I am troubled by some points in Cantor/Schor's article.
1) If the inevitability of socialism stands on as shaky ground as the DLC's
advise to Clinton, then there can be no possible way of "figuring out" how
to "get government on our side and rein in a market system gone berserk."
2) I think actually the DLC's advise to Clinton is only "pragmatic" political
course open to him, and he WILL take it. The dominant forces in the ruling
class, judging by the financial backing of the Gingrich campaign, seem to have
shifted toward dismantling the welfare state. There is clearly no consensus
even among ruling circles about this judging by the covers of Time, Newsweek,
and the editorial pages of the principle newspaper publishing empires. But
the opposition to Gingrichism seems sputtering and uncertain, because the
blatant failures of New Deal liberalism are evident everywhere.
Years of declining real wages have caused big sections of the working class
to abandon the democratic party, and in varying degreees support the
reactionary anti-tax forces. The social decay spreading daily has undermined
the legitimacy of many programs.
Gingrichism seems to feel that monetary controls and anti-democratic
initiatives, and the weakness of the labor movement, can permit a partial
abandonment of keynesian economics.
What is the failure of liberalism except the proof that capitalism cannot
be fixed, or "reined in". A government bought and paid for by multinational
corporations cannot be "gotten on our side."
There can be no emancipation for the working class THAT IS NOT ITS OWN
ACT.
With trepidation, with no small degree of terror, with grief at the pain
and suffering ahead, I nevertheless welcome a new political atmosphere where
the window dressing on monopoly capital will be removed, the system of
capitalism itself garbed in plainer dress. In such an environment the much
needed renewal and revitalization of socialist theory and practice can be
advanced. A NEW Bolshevism is what is needed. Build it and it will come!
J. Case
