Re: [A-List] Practice

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> It's my analysis of politics and class relations, as well as others',
> that leads me to believe that there will be no major opening in the
> short term.

Quite true. I agree completely. I think that the US working class will 
have to receive some major shocks before it begins to move politically. 
I recommend Mike Davis's "Prisoners of the American Dream" for more on this.

That being said, there are social forces in motion, especially the 
immigrant community and the student movement. My discussion with Paul 
Buhle around the new SDS make me feel very hopeful.

> Objective conditions that made for the long thirties and
> the long sixties no longer exist; and most people who still identify
> as "leftists" in America are, for all intents and purposes, social
> liberals, very much devoted to the Democratic Party (and when they
> give up on it, they become not Marxists but conspiracy theorists).  If
> anyone has a sensible strategy that makes sense under these particular
> objective and subjective conditions, I'm all ears.

The best strategy is to create an electoral alternative to the 
Democratic Party, which will not be easy. After starting out strongly, 
the Greens have foundered. We are in the same situation as abolitionists 
in the 1830s or so. We have a vision of what's needed but lack the 
social power to promote it. It might take 30 years for the 3rd American 
revolution to get off the ground. I won't be around then but I am happy 
to work with people who will.