Social-democracy is dead? So what system prevails in Western Europe?
Carrol Cox wrote:
Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
yes, but also . . . another important caveat to doyle's strategy is
that it can only possibly produce a left if we're putting demands he
can't meet *that a mass of people actually think are reasonable*. thus
the ice cream business.
Max's secret of success is the same as that of Johnson's Astronomer in
_Rasselas_, who causes the sun to rise each morning. Obama is as
indifferent to anything Max & his ilk might "demand" as the sun was to
the astronomer, but if Max "demands" what Obama is going to do (that is
something reasonably close to zilch), lo and behold Max's strategy will
have worked: he will have moved the President of the United States to
action. Wonderful. Also known as crackpot realism.
But we shouldn't be interested in putting any demands, realistic or
unrealistic, to Obama. We are putting demands to the people, since our
demands can only make a difference when they mobilize hundreds of
thousands month after month in the street. Social Democracy is as dead
as Marxism-Leninism, and Max is as silly as ISO. And the first purpose
of demands made to the people (as working class) is that considering the
demands is educative, i.e. they learn something about their relation to
the world by their discussion of the demands.
"The anatomy of man is a key to the anatomy of the ape." This is the
most important political advice in the collected writings of Marx. (B
Ollman calls it doing history backeards.) Leftists need to act within a
roughly 5-7 year time span, within which they must honor Rosa
Luxemburg's proposition, "The final goal is everything, the movement is
nothing." What is the position we want to be in 5 years from now? That
is, what is the final goal within this framework? I suggest that it is
that a left should exist five years from now, which is not the case now.
By all indications, there are 10s, perhaps 100s of thousands of leftists
in the u.s. - scattered individuals, many but not all loosely connected
to various local active groups (anti-war, living wage, some union
drives, etc.)
(If you want a history analogy, think of the period before the FIRST
(more or less illusory) Congress of the RSDLP. Everyone knows about the
Second - but something had to have come vaguely into existence in Russia
for there to be a SECOND! We don't have even that now. What can we, as
scattered leftists, do in the light of that as our Final Goal. (Of
course our Final Goal in this sense keeps shifting on us: the essential
point is that we NEVER get stuck in the dead end suggested by Joanna in
apost earlier today: the crackpot realism of starting where we are an
taking tiny steps along a path that merely leads to th swamp of again
taking tiny steps which merely lead to the swamp of again taking tiny
steps . . .
And there is no use debating with those who are chasing the
pie-in-the-sky of influencing the Obama Administration.
Get a group of people seriously discussing the demand that military
personnel not be stationed outside the 50 states (i.e., not in Puerto
Rico or Guan either!), and you have an explosive situation. Minds might
open to the world. Who knows where it might lead. Get a few score small
groups around the country discussing what a nation with a twenty-hour
week would look like, and entering into internet communication with each
other, ??
Carrol
Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
yes, but also . . . another important caveat to doyle's strategy is
that it can only possibly produce a left if we're putting demands he
can't meet *that a mass of people actually think are reasonable*. thus
the ice cream business.
On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 7:39 PM, Max B. Sawicky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
I can't promise this won't be second rate, but I'd rather
put to BHO a list of good stuff that I think he CAN do.
There's always time to demand stuff that won't happen.
Doyle Saylor wrote:
Greetings Economists,
I would say that serious lists are more important
than some clap trap about ice cream. What is
possible to seriously demand now? That would help
set the agenda for the left to form around. I
don't care if a list is not feasible. What I care
about is making demands upon Obama that he can't
meet under the present circumstances and if he
can't accommodate then we have a left.
I'm tired of second rate banter.
thanks,
Doyle Saylor
On Nov 6, 2008, at 1:22 PM, Max Sawicky wrote:
That's better than Carrol's list.
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