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It is interesting to compare the situation in Europe with that of the U.S. in this regard. A coordinated 24 hr general strike on the level of a single big state like California would mark a big step forward beyond the fragmented provincial fight-back efforts we are currently seeing now in response to the assault on state workers, carried out on the basis of traditional business union turf cartelism that characterizes the U.S. trade unions. In other words, a coordinated response is what's on the agenda in the U.S. The difference with Europe is that a crisis originating in private capital was offloaded onto the public sector, and this latter is in turn being made to pay _along_ with the private sector workers. In Europe the crisis is directly one of state capital. Objectively on the agenda is the assumption of state power by the working class - obviously there is a big gap between objective reality and the reality of consciousness, as shown by the fact that "workers" and "socialist" parties are carrying out the European bourgeoisie's' program. Nevertheless an institutional dual power program is something that can immediately be put forward in the affected countries. Not so in the U.S. -Matt > Asfar asIcan see, and correct meif I'm wrong, the onlyvalid strategy is > to call for UNLIMITED general strikes and workers'councils. The > problemisof course, that socialism within the working class is not yet > seen as a realalternative to capitalism, as was the case in the 60s. > Bureaucratic unionism is largely to blame for this state of affairs in > the West generally. Theystill cling on to Social Democraticidealseven > though it is clear that the whole labour movement is disintegrating > together with Capitalism. Capitalism cannot sustain itself, and Social > Democracy is taking the plunge with it. Dan, I believe you are correct about the limitations of a 24-hour general strike (of course, there are matters of degree; in the U.S. such an action would likely have a different immediate impact).I recently suggested on a Spanish (Spain) site about the impending call for the general strike in Italy that perhaps it would be more useful to take the occasion of these limited actions to begin organizing independent workers councils/committees, first, to discuss the impact of their actions and next, to work within unions to coordinate new actions within the general strike activities and eventually work toward having these councils/committees take the responsibility for determining the length of actions and maximizing effects on production and commerce (e.g., affecting transportation and communication, but responsibly supporting vital services--to the working class not to business). I wonder if there even is any immediate venue for this kind of "progressive" coordination of action that can have the effect of both organizing the working class and promoting a plan of action? ________________________________________________ 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
