By Dermot Hudson
Reactionaries
like to go on about the 'victims ' of communism and in some former socialist
countries anti-communist museums have been opened – but you never hear a word
about the victims of capitalism or the victims of neo-liberalism.
Tucked away in a far corner of southeast
London however, is the Museum of Neo-Liberalism. which offers an alternative
view to the worship of capitalism, 'the market' and globalisation that is
promoted by the mainstream media. It provides plenty of food for thought.
Back in 2011 a ‘museum of neoliberalism’
was briefly set up in central London as part of a student protest. The new one,
in reality a collection of art installations, was first displayed at the World
Transformed festival during the 2019 Labour Party conference. It moved to
London last November. It’s the creation of satirical artist Darren Cullen and
art historian Gavin Grindon, who worked together on Dismaland, Banksy’s dystopian theme park that drew over 150,000
visitors to Weston-super-Mare during its short run in the autumn of 2015.
The gallery explains how neo-liberalism
came about as a reaction to the reforms in capitalist countries in the 1960s as
well as increasing working class militancy and the rise of new movements. The
museum perhaps overstates the ‘reforms’ in capitalist countries and their
effects. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the bosses of the big monopolies
perceived their power and privileges to be under threat and sought to reverse
and rollback any concessions.
It is rightly pointed out that markets are
something that do not exist on their own, they are creations of humans and
something that is brought into existence by force. This punctures the mythology
of bourgeois and neo-liberal thinking that tries to assert that the market is
like a force of nature.
The deeply exploitative nature of
capitalism is exposed. One of the exhibits is a bottle of Amazon workers’
urine, which is a part of a whole section on Amazon which in the last few
decades has emerged as a powerful international monopoly enslaving its workers
and ripping off consumers. Other exhibits such as the privatised train set
raise a chortle.
A whiff of anarchist ideology can be
detected in material that implies that work itself is a bad thing and the best
thing to do is to just doss around. This unscientific outlook ignores the fact
that everything is created through labour. It’s still worth a visit however,
when it re-opens after the lock-down ends, at: Museum of Neoliberalism, 16
Eltham Rd, Lee, London SE12 8TF. Nearest stations: Lee, Blackheath or Lewisham.
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