In Vietnam, a
peasant-based army was confronting – and beating – the largest,
best-armed, most powerful, imperialist country in the world. And in
Europe that created a very different mood to what we see today. We all
felt: ‘if the Vietnamese peasants can do it, why can’t we?’

That feeling surged through Europe, Latin America, and North America
and we felt that the possibilities for a better world were limitless.

In France, there was the largest General Strike in capitalism’s
history and when the trade union bureaucrats went up to the workers
and said ‘the bosses want to share a bit more of the cake with
you’ the response from rank-and-file workers was ‘No! We want the
whole bakery’. 

In Italy, a ‘creeping May-type event’ took hold with an immensely
combative working class active through the early 1970s.

In Britain, between 1972 and 1974, there was the largest and most
militant wave of strikes we have ever had. The levels of solidarity
between workers was immense. 

Despite occasional setbacks and defeats, the period as a whole bred
confidence in ordinary people and a deepening radicalisation that
lasted up until about 1975. 

In 1975, the Portuguese workers, peasants, students, soldiers and
young officers brought society to the brink of revolution. They
created a feeling that a fundamental change to society was possible
and was within our grasp. And we felt that revolutionary change in
Portugal would feed back, deepen and revive our movement across the
rest of Europe.

The stakes were really very high. But Portuguese, German and
international social democracy poured resources in to bail out
Portuguese (and beyond that European) capitalism and to curb the
revolutionary drive of the masses. In the aftermath, the ruling
classes went onto the offensive and Labour and Social Democratic
parties were important to stabilising things for the system.

_YOU CAN’T PLEASE ALL_ COVERS THE PERIOD 1980-2024. THIS IS A
GENERAL PERIOD OF NEOLIBERAL ASCENDANCY. WHAT SHAPED THE PERIOD?

The second volume of my memoirs covers a period of defeat – not just
in Britain but across the globe. The book contains interviews and
covers meetings with leaders, peasants, workers and students from
across the continents against the backdrop of the rise of neoliberal
capitalism.

Neoliberal ideas – essentially a commitment to privatisation,
pro-market policies and rampant individualism – took hold of the
conservative right, but also, what I term, the extreme centre (in the
shape of people like Blair, Macron and Starmer).

The 1980s also saw the dismantling of the East European countries. I
was in the old Soviet Union in the run up to 1989. Here people were
excited by the greater levels of freedom that were opening up – but
no-one was advocating for the implementation of a capitalist market
system. And after 1989, of course, privatisation and marketisation led
to huge levels of inequality. Politically, it led to the revival of
Russian nationalism of which Putin is one example.

The events of 1989 also had an impact on the West. It led to the
decline of the mass Communist Parties in Italy and France – and no
matter what criticisms we may have of them, they helped create and
support a culture of radical critical engagement and thought (not just
political writing, but plays, cinema, theatre and other political
expressions of solidarity and collectivism).

The marginalisation of the culture of the left has been important. For
example, in the past, right-wing Labour MPs were well-read, you could
argue with them, and they sometimes had interesting things to say. But
today, Labour and social-democratic politicians aren’t interested in
ideas really, they are motivated by power and money and this comes at
the expense of those they claim to represent.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE PROSPECTS FOR THE LEFT TODAY?

Starmer is dreadful. I’m in no doubt that his policies will create a
space that, at the moment, the far right will try to fill. We need to
respond. But we can’t simply do what we did in the past, in the
exact same ways. In the 1970s, the Anti-Nazi League and Rock Against
Racism were vital, but the world has changed, the situation is
different and we need appropriate responses.

It won’t be easy, but you know it wasn’t always easy and
straightforward in the 1960s and 1970s. It took time to build the
anti-Vietnam War movement. We were constantly under surveillance and
harassment from the state.

Over the last few decades, we have witnessed the growth of dynamic
movements, like Stop the War. Today the struggle around Palestine has
brought large numbers into activity. The horrors of Gaza, the
complicity of the Western governments in the slaughter, and the scale
of the resistance movement on the streets will shape a generation.

But we need to think about organisational outcomes, establishing
networks and rebuilding a progressive political alternative.

For the left, the Labour Party is finished. We should encourage the
small number of left Labour MPs (especially those who had the whip
removed) to work with the Independent MPs and together to try to offer
an alternative vision and voice for the future. 

We need some type of home – not necessarily a formal political party
– for the 200,000 who left Labour when Corbyn was marginalised and
kicked out; a home to those from the Palestine and anti-imperialist
movements; a home for the old and new left. 

I think we face a long period of rebuilding, there is no quick fix.
But if we sit back and do nothing, things will only get worse.

_You Can’t Please All (Memoirs 1989-2024)_
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available to buy from Verso

_Tariq Ali is a British-Pakistani writer and filmmaker. He has written
more than two dozen books on world history and politics, and seven
novels (translated into over a dozen languages) as well as scripts for
the stage and screen. He is an editor of New Left Review and lives in
London. Contact: tariq.ali3 [at] btinternet [dot] com._

_Counterfire is a revolutionary socialist organisation committed to
transforming our society from one based on the profit motive to one
built on the needs of working people. As well as putting on a wide
range of debates, public meetings and other events around the country,
we run one of the best read websites on the left which has scores of
contributors and tens of thousands of readers every month and – in
normal times – we distribute thousands of copies of the left’s
first free paper. _

* imperialism
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* neo-liberalism
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* social democracy
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* revolutionary movements
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