Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 4a
Hegemony Up To Date
We have given first place this
week to Perry Anderson. Today, another readable and user-friendly text is
offered in the form of Trent Brown’s more recent essay on "Gramsci and
Hegemony" (attached, and downloadable via the link given below).
Put simply, the idea of
“hegemony” is not different from the idea of “dictatorship”, as used in the
phrases: “dictatorship of the proletariat” and “dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie”, for two examples.
Hegemony means class
domination over another class, or over all other classes. We may say that
Working Class Hegemony is not necessarily always coercive, and that for the
most part it would rely upon consent or acquiescence.
But, as Trent Brown points
out, the same is true of the bourgeois dictatorship that we have at present. It
depends, if not upon actual force, then upon “manufactured consent” backed up
by the threat of force. Force and the threat of force are always present.
Violent force will normally be applied without hesitation by any ruling class
whenever its hegemony is threatened.
Whether we are using the term
“Working Class Hegemony”, or the term “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”, it
remains the case that the bourgeoisie continues to exist under such
dictatorship or hegemony. Capitalist relations will still exist under working
class hegemony, but they will be supervised by the working class.
“Dictatorship of the
Proletariat” does not mean “Extermination of the Bourgeoisie”.
Trent Brown points out that
Gramsci in particular had a well-worked-out theory of how the working class can
progress from self-interested economism, otherwise called syndicalism (or in
South Africa, “workerism”), through self-conscious class solidarity, to the
formation of revolutionary alliances with other classes.
Comrades who may be
interested in Gramsci’s legacy beyond the concept of “hegemony”, may like to read
the article “From Organic to Committed Intellectuals or
Critical Pedagogy, Commitment, and Praxis” (click to access the web
page). For a representative example of Gramsci’s writing, please click here: “Some Aspects of the
Southern Question”.
Trent Brown puts the matter
of hegemony like this:
“Gramsci
reckoned that in the historical context that he was working in, the passage of
a social group from self-interested reformism to national hegemony could occur
most effectively via the political party.”
This is not different from
Lenin’s view.
·
The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: Gramsci and Hegemony, 2009,
Trent Brown.
