Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Historical Materialism İstanbul Conference: Systemic Fragilities and Counter-Strategies, İstanbul, Türkiye, 15 - 17 Nisan 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic has deepened the crisis of capitalism in an unprecedented way, which brought about serious discussions within the left on the question of strategy. Although the populist left or the so-called progressive governments (such as Syria, Podemos, Morena, the Biden government, etc.) were sources of great excitement for certain sectors of the left worldwide for quite some time, the actual politics and policies they followed once they came to power, and especially during the pandemic, quickly fell short of fulfilling their promises, leading to serious disappointment among the masses and contributing to the rise of right-wing and authoritarian tendencies. This paper presents a different left alternative that, unlike its populist counterparts, managed to further consolidate itself: The Workers’ Left Front-Unity (El Frente de Izquierda y de Trabajadores-Unidad, or FIT-U in short) of Argentina. Founded as an electoral alliance of multiple radical left parties in 2011, FIT-U succeeded in becoming the third biggest political power in the November 2021 general elections in a country where Peronism —the historically strong populist left— dominates the leftist and the workers' movements. In this paper, we analyze what made FIT-U’s consolidation possible. In other words, this paper is concerned with the challenges and alternatives for political strategy at the current times, and what difference the strategic, programmatic, and political difference makes.