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> On Mar 20, 2014, at 1:37 PM, Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> wrote: > >> On 3/20/14 1:19 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: >> While there hasn't been a fascist coup in the Ukraine and the interim regime >> is dominated by centre-right parties, Parubiy is a good illustration of the >> influence wielded by the far right in the Euromaidan movement and the >> Yatsenyuk government. Louis and others have hotly denied such influence has >> existed. > > I don't know about what others believe, but I have written very few words > about the government except to say that it is inimical to the interests of > the average Ukrainian who is seeking nothing more than an end to corruption, > Russian domination, and an economy that favors opportunity even if it is > utopian to think that this is possible under capitalism. Of course, as > someone who has been badgering Marxmail for what seems like 15 years now to > vote for Democrats, one would think that Marvin would be sensitive to the > moods and prejudices of the man and woman on the street in the Ukraine I have > been quoting for a while now. They at least seem to have fewer illusions in > the ruling parties than him. What nonsense. I would ask comrade Vyshinsky to produce the evidence to support his charge. I thought, along with others, that Obama's election in 2008 would accelerate the momentum which had built up around his campaign in the wake of the financial crisis, particularly as it was likely the Democratic administration would soon betray its promises and bring the DP base into collision with its leadership. This is on the record. If recall correctly, others like Fred Feldman and Joaquin Bustelo were sympathetic to the Obama campaign, mainly because it represented for them a mobilization of the black community against white racist forces. My perspective was mistaken. While the betrayals of the Obama administration resulted in widespread grumbling by liberal intellectuals and activists, it failed to translate into an organized left-wing opposition which could have provided the main forces for a viable third party after an unsuccessful internal struggle against the leadership to reform the DP. When the lack of organized resistance to administration policies regarding the banks, healthcare, housing, jobs, foreign policy, etc. became quickly apparent. I subsequently argued with Charles Brown, Robert Naiman, and others on the LBO and Pen-L lists who continued to support the administration. This is also part of the record. If anything, I find Louis' support for the left bourgeois Green Party equally problematic, though I would not stoop to smearing him for it, because I am aware it is also tactical in nature. My first allegiance has always been to the unions and allied movements who comprise the base of the DP and its kindred social democratic parties abroad, and I still think it's more likely than not that any mass radicalization in the US leading to the formation of a viable third party would first express itself more powerfully in the DP, with its mass working class, minority, and left liberal following rather than in a would-be third party set up in opposition to it. But the response of the DP ranks over the past six years has been as disappointing as Louis' embrace of the Green Party. In any case, it's wearying to have to respond to this charge on each occasion that I post something to the list that Louis finds difficult to deal with on its merits. But I'm by no means the only target of the Proyect school of falsification, and I'm quite prepared to put up with it in order to discuss with the serious leftists on this list whose opinions I respect. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
