There can be No Radical Equality without decolonisation

By Dyab Abou Jahjah

Tomorrow, on Saturday 22nd of April I will have the honour to address the conference against Xenophobia, neoliberalism, and the patriarchy that will be held in Madrid under the tittle bridges not walls. The Conference is organised by PODEMOS who took the initiative to write a manifesto for another Europe. The manifesto was signed initially by 100 intellectuals and activists among whom Saskia Sassen, Noam Chomsky, Yannis Varoufakis, Pablo Iglesias and The founders of Black Lives matters. You can read the manifesto and add your signature to it here.
The importance of both the manifesto and the conference is paramount. At a time where the far right, represented by Trump and his European clones, seems to be leading the world towards a new global conflict and humanitarian disaster, it is more than ever time for resistance. But this is not where this initiative is innovative. Resistance has always been the natural reaction to oppression and always will be. The importance of this initiative is that it brings together people, movements and groups that are determined to build a new alternative, and not just resist the onslaught on human and social rights. In the face of the radical nationalists, racists and global oligarchs, a new movement of radical egalitarianism is rising. A new form of radical progressive and egalitarian politics that does not reduce itself to an answer against austerity politics, or to an anti-racist movement, or to a movement against the patriarchy but that connects all these various aspects into one platform for radical equality.

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In this regard, Movement X has been a pioneering experience since 2014. Since the very beginning, we have defined radical equality as our goal and we outlined it across three main pillars: Racial equality, gender equality and social equality. While the traditional radical left was focussing on social equality, the traditional anti-racism movement on equality in diversity, and the traditional feminist or LGTB movements on women or gay and trans rights, we declared our commitment as a movement to advance all these struggles as one and the same. While acknowledging the need to give priority to one battle over the other according to the assessment of the intensity of the onslaught against a particular group, strategically and on principle, the ideal of radical equality is one package deal, to take or to leave.

We do not believe that overthrowing the system of capitalism will liberate women and people of colour from subjugation to male or white supremacy. We do not believe that establishing racial equality will mean that people will no more be oppressed socially on class level, or that committing to gender equality will just somehow pink-wash racism and classism. Only committing to the full scope of egalitarianism is a commitment for freedom, justice and equality that we can build on. This is a common denominator among the people that will be gathering in Madrid, and among the signatories of the manifesto. In that sense, this meeting is historical.
And yet, Movement X goes beyond most of the groups and the personalities gathering there in its understanding of radical equality. My position in the conference will be that we need to go one extra mile to have a balanced platform. That extra mile is necessary to make this movement truly global. We cannot just commit to making the west an egalitarian paradise while the rest of the world is suffering under the yoke of western hegemony next to that of the local tyrants. We cannot use the legacy of colonial rule, its wealth and its cumulated power as wind for our sails, even when our destination is radical equality. We need to address the question of decolonisation from a moral point of view, a cultural point of view, a financial point of view and from a political point of view. And we have to do that not just as a position towards European history, but also by acknowledging that colonialism as a legacy and even as a continuation of power-relations and exploitation is still with us today. Moreover, these colonial legacies and power-relations are not only determining for the current international system of hegemony and exploitation, they lay also the foundations of racism and oppression towards ethnic minorities within the west. Decolonisation is therefore a necessity to build equality and harmony not just globally but also locally.

 Therefore, the movement we are all building together must also be decolonial in its essence and must understand that this is not just a position towards the past, but above all a positioning in the present. Then and only then, we can speak of a true radical egalitarian movement, and this will be the message I will be taking to Madrid.