In this case your hatred of H&A (which at one point led to you confuse the two with one another) has led you to overlook that excerpt I forwarded has a hell of a lot of relevance to things other than Parecon. I forwarded specifically because it has good strategic points in general; I think it is the best summary I've seen of what may be a growing consensus as to the path the left must take -- in terms of supporting unions, co-ops, community development, supporting indigenous peoples,non-reformist reforms (I am over-simplifying. The fact that what is good in this excerpt cannot be summarized in a paragraph is one reason I forwarded it.) I'm a parecon supporter myself, but I would say about 95% of this excerpt is useful to people who do not care about parecon. If you want to critique the article further, let me emphasize that it is completely the work of Robin Hahnel, and that you should not confuse him with Michael Albert again, or accuse him of being an editor of Z magazine; also, I suspect that the actual strategy he suggests, and the class analysis he uses in the excerpt is worth spending more time on than another critique of parecon. Louis Proyect wrote: > > Since I have such a personal and political dislike for Hahnel and Albert, > and since I am trying to turn over a new leaf and be the most popular guy > on the Internet, I have waited until the last minute to say a few words > about "Parecon." > > But how can one not see how irrelevant it is at this point to the real > world? For example, take Russia (spoken with a Henny Youngman inflection). > The topic that the entire left is grappling with is how the Yeltsinite > regime can be toppled and a more humane system put in its place. Zyuganov > is calling for the renationalization of major industry, but stepping back > from a full-blown planning approach. The people on the left, such as > Kargalitsky, hope that a revivified socialism can re-emerge but are > probably too weak to influence events. > > So where does something like Parecon fit in? Obviously, nowhere. In times > of great stress, the tasks that have to be addressed are primarily > political ones that overlap into conjunctural economic ones such as: > > --how to avoid rekindling of the cold war? > > --how to foster economic development while relinquishing the monopoly on > foreign trade? > > --how to deal with the ultrarightists? > > --how to rebuild foreign economic relations after the collapse of the > Soviet COMECON? > > With due respect for the differences between Russia and a country like the > US, one of the reasons it is important to study Russia is that it also can > illustrate the problems we will be facing when our own hard times begin. > The Russian working-class, like the American working-class, was thoroughly > depoliticized and atomized. It was cynical about the "system" and lived for > its own material rewards. There was very little concern with social justice > and as long as the system could "deliver" after a fashion, people remained > apathetic. Now that they are being shaken to the core, the radicalization > is beginning but it is uneven. One of the things that is occuring is that > left-wing politics is taking on a vaguely anti-semitic cast, due in some > part to the fact that most of Yeltsin's advisers are of Jewish descent. > Zyuganov blames "cosmopolitans" for ruining the good character of the > Russian homeland. > > The best you can say about the Z Magazine project is that it is the > homebase of Edward Herman, Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky, who the > pedantic Marxists who give papers at the academic conferences can learn > from. Now if Z Magazine could find a way to drop its sectarian hatred of > Marxism, the left would be in a stronger position to move forward. I am not > holding my breath. > > Louis Proyect > > (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html) -- Gar W. Lipow 815 Dundee RD NW Olympia, WA 98502 http://www.freetrain.org/
