Critical Proposals in Social Work

The Irrationality of Decadent Capitalism

Natalia Perdomo dos Santos — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Thisa article aims to analyze, based on the tradition inaugurated by Marx's work, the constitutive foundations of neoliberalism, which configure it as a strategy of reproduction of late capitalism. Stemming from the maturation process of bourgeois society, neoliberalism reformulates State's action to adapt it to the needs imposed by the new forms of accumulation management, wich, in face of the hegemony of interest-bearing capital, can only guarantee the valorization of value with na uncontrollable destructive power. It reveals the barbarism that constitutes bourgeois society, especially in dependent countries. This stage results in there configuration of social relations in their entirety, which come to Express the irrationalism of decadent capitalism. Theirtheses, whichhavegainedtraction in Brazilian social work, claim to be critical of neoliberalism, but by safeguarding the structural logic of the society that gives rise to it, they limit themselves to the surface of the problem, representing the typical ideological distortions of the current stage

"Pure" Capitalism, State and Public Fund

Sara Granemann — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article aims to assess the importance of the public fund operated by the capitalist state. A public fund that for a brief time in human history was used - at least a fraction of it in Europe - to respond to the struggles of the working class for better living and working conditions. The responses - diverse, depending on the latitude of the planet - in the form of social policies to make social rights possible did not last long. Created in the post-1945 period, they began to be dismantled towards the end of the 1980s, which allowed the working class in some European countries to live with broader rights for around three decades. The constant crises of the capitalist mode of production and the collapse of 'real socialism' were the main determinants for the dismantling of the so-called Welfare State. The characterization of the stage of capitalism for the last 45 (forty-five) years is borrowed from Husson (2008). The French economist called the present phase of monopolies with the analytical category 'pure capitalism'. By taking his theoretical critique as an analytical reference, our effort is to debate the crises of capital in the context of social policies and their monetized form of execution. Social policies, on the one hand, are instruments that mediate rights; on the other, they are closely linked to the accumulation of capital when it metamorphoses social policies into commodities. Once the transmutation has taken place, the new commodities become advantageous investment spaces for capital in and out of crisis.

Behind a Smokescreen: The Unity of Exploitation-Oppression and the Moralism of the Extreme Right in the Structural Crisis of Capital

Paulo Wescley Maia Pinheiro — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This essay articulates reflections on the structural issues of the capitalist mode of production and the contingent mediations of recent decades, demonstrating that the convergence between “(ultra)neoliberals” and neoconservatives/reactionaries represents a political realization of the unity of exploitation and oppression. Grounded in the debate on labor, social reproduction, and alienation in Marx and Lukács, we analyze the rise of the far right and demonstrate that the intensification of violence against historically oppressed subjects is not an exception but a necessity of the capitalist order. The particularity of this conjuncture, immersed in the structural crisis of capital, highlights the most imposing characteristics of the unity of exploitation and oppression. Understanding this dynamic reveals the urgent need for social struggles to reach the core of this structure, transcending the objectification of the exploitation of the working class and its subjectivation centered on the bourgeois ethos.

Tensions between combative unionism and virtual anti-unionism: lessons from the Brazilian Federal Education strike

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article reflects on the 2024 federal education strike in Brazil, based on two union conceptions: on the one hand, combative unionism, which carried out the largest federal education strike in the history of Brazil; on the other side, negotiating unionism, which has transformed into virtual anti-unionism, opposing the strike and in-person teacher assemblies with a policy of increasing use of digital information and communication technologies (DICTs). The first section presents the objective and subjective conditions that support the strike mobilization, with the continued precariousness of work and life under the Lula government. The second part of the article assesses concrete evidence of attacks on the rights of collective organization and members' rights, especially due to the expanded and only apparently progressive use of online broadcasts of spaces for collective organization and mobilization, with a special impact on female, elderly, LGBTI+, and foreign teachers. To give substance to the analysis, documentary survey, secondary data analysis and bibliographic discussion were handled.

Capitalist crisis, human rights, and resistance through art

Eva Marxen, Luis Felipe González Gutiérrez — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article describes the advantages of art as a form of resistance against the triad of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism before moving on to popular artistic manifestations during the Chilean social explosion. Subsequently, three experiences of Latin American collectives and artists are analysed, whose worldviews are centred on resistance to this triad as a way of critically understanding the social injustices derived from cognitive capitalism, expressed in authoritarian power relations. We know the experience of art as a producer of critical subjectivity, mediated by counter-devices, as an effective strategy for creating spaces for social denunciation. The methodology is guided by qualitative research, specifically co-research, the fruit of narrative socio-analysis. This methodology, in connection with the proposals developed by the experiences of these collectives and artists, invites social workers to incorporate the use of art as a pretext for social transformation in their professional practices.

