my 

REFLECTI ONS ON WAGAR' S WORLD PARTY 

Al bert Bergesen 
Department of Soc i o l ogy 
University of Arizona 
Tucs o n, Ar i zona 8572 1 
520 - 62 1- 3303 
Ema il: a l bert@u . ar i zona . edu 

Copyr i ght 1996 by Al bert Bergesen . 

Our task is to reflect upon Wagar ' s idea of a wor ld party . In 

case such reflections are affected by the recen t historical 
situation 

of the co ll apse of commun i sm/ex i st i ng soc i a li sm in 1989 and the 
i mpli cat i ons th i s has for v i s i ons of progressive politics going into 
the 2 1 st century . This event colors most politica l thinking , 
a l though for many the response has been that existing socia li sm 
was not rea l soc i a li sm , or that ex i st i ng soc i alis m was but the 
Stalinist deformation that , i f a v o i ded i n the future , the 191 7 

project 
cou l d aga i n be resumed and human h i story and social relat ions 
remade anew . I don ' t see it that way . What existing socialism 
stood fo r i n terms of the r ole of a vanguard party taking state 
power for the larger good i s , now after t he fall, I th in k off the 

board 
a s a realistic program th a t can be s old t o anyone. For who knows 

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Journal of World-Systems Research 

how long I don't th i nk anyone i s go i ng to belie v e, or follow , or 
support t h e notion of forc e full y taking control of the state and 
willfully tra n sform i ng the i n st i t u t i ons of c i vil society to create a 
better world . It may have been known be fore the fall of 
socialism -- t ha t i t wasn ' t what i t was supposed to be -- bu t i t 

certa inly 

the 

s eems to be t he cas e now t ha t se i z i ng state power and holding i t i n 
the name of the " people" is greeted wi th deep suspicion . 

This brings u s to Wagar ' s notion of a worl d party as the next 
form of progressive politics . Th e down s i de of Wagar's v i s io n i s 
the reinstatement of the idea of the underground party with all the 
i nfiltration and deception (" smugg l i ng i ts agents i nto posit i ons of 
responsibility in governments and corporat i ons, which they make it 
their business to betray when the t i me i s r i pe" p . 14 ) . Worse are 
the impli cat i o n s of rut hl ess ne ss t h at reminds of the past and scares 
as much as encourages . Wagar speaks of world lea d e rs being of 
use to the world party " only if the nat i onal leaders concerned swear 
a solemn oath to build a soc iali st world - government ... [and] .. i f 
national leaders cannot make t ha t conuni tment , they ar e of no u s e 
to us, or ultimately, to themselves " p . 16 . Strong stuff . What is 

consequence of people who are of no use to the party and not even 
of any use to themselves . They sound dispensable to me . Swear 



the wo rld p a rty oath , or be of n o historical u se . Somehow this all 
rem i nds o f e a r li er p a rty progr a ms and dec i s i ons th at classes, 
peop l es , e li tes, sex ual pers ua s i ons , and religious or ethnic 
affiliati o ns were of no u se to the party or even to themselves . 
Ma ybe we a re all a li tt l e g u n shy abo u t t u rn i ng th ings ove r t o the 
p a rty, b u t then ma ybe we were a ll a li tt l e too acquiescent in going 
al ong wi th th i ngs that were done for the s upposed greater good . 
Maybe being a little s u spicio u s of s u ch talk is not al l that bad . 
Whil e Wa g a r c a n be seen as an exerc i se i n fantasy politics 
reliving the o ld seize state power program -- except n ow o n a 
wo rld scale (a n idea that sent one observer into peals of der i s i on 

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and laugh t er on t he WSN), there are a n y number of real issues 
here . So meo ne o bserved that the t i me wasn ' t right, and by that I 
presumed he meant that there wasn ' t anything l ike a world state 
stru c ture that c ou l d/shou l d be se i zed . The argument seemed le ss 
bothered by the l ate twent i eth century angst about the party, and 
mo re concerned wi th a c o rrect understand i ng o f the historical 
conditions necessary for such a seizing operation . 

