Re: Comment by Andy Pollack on 'nationalize energy companies' call by Militant

[David Walters <dwalters@xxxxxxx>]

Generally I agree with what Andy says...but we don't always have the
ability to shape the demands, the movement does that for you. This was
the case 2 years ago in San Francisco... "Municipalization" was the
order of the day, not Nationalization. Workers control, as such, never
developed as a perspective except as an 'outside' demand of small left
groups...it was never considered germane to the issue of keeping union
jobs in the utility. The movement developed, in large part by the SF
left, was for straight up muncipalization of the grid and power plants
in SF...and end to dergulation.

But, nationally, the need to simply stop deregulation, and even for
re-regulation, is also on the order of the day, especially from the
unions point of view. It's the job of Marxists, I think, to see if we
can tie the overall unions' opposition to deregulation on a national
and regional basis to the community based movements for city takeovers
of the grid and power production facilities.

David