Authoritarian neoliberalism in the discursive articulation of the Chilean Right post-Social Outbreak

Luciano Santander — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The following article explores the discursive articulation of the Chilean right, exploring its evolution from a moderate position to one of radicalisation. The article argues that this articulation is based on the defence the main ideological legacy of the dictatorship: authoritarian neoliberalism, as represented by trade unionism. This evolution is based on a strategy of moral panic that seeks to radicalise neoliberal positions through authoritarian techniques within the democratic framework, taking advantage of a political context conducive to a reaction of far-right ideas.

The research is based on in-depth interviews with leaders of the Republican Party and the Independent Democratic Union and analysis of documentary sources and public speeches. These narratives provide crucial information for understanding the process of discursive articulation of the Chilean right.

In the context of the rise of the far right globally, examining the dynamics of its contemporary discourses in Chile offers crucial insights into the complex interplay between capitalism, democracy and the right. Thus, this study seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of neoliberalism's authoritarian and flexible character.

Five ideas on social welfare from the political right in Argentina (1955-2024)

Agustín Ezequiel Zuccaro — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article identifies five ideas about social welfare that have characterised the political right-wingers in government. It analyses the period from 1955 to the present day in Argentina, constituting a first attempt to take a comprehensive and historical look at the link between these social forces and the state's social welfare practice.

The comprehensive analysis comprises academic literature on the subject, a database of its own, and observation of the first measures of the current government. In expository terms, elements with significant continuities are grouped. Five typical ideal meanings are identified: 1) "dispute with its political adversary": social assistance has been thought of as an element that would make it possible to win over a part of the social base that is alien to its affinities and political project; 2) "re-education of the poor": it moralises the living conditions of the poor and sees poverty as a problem of "mentality", which is why they propose the practice of assistance in educational terms; 3) "governability": 4) "technocracy": it understands that welfare demands should be depoliticised and that they should be defined by experts, redefining social needs "from above" in a process that deconstructs the social and the political; 5) "social econometric": it incorporates cost-benefit logic to think about state agencies and presupposes the subsidiarity of the social to the economic. In instrumental terms, it was based on the proposals of fiscal adjustment

Prison Management and the Far Right in Brazil: Social Struggles in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Fernanda Kilduff — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

this article analyzes the prison management of the extreme government in Brazil and brings out the main strategies triggered by the Human Rights movements of people deprived of liberty, in the face of the denialism that characterized Bolsonaro's government, during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a qualitative investigation of a bibliographic and documentary type that traces the author's experiences (professional and academic) of articulation with these movements in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The main results show that, despite the initiatives of social movements tending to excarceration, this government, in a pandemic context, ratified major incarceration, ignoring international recommendations.

A left with audacity, decision, conviction, a program, and a clear strategy can confront the Right: an interview with Claudio Katz

Paula Vidal, Gonzalo Durán, Claudio Katz — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Claudio Katz is one of the most prominent economists of recent decades, with a long-standing commitment to critical reflection in both politics and academia, as well as active involvement in the defence of human rights. His publications have been translated into Portuguese, English, and Chinese. He currently participates in several working groups of CLACSO and has coordinated some of these groups. Among his most notable books are: Latin America at the Global Crossroads (2024); Dependency Theory: Fifty Years On (2019); Under the Empire of Capital (2011); The Dilemmas of the Left in Latin America (2008); and The Future of Socialism (2004). He received the Libertador Prize for Critical Thought in 2019, awarded by the Ministry of Popular Power for Culture of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Network in Defence of Humanity, for his work Dependency Theory: Fifty Years On.

Understanding the rise of the far right through Marxist Economics. Interview with Michael Roberts

Gonzalo Durán , Paula Vidal, Michael Roberts — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Roberts worked as an economist in the City (1] of London for over 40 years. He has closely observed the machinations of global capitalism from within the dragon’s den. At the same time, he was a political activist in the labour movement for decades. Since retiring, he has written several books. The Great Recession – a Marxist View (2009); The Long Depression (2016); Marx 200: A Review of Marx’s Economics (2018); and jointly with Guglielmo Carchedi as editors of World in Crisis (2018) and Capitalism in the 21^st Century: Through the Prism of Value (2022). He has published numerous papers in various academic economic journals and articles in leftist publications. Michael Roberts actively participates in the Marxist economic debate, participating in trade union schools, in public discussions and interviews, and mainly writing his analysis in the blog “The Next Recession”.[2].

[1] La City of London es el distrito financiero de Londres. Para más información ver: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-us/about-the-city-of-london-corporation/our-role-in-london

[2] https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/

Allende for the 21st century

Rafael Rojas — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Review of the book Allende and the Popular Unity: The Road to Democratic Socialism, written by Paula Francisca Vidal Molina and Ximena Odekerken.

Capitalist Crisis, Rightists, Rebellions and Ongoing Social Struggles

Paula Vidal, Gonzalo Durán — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000