Re: [A-List] Populism or Neoliberalism?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Ahmadinejad is not a socialist, but neither are most people in the
> Middle East today, nor are others in the rest of the world for that
> matter.  Nor were populists who came before him, like Khomeini,
> Nasser, Bhutto (Zulfikar Ali, not his daughter), Peron, and so on.
> Populism is not socialism.  But when people choose populism rather
> than socialism or liberalism, what are communists to do?

I am somewhat puzzled by your question. People chose FDR in the 1930s 
but I would have been with A.J. Muste or even the Trotskyists raising 
hell. Being a revolutionary means swimming against the stream. The big 
problem is that swimming against the stream ideologically has often 
meant descending into sect and cult habits. I have spent the better part 
of 20 years trying to fight these habits, but I will never budge an inch 
on principle.