KTub8

Digital Solidarity
to themselves first.’ Given the well known problems
of bureaucratic organisations and the freedom the
markets offer to those with the required means, this
vision enjoyed a fair measure of popular support in the
West in the last decades of the 20th century. Enough
that fierce battles against collective organisations,
most importantly unions and local governments, could
be sustained politically. As a consequence of both the
destruction of traditional working class milieus and
the new experiences in post-industrial economies, an
extremely individualistic view and faith in the market as
enabling expanded freedoms was established as a form
of ‘common sense’ consensus, not least by the socialdemocratic
left which was now rebranding itself as ‘new
labour’ or the ‘third way.’ 20
This absorption of neoliberalism by the centreleft
was possible because it was animated by some of
the core values of the social movements of the 1960s:
flexibility, creativity and expressiveness. 21 Severed from
their political roots, they have spread throughout society.
Today, they are regarded as generally desirable personal
traits, necessary for social success and, increasingly, seen
as corresponding with the ‘true nature’ of human beings.
While the neoliberal vision is still politically operative,
it’s no longer a promise (that animated the Blair/Clinton
project), but a dogma and coercive force. 22 This, however,
has not affected the appeal of flexibility and individuality
as social values. Rather, they are being freed from their
neoliberal framing, developed further and connected
to new political projects. Thus, they are in the process
of finding new expression in forms of sociability that
emerge on a mass scale, pioneered by internet-mediated
communities. It is through these experiences that the
21