richard-day-gramsci-is-dead

186 Gramsci is DeadThe reference to ‘transforming the planet’ is an unfortunate Utopianecho that betrays the remnants of a hegemonic desire even in thisexplicitly affinity-based conception of social change. But Anzaldúaelsewhere shows that she is aware of the necessity of choosingwhen to cross borders, with whom and how to be open. ‘Effectivebridging’, she warns, ‘comes from knowing when to close ranks tothose outside our home, group, community, nation—and when tokeep the gates open’ (2002a: 3). As an ethically committed subject, lamestiza necessarily abandons the position of pure nomadism—somethings are thrust out, namely racism, sexism, homophobia … perhapscapitalism and the state form as well. Thus, for example, despite itsgreater openness, there are no defenders of White male privilege inThis Bridge We Call Home. Living affinity-based relationships meansnot only hooking up with those with whom we share values, butactively warding off and working against those whose practicesperpetuate division, domination and exploitation.Although feminists, postcolonial and queer theorists have allrejected totality in its various forms, there are currents within eachof these traditions that help to guide us away from the trap of positingin its place a community that is entirely without presuppositions.Just as there can be no purely nomadic subject, there can be nopurely nomadic community. There can, however, be communitiesthat share presuppositions that are different from those of the globalsystem of states and corporations, and that are at the same timechangeable and open to anything but the emergence of apparatusesof division, capture, and exploitation. This is the crux of the taskof building the coming communities: we must develop—and liveaccording to—shared ethico-political commitments that allow us toachieve enough solidarity to effectively create sustainable alternativesto the neoliberal order. In the challenges to modernist liberationmovements that have been advanced since the 1960s, it is possibleto discern two intimately related themes that offer some guidanceas to how these commitments might be understood.THE COMING ETHICS:GROUNDLESS SOLIDARITY AND INFINITE RESPONSIBILITYAlthough it is clear that much work remains to be done, many firstworld feminists have responded favourably to the challenges posedby those who reject an identity-based politics of recognition, andtheir responses might be seen as showing the way forward for other