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Monday, November 07, 2005
Vivre le Québec périphérique![Shoupers & FOAS: This is what I do for my development class. If you want to learn a bit about the Québec independence movement you might find it interesting, otherwise just skip it. Also, things are going well with the M.Sc. Nursing (we've moved from newborns to elderly), I met somebody in class and am making out a lot (thanks, Rob) and my family continues to rock it as hard as we can. Misha & Rebecca say hi to all. Tom is well in Botswana. Life is still good. Cheers!]INTRO
So Immanuel Wallerstein's "Modern World System" article was just about the most boring article ever -- the first time I read it. However, when I picked it up and re-read it this morning I suddenly found it not only interesting but possibly also relevant to current events. So I thought I'd share.
PERIPHERAL AREAS
Wallerstein talks about peripheral areas as having "low degrees of autonomy". Of course, he's thinking of sixteenth-century European states, but his masterfully vague language makes it possible to apply his words to whatever situation you have in mind. And in mind I have the progression of ideas supporting Québec's quest for sovereignty.
QUÉBEC
Québec nationalists, in their 70's heyday, were quite different from the Boisclairs and Marois of today. They were intellectuals, not politicians, and were driven by their passion for ideas and equality, not merely power. They took two of Wallerstein's interesting ideas -- that of national identity as construct and of class self-consciousness as conflict-dependent -- and merged them, creating a national consciousness based around not language, the facile fallback of today's politicians, but based rather on the emerging consciousness of the québecois people as a class-defined entity. When they railed against Canadian oppression it was not linguistic but economic oppression that they had in mind. Cultural oppression was seen as a symptom of the real disease: Canadian (i.e. British) imperialism. The social instituions founded at that time (CÉGEP, SAAQ, Hydro-Québec, Université de Québec, Fonds de placements, etc.) all have as goal the equalization of Québec society. Québec saw itself as a peripheral area of Canada, and worked hard to assert its de facto -- while working towards the ultimate goal of de jure -- sovereignty.
Nationalist leaders in the new millennium, such as the authors of the recent "Manifeste pour un Québec lucide" document, see sovereignty as a possible steppingstone on their way to transcending the nation-state and realizing Québec's potential on the playing field of the world system. They have moved beyond Wallerstein's ideas of periphery -- possibly because it is now one of the most powerful and autonomous provinces in the Canadian confederacy -- and are now ready to take on the global class. They have kept the traditional idea of independence as their ideological basis, however, illustrating Wallerstein's note that "nothing emerges and evolves as quickly as a 'tradition' when the need presents itself." In fact, it is interesting to note that 11 of the 13 authors of the new manifesto hail from the business community.
CONCLUSION
Where are the new margins? Yesterday four young protesters were arrested for throwing Molotov cocktalks and setting structures on fire in the middle of a busy downtown street during last Friday's demonstrations. This wasn't in some Parisian suburb, but on Sainte-Catherine street. In broad daylight. They were protesting in solidarity with the Argentinian people also in the street against the FTAA and the summit of the Americas. The new periphery is now made up of those who, like the Bouchards of Québec, see globalization as the new black of the 21st century but are worried, like Stiglitz, about its implementation and the goals of the structures guiding it. Happy the nation whose people has not forgotten how to rebel.
posted by sasha @ 2:27 PM