Th i s ra i ses a rea l quest i on : i f se i z i ng power in the name of 
c rea t i ng a bett er wor l d seems off th e board of p r actical progressive 
politics for quite a while, what form does such politics take i f one 
wants to th i nk of po li t i cs on a wor l d sca l e? For that quest ion 

there 
isn't at present a good answer, or at least no co nsensus . Much of 
the l eft i s st ill ree li ng from the co ll apse of exi s ting s ocialism 

and 
offering solutions from the Sweden model (a floor but no ceiling) 
to what seems a den i a li st pos i t i on of c l a i mi ng socialism's demise 
was a product of Sta li n i st bureaucrat i c deformation, and that all 
that is necessary is to do it again, but this time do it right . 

The re i s 
also the radical democracy not i on, where wi th the collapse of the 
economic as a meaningful explanatory variable in late 20th ce ntury 
social theory, some theor i sts (Lac l au, Mouffe, etc . ) have turned t o 
democracy as a goal , and I wou l d presume democrat i z i ng t he 
means of production , which i f that means the state, o r the st ate 
und er the control of the party, then we are back to square one o f 
the r adical vision that has been wi th th e West since the French 
Revolution. 

Wagar ' s world party i dea , then, is part past, part future . The 
future is th e addressing of politics at th e distinctly global level 

and 

b e 

spea king o f a political organization/framework/party that addresses 
it self to global issues . The past i s the v i s i on of THE party and of 
seizing political power. That both scares, and gi ve n the absence of 
a world state , ra i ses the quest ion of exactly what i t is that i s to 

sei zed. Inte restingly the establishment of a wo r ld st ate, wi th wo rl d 



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control now completely centralized in one cent r a l political 
structure, may not be the end of world politic s/s t ru gg les , but the 
ver y beginning, for now political control would b e absolute . Whil e 
it i s true cap i ta l couldn't escape to cheaper labor, i t i s also true 

that 

for 

the change and innovation that comes from th i s would also be 
eliminated. I could imagine all of us in some mediev a l world 
complaining that serfs and capital (such that it wa s) were runn i ng 
off to emerging cities/towns. Would the progre ss iv e move then b e 
to halt capital flight from feudal estate to city? The answer has 
been that in the centralization/control of capita l li es be tt er li ves 

all. But this rema ins a vision, held i nterestingly b y the 
int e ll ec tual s 

of the capitalist west, those areas where the c hange/ capital f lig ht 
has been the greatest. Given a world party, wo rld politics, a nd 
world state -- while the end of international war and capital f li ght 

the shift in progressive theory may go from Mar x to Weber . 
Certa i nly the world means of product i on would now be und e r the 
contro l of the s ingle state and a s s uch Weberi an que s tion s of wor l d 
bureaucracy, power, con tro l, tota li tar iani sm , etc . would be the 
i ssues of the day . Rome on a world scale , making decentral i zat io n , 
loss of control, freedom of cap i ta l fligh t , a l l new po t en t ia ll y 

rad ical 
goals, th e o pp osite of today's mul t ic entr i c wo r ld we r e on e p ar t y , 
o ne state , and one set of controls see ms t he progre ss i v e goa 1 
aga in st th e competition and violence of the multistate c apital i s t 
wo r ld system . But th i s too i s fanta sy utop i anism . Kaiser a nd 
Drass in an art i cle i n t he Ameri can Soc i olog i cal Re v iew no t ed t hat 
u top i an literatures tend to incr ea s e d uri ng p e riods of h egemo n i c 
dec lin e , and from that e mpi r i ca l ob servat io n the Waga r wo r ld p ar t y 
id ea may be a n in te llec t ual byproduct of Americ an hegemoni c 
decline . Certa inl y , a ho p ed for worl d party and some kind of 
wo r ld o rder , given the breakup of Amer i can hegemony, is the ki nd 
o f political utopianism one wou l d expect . Bu t this, while perhaps 
true , i s also tr u e of what I writ e h e r e , so to a vo id th e 

postmodernist 

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Journal o.l World-Systems Research 

do loop of infini t e regress and decent er i ng, le t u s ass ume t ha t t h e 
i ssu e s ar e r e a l and no t an i d e o l og i ca l product of h e g emonic 
decli n e . 

