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Sigh, I only wish I could somehow parse the real meaning out of WL's intriguing oracular mysteries. For ex: "Then there is Obama. He is the best thing to happen in America in 30 years. Obama as President means class comes to the fore." Now I certainly think that the 2008 election results were a sharp expression of a desire for real reform of the US status quo on the part of masses of voters. But 30 years takes us back to...Jimmy Carter's time. Don't recall any really better things happening at that time, in fact we were on the cusp of a lot of really bad things that were just about to happen. And does "class comes to the fore" because the President is black and we are now all somehow post-racial? I dunno about that...given the economic situation I think class will come to the fore no matter what. The breathtaking absence of even a twitch of reformist impulse in the Obama crew usefully underlines this with the fact of the death of American Progressivism. But will the Obama Betrayal be the decisive catalyst? I think it is speeding things up, and that is good, but is not decisive. Putting aside the attempts at theory, perhaps the one thing that might have some legs here is the perspective that substantial sectors of the U.S. proletariat are being cast outside the traditional relations of production as we've historically known them for the first time. Using Anthony B's analysis, the Black Panthers writ large. This issue is not yet decided, but they don't have much more time - if they think they can sit around with their thumb up their asses doing nothing for years with 20% real unemployment, like the U.S. bourgeoisie seems to think they can - they're insane. -Matt ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
