Carrol Cox:
>My understanding of capitalism is that it _must_ grow, regardless of
>consequences, and that it simply is not worth considering possibilities
>for constraining growth under capitalism, however desirable or even
>absolutely necessary that may be.
Right now I am reading "The Last Ranch" by the late Sam Bingham, which
deals with the disastrous ecological effects of cattle ranching in
Colorado, including desertification. This is the reality that Marxists have
to identify to the masses. Saying that MacDonalds fast food is some kind of
"conquest" of the working class because it makes meat cheap and eliminates
the need to prepare meals is just the kind of thing that we have no
business saying. The fact that so many young people associate Marxism with
this kind of vulgar "modernization" explains why the anti-globalization
protesters often call themselves anarchists. While anarchism attracts the
young, we are ending up with a movement that revolves around bizarre sects
or annual conferences attracting the enlarged prostate brigade. At the last
Socialist Scholars Conference, the last I'll ever go to, young people got
up during the discussion period of a talk given by Bogdan Denitch on the
"future of the left" and told him that he was completely out of touch.
Denitch's social democratic business-as-usual left-Gompers trade unionism
is based on the notion that working people in the USA should have a bigger
slice of the pie, the rest of the world be damned. As long as Marxism is
perceived in this manner, we are in bad shape. As Marxists, our message is
not just about "more". It is about equity. Most people in the imperialist
countries have to understand that the life-style we "enjoy" is
unsustainable. In exchange for a more modest life-style, we will live in
world that enjoys peace and respect for the individual. If people in the
imperialist countries can not rally to this message, then they (we) deserve
the fate that awaits us: war, urban violence, cancer epidemics, drug
addiction, alcoholism, FOX TV, and prozac.
Louis Proyect
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