Socires organized on 25 January 2023 her second Socires- Lecture on Post-Liberalism and Blue Labour Politics. Speakers were Lord Maurice Glasman from the United Kingdom, author of Blue Labour: Politics of the Common Good; and Martin Sommer, editor of the Volkskrant.
Meanwhile, the video recording of the lecture below can be viewed. A written report follows.
Theme
After introduction by Martin Sommer, Lord Maurice Glasman spoke about his Blue Labour Politics: A new politics based on human relationships, mutuality and pluralism. The future is a politics of people, place and rewarding, bringing assets, power and dignity back to local communities. Labourers "rights and futures "and the future of the places they live "take centre-stage in politics." Then Glasman and Sommer talked to each other where the link to the Netherlands and Dutch politics was also made.
About the speakers and their work
Maurice Glasman is political activist, thinker and writer. In 2009 he was at the cradle of the Blue Labour political movement. In 2011 he was appointed a member of the House of Lords.
Lord Glasman is director of The Common Good Foundation. There, he is involved in, among other things, the common good economy: "There are strong pressures to resurrect the two failed models of the past half century, financial globalisation or a protectionist state-directed economy. Our programme of Common Good Economics sees to offer a plausible and constructive alternative to both, and build the relationships to put it into action." https://www.commongoodfoundation.org.uk
Recently Lord Glasman was interviewed by The Guardian about his thinking, emphasising:
"... a new focus on the dignity of labor and greater influence for workers in the running of companies, and a far greater role for local government and civic bodies that could restore the excesses of the market." OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 671.
In his previous performance in the Netherlands (2012), Lord Glasman praised the continental-Rhine way of thinking about economics and capitalism. In an interview with De Groene Amsterdammer he called Germany "a spot on the horizon." At the meeting on December 12 we ask Lord Glasman about his current assessment of the value of the Rhineland thinking.
(https://www.groen.nl/article/people-are-not commercial)
Martin Sommer is a historian and has worked at the Volkskrant since 1987. He writes a weekly political column.
In 2019 Sommer wrote a piece on the political search for a new story for post-neoliberal society: "Rationalization and individualization have taken shape in the system world. Government targets became targets, citizens became customers. Economic thinking has brought prosperity, but also alienation. (...) Because of the system world, the world of life got in trouble. The main contest is now how to shape a new community [without falling into the trap of conservatism that used to be everything was better." https://www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/er-is-a-bank-want-to-think-about-the-own-share-in-the-malaise~bb453c13/
Last year, he again raised this issue when the current cabinet took office, in a column about the growing gap in the Netherlands between "winnaars" and "resolved" (term of René Cuperus and Josse de Voogd): https://www.volkskrant.nl/news-background/Monday-they-are-on-the-border-let-on-premier-rutte-he-know-how-the-flag-is-not-good~b1a5a789/