If "smu ggling a gen t s in t o posi t i o n s of responsibili t y . . t o 
be tr ay when t he time is r ipe" (p. 14 ) sounds l i ke f a n t asy po li t i cs, 
wha t are som e r eal issu e s fo r a pot e ntial world platfo r m of a wor l d 
par t y? Th ere are no doub t many and o t h er co mme n tato r s i n t h i s 
i ssu e will I am sur e conune n t upon t h e m. Let me , though, sp eak 



fr o m a p o s i t io n of my own i nterests and h i ghligh t th e i mpor t a n ee 
of ha v ing an eco l og i ca l aspect t o any new po l itical move men t th a t 
seeks a wo r l d wi de aud i ence . Let me beg i n wi th an obser vat i on . 
I t seems that i n today ' s world one of the , i f n ot the , most obv i ous 
s o urces of po l itica l and mora l energy com es from en vi ron ment al 
i ssues of a ll sorts . I ssues of j ust i ce today ha ve , along with the 

lo n g 
held human component , a d i st i nctly ecolog i cal o r en vir on menta l 
aspect . Pe o p l e seem upset ab o ut the env i r o nment and that should 
be taken as an i mportant i ssue i n the form u lation of any g lob a l 
pol i t i cal agenda . At the ASA meet i ng where Waga r presented th i s 
paper we are a ll conune n ting upon , someone i n the a udi e n ce 
o bserved that s o meth i ng li ke a wo r l d p oli t i cal o r ganiz at ion alrea dy 
ex i sted in the form of t he in te rna t iona l environmenta l orga n i za t i on 
Greenpeace . This may or may not be true , but it does seem th a t 
env i r o nmenta l i ssues are a c o mmo n gr o und ar o und the globe upon 
wh i ch there i s some degree of un i ty , hence an i mpo rtant i ssue for 
any wor l d po l itica l pro j ect . As a coro ll ary the env ir o nment al i ssue 
a llo ws a respec i f i cat io n o f the mater i a l i n social th eo ry and 

thereby 
he l ps de l iver us from the i dea li sm and mora l re lativism that i s 
p o stm o dern i sm . The env i r o nment i s the true b a se an d social 
format i ons , i nc l ud i ng the means of product i on , are the true 
superstructure . A po l itica l agenda of g l oba l sco p e ca n / should st ar t 
here wi th e nv i r onm e n ta l i ssues th a t , by def i nition, t ouch all 
humans . 

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Journal of World-Systems R esea rch 

Secon d , any new p arty /pol i t i c al move men t will need t o wi den 
i ts base of mora l concerns to i nc l ude non - human l ivi ng th i ngs . 
This is t h e Dee p Eco l ogy assumpt i on, wh i ch whe n applied to 
p o li t i cs impli es , a mong oth e r th i ngs, a wi dening of the moral o rder 
to include the e nvironmen t as a mora l se n t ien t being . Thi s i s 
controversial, and r e s i st ed by man y soc ia l act ivists a s plac i ng 
an im a l s be fo re people, or wor se pl ants, rocks, and moun ta in s 
b e fore people . Eq ual, th ough , i s not before, but the r es i st ance of 
t h e social mind t o growing i deas of e co - eq ua l i ty is u nd er s t ood, fo r 
in posi t ing equality there i s a tremendous dr o p in hum an status 
f ro m i ts p rev i o u s o mnip ote n t po s i t i on . But hu man s al v a t ion 
cannot be separa t ed from t he sa l vat i on of the p la net, a p o s i t io n 

that 
will have to be in c lu ded in any new world pol itical agenda . 

What this all means i s that the o l d agenda of humans f i r st 
even wi th Wagar all humans in a n al l wo r l d po litical mo v emen t 
will n ot be e n o u gh . Poli t ical s alva t ion of hu mans wi th ou t 
in clud ing other spec i es and form s of life wi l l be mor a lly 
in adequate in the 21st century and limit the success of any new 
move ment in a ttr ac t ing adheren ts . While i t can easily be argued 
t h at placing t h e rights of ani ma l s on e qual footing with those of 
humans may scare a way as ma ny as i t hopes t o att ra ct, a 
revita liz atio n o f poli t ical t heory t h at include s a Deep Ecology 
co mponent will be n ecessary . 



My 
That I don't have more to say is perhaps a sign of the times. 

two clear convictions are that (l) the idea of THE party and 
centralized management seems a very had sell, and (2) that any 
global movement will have to, if not be green, have a very clear 
and central green component. Other than this, I am not all that sure 
of the direction/meaning of the prospects for a global political 
party. 

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