So, Russell Brand has gone bec à bec with Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight. In a witty and intelligent performance, Brand rather got the better of Paxo in an argument about the merits of parliamentarism that the veteran anchor seemed unable to follow (as Upton Sinclair once quipped, 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it'). But what is particularly welcome about his comments for Marxists is that they indict the system of capitalism itself and challenge electoralism as a strategy for radical political change. Not since the 'radical press' of the early nineteenth century has there been a mainstream media discourse condemning the profit system tout court, so it is pleasing to hear such sentiments expressed, however briefly. From recent discussions with friends and colleagues, it seems to me that Brand's comments strike a chord with many people, who can see that capitalist politicians do not represent their interests.
Brand's remarks have been critiqued not only - or even primarily - by right-wing pundits, but by liberal and left-wing commentators. Brand's anti-political stance was challenged, for example, by the actor Robert Webb, who, horrified by Brand's anti-parliamentariam, publicly announced his (re)commitment to the Labour Party, while smugly averring that revolutionary politics leads to the gulag. More intelligently, yet rather contradictorily, Jeremy Gilbert and Mark Fisher follow their praise for Brand with a defence of electoralism as part of revolutionary strategy and of the Labour Party (the implementation of a national minimum wage is mentioned as one of New Labour's recent achievements - as though it had not been more than paid for by the outsourcing of 'British jobs' elsewhere, and indeed offset by the party's sanctioning of the use of deadly force against working people, from Belgrade to Baghdad). Brand's basic message, by contract with these equivocations, is clear: the profit system is destroying the lives of poor and ordinary people everywhere and it is time to organise society differently. Certainly, Brand does hold some pretty bizarre New Age notions and has a dubious track record when it comes to gender politics (this has earned him a bit of a dissing by the intersectional left); but neither his quirkiness nor his putative sexism invalidate his political point.
Brand's remarks have been critiqued not only - or even primarily - by right-wing pundits, but by liberal and left-wing commentators. Brand's anti-political stance was challenged, for example, by the actor Robert Webb, who, horrified by Brand's anti-parliamentariam, publicly announced his (re)commitment to the Labour Party, while smugly averring that revolutionary politics leads to the gulag. More intelligently, yet rather contradictorily, Jeremy Gilbert and Mark Fisher follow their praise for Brand with a defence of electoralism as part of revolutionary strategy and of the Labour Party (the implementation of a national minimum wage is mentioned as one of New Labour's recent achievements - as though it had not been more than paid for by the outsourcing of 'British jobs' elsewhere, and indeed offset by the party's sanctioning of the use of deadly force against working people, from Belgrade to Baghdad). Brand's basic message, by contract with these equivocations, is clear: the profit system is destroying the lives of poor and ordinary people everywhere and it is time to organise society differently. Certainly, Brand does hold some pretty bizarre New Age notions and has a dubious track record when it comes to gender politics (this has earned him a bit of a dissing by the intersectional left); but neither his quirkiness nor his putative sexism invalidate his political point.
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