Can Hope and History Ever Rhyme Again?

On the orgiastic quality of the war on Gaza - and my travels.

          “History says, Don’t hope

           On this side of the grave,

           But then, once in a lifetime

           The longed-for tidal wave

           Of justice can rise up,

           And hope and history rhyme”

                       ― Seamus Heaney

I have lived through times without hope. I never dared believe that South Africa, the country of my birth, would fully overcome the heavily weaponised military, and deeply ideological and racist system that was apartheid. But then, in the 1990s came that “longed-for tidal wave of justice…” As a young girl I imagined, but never dared hope that women could be freed from the threat of pregnancy - by a pill. That women could become Prime Ministers, governors of central banks and professional football players. That women could sue powerful men for rape - and win. But then came another longed-for tidal wave of justice which culminated in #MeToo…

Now I hope for another, gigantic tsunami wave of justice - one to end the genocide in Gaza - and prevent a regional conflagration turning into another world war. Above all, one that will help society turn from religious wars, to face the threat of ecosystem collapse.

The agony of the Palestinians is unbearable to witness. Perhaps because the Israeli ‘Operation Iron Swords’ is so medieval in its revengeful, deliberate and gleeful violence, as Tom Stevenson coolly explains in the current edition of the London Review of Books:

The war on Gaza is at its core retributive: an act of collective punishment. Like all punishment, to ask whether or not it 'works' misses the point that punishment is often an end in itself. But the conduct of the war also has an orgiastic quality. The celebrations of the killing by Israel’s political leaders; the fantastic schemes for the removal of Palestinians to Sinai, or Europe, or Congo; the public figures signing bombs to be dropped on what’s left of Gaza; the gleeful recording made by individual soldiers - all combine malice and mirth.

The scale and shock of the Hamas attack on 7th October, and the number of killings of innocent civilians on that day was an act of well-planned, brutal and premeditated terror by Hamas and its allies.

Since that day Israel has killed twenty times the number, and more than two hundred times as many Palestinian children. In the first three months of the attack on Gaza, 25,000 Palestinians were killed and 60,000 wounded, 70 per cent of them women and children. 80 per cent of the population - including many frail and elderly - are homeless… And yet.. and yet the the Israeli military have still failed to defeat Hamas, and to round up those that planned the 7th October attack.

The IDF has killed thousands of Palestinian fighters, but it’s very likely that the war has led to new fighters being recruited. Israel’s military operations haven’t achieved any of their public objectives; the real purpose appears to be collective punishment and full-scale destruction.

Above all they have failed to rescue - or even find - the Israeli hostages - despite the comprehensive and massive urban destruction of Gaza.

History says: don’t hope for peace. The world’s addiction to fossil energy fuels wars, genocide and global warming - and threatens the lives not just of Palestinians and Israelis, but also Russians and Ukrainians, Chileans - not to mention millions of others blighted by the crises of extreme weather.

In the absence of hope I pray to whatever power is granted to the peacemongers amongst us that once again we may rebuild a just and sustainable world in which “hope and history may soon rhyme”.

And I stress soon - “on this side of the grave”!

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So while mesmerised by the horrors of this war, and disturbed by the far right’s resurgence everywhere, nevertheless the work of thinking, writing and protesting is urgent as we ready for another great transformation. A priority for me is work on the governance of the global economy; currently by the owners of wealth - the governors of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. The urgent need is to develop policies, organisation and procedures for subordinating those governors to the interests of society and the ecosystem. Speaking of Silicon Valley, Rebecca Solnit has an excoriating piece in the current LRB on the arrogant wealthy of San Francisco:

Silicon Valley has given its pack of billionaires the belief that they are above or beyond the law. Most of them made their fortunes in finance or technology; those fortunes and the accompanying hubris and seclusion convinced them they were magnificent at everything and anything, including remaking society according to their lights.

So bending my no-fly principle, I accepted an invitation to attend a week-long international meeting on global governance in Bogotá, capital of Colombia. It was organised by the Carnegie Endowment Fund and it was a great honour to be included in a group of some of the world’s finest intellectuals and economists. Above all it was good to meet with colleagues from the South - and ministers from the left wing government of President Gustavo Petro - to debate governance of the international financial system.

And while I am often bereft of hope, there is nothing like meeting with lively, young people, passionate about social and ecological justice to lift my spirits. On return from Bogotá, I took the train to Paris, to the Sorbonne, to address this year’s class of the the EU’s Erasmus Masters’ programme on globalisation and European integration. The remarkable thing about this course is a) the diverse nature of the students and b) the heroic efforts of the organiser, David Flacher, in raising the finance to bring them all together in Europe. There are about thirty, selected from 1200 original applicants from every corner of the world. Immediately on arrival I was met by a student from Tajikistan, and next a student from Afghanistan - and then women students from India. Jean Claude Trichet (ex governor of the ECB) was the first to address the students. After listening carefully to Mr. Trichet’s very long lecture on the perils of inflation, I made a presentation that students reacted to, and critiqued. Amongst other weaknesses, they pointed to my failure to address the question of wealth taxes. I was suitably humbled, but hope they enjoyed the challenging debate and discussion as much as I did.

Finally, I have been working on a paper for a Finnish workshop on the need for an International Clearing Union (ICU) - and hope to share that with you in due course. (If, in the meantime you want to know more about ICUs you would do well to read Massimo Amato and Luca Fantacci’s End of Finance…)

I will soon publish a post requested by one of System Change’s subscribers - on how to finance the maintenance of the British nation’s health…

In the meantime: don’t hope for peace. But prepare, organise and plan, knowing that another world is possible.