2015 started with some heavy bangs. First came the terrorist attacks in Paris against journalists and against a Jewish supermarket. Then came the victory of the radical leftwing party Syriza in Greece. You might think these two events have nothing in common. Yet, some elements make me think we should take some time to reflect on it.

I consider fundamentalist terrorism as a kind of fascism. It has nothing to do with religion – islam is a religion of peace – but everything with power and frustration. While fundamentalism in the Middle East, Africa and Western Asia can be seen as a reaction against neoliberal globalization and modernity, the radicalized youth in Western Europe react against their marginalization in wealthy societies. What they have in common though is a profound perception of injustice in the face of the unsolved Palestinian problem, and an equally profound feeling of injustice in the face of all the unmet promises of development.

While the radicalized youth of Western Europe may want to be fully part of the societies they live in, the fundamentalists in the Middle East, Africa and Western Asia dream of a return to the past, with exclusive male power and a ban on empowerment through education.

What this calls for, in both cases, is a serious reflection on how western thinking has shaped today’s world, in Europe and globally. Colonialism has left very serious wounds, so-called meritocracy has caused many discriminations. The practice of exploitation and marginalization has left too many people in a hopeless and desperate situation.

What could be the link with Greece?

Syriza is a new radical leftwing party. In the past, it said no to orthodox Marxism and today it is saying rightly no to European austerity policies. It does not say no to the European Union, to European integration or to the euro. But it may be forced out of them by fundamentalist neoliberal dogmatists. Eminent Nobel prize winners and professors of economy have admitted that the Greek debt can indeed not be serviced. They emphasize that counter-cyclical policies are needed to win over deflation. Syriza is very pragmatic and does not ask for a socialist Europe. Yet, the radical theologians try to have the Greeks on their knees, to make them suffer, to punish them for the past mistakes of their governments, their elites and their banks.

Fundamentalism, whether it be islamist or neoliberal is very difficult to fight. I certainly do not want to put radical islamism and neoliberalism on the same footing, but both are belief systems, and often beliefs serve other objectives than the ones expressed. I am not an expert on islamist fundamentalism, but I think that male power is at the centre of what their advocates want. Whereas in Europe, too many people want to definitely install the power of the 1 %, abandon the European integration project and abandon or limit the Euro to a small core of countries.

What is at stake, in both cases, is the kind of societies we want, the kind of modernity we want. On the one hand, the rejection of modernity and progress, on the other hand, the belief in endless progress and growth. What Charlie and Syriza have in common is that they point to an urgent need to re-think our modernity, our futures, away from all fundamentalisms.

Without any risk of making a mistake we can say that a large majority of people do want to live in modern societies, with individual freedoms for men and women, with possibilities for empowerment and with collective solidarity.

They also want to preserve their collective identities, they want to shape themselves the modernity they want to live in. And that modernity, shaped by the West, is not what fits them best. Modernity itself, or should we say the ideas of the Enlightenment, will have to be seriously re-thought, in the very first place in order to take into account the serious ecological crisis we are living right now. Humankind is part of nature and does not stand above it. Western knowledge is not the only one that can bring solutions for many problems. As for the believers in endless growth, it is all too easy today to see the impasse this leads to. Endlessly growing are poverty and inequality.

Whether we look at the Middle East or at Greece, or at Ukraine or at Venezuela, our minds have indeed to be de-colonized. We have to think, all of us, of new solutions to very old problems. Paradoxically, the Danish attacks of last week-end are once again evidence of the fact that radical islamism has no future. A huge majority of people reject it. Neither have neoliberalism and austerity, equally rejected by people. People want to be free and shape their own future.

In that sense, Syriza brings hope, even if, in the short term, it might lose. We should hope it will not. It is time for a new era of mutual understanding and collective solidarity. This is what Global Social Justice strives for.

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Francine Mestrum - February 2015