SPAM: Re: [Marxism] The Dead End of Anybody But Bush

[Intense Red <intnsred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 > Out of 300 million in the u.s., only a few thousand are, even in
 > principle, "fighting capitalism."

   I don't buy that line, it's bogus.  It depends on your definition of
"fighting capitalism."

   I have one distant relative, typical conservative "hick" from rural New
England, someone who constantly complains about taxes, the gov't,
homosexuals, you name it.  He's the ideal target for the Republicans'
propaganda and divide and conquer tactics.  I was thoroughly shocked the
other day when someone mentioned Wal-Mart and he bluntly replied, "You lose a
little bit of your soul every time you shop there."

   I know lots of people who refuse to shop at chain stores unless they really
have to.  They instead shop at the local mom-and-pop stores in the small
towns of northern New England where I live.  They know it costs more money,
but they do the act deliberately.

   You can't tell me that those people are not resisting capitalism.  They
are.  They do not have a full Marxist view of capitalism, but they know
something's wrong.  They're resisting capitalism in the few ways they know
how.

   The problem is that these people are unorganized.  There is no party that
addresses their concerns or who speaks to their problems.  They see the
"left" as focusing on divisive social issues rather than bread and butter
issues: economic issues, corporate domination, and gov't corruption and
programs that aren't really meant to help them.

   There are millions who would rally behind a politician who focuses as
her/his core the important issues: job stability, fair trade, reigning in
corporations, health care, and taxing the rich and corporations.  The country
would welcome with open arms a new "fair deal" or "four freedoms" campaign.
Put in a "share the work" plank about lowering the workweek to 30 or 35 hours
and millions would cheer you.  A semi-popular based campaign focused on those
issues could then move gently into the more divisive issues of the culture
wars.

   The millions that voted for Ross Perot are still out here, and they're more
pissed than ever.  They just need organizing.

--
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies,
in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who
are cold and are not clothed." -- US President Dwight D. Eisenhower


_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism