[Marxism] liberal forum on the economic crisis+

["Andrew Pollack" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

I just got back from a forum cosponsored by NY's Brecht Forum and The Nation,
entitled, "An Offer We Can't Refuse?: Progressives Respond to the Wall Street
Crisis: An Emergency Town Hall, featuring William Greider, Arun Gupta,
Doug Henwood,
Naomi Klein & Frances Fox Piven (details at
http://brechtforum.org/thenation). Truly
pathetic.
I went mostly to hand out Socialist Action flyers and talk to any good
folk who showed
up, and I wasn't expecting much from the speakers. But I was amazed at
how little impact
the crisis has had on any of these liberals.
Doug Henwood's answer to the question in the forum's title was, "No,
we can't refuse
the offer" [e.g. the Paulson Plan]. Otherwise the banks would collapse
and we'd have
another Great Depression. No doubt he would have told Fidel not to
expropriate the banks,
manufacturers, or landholders for fear of ruining the Cuban economy.
Arun Gupta did say we need to not be afraid to talk about organization
and ideology even
if it leads to disagreement -- but wouldn't say what he meant by
either of those. Which
is in keeping with the famous email he sent which sparked the
emergency antibailout
protest of a few hundred, which explicitly said there would be no
leaders, no agreed-upon
slogans, etc.
Naomi Klein said it's time to put pressure on Obama, starting with
dropping Robert Rubin
from his team of advisers.
The rest of their speeches, and of Greider and Piven, were similarly
unenlightening. When
the discussion period started the chair (some staffer from The Nation)
said he wanted to
call first on someone named Robert Johnson, whose credentials included
working for
Democrats on the Hill.
That's when I knew it was time to go.
Enough's enough. I respect all the speakers for the empirical evidence
they've put in
their writings that are extremely useful in understanding the people
and institutions at
the core of our system. But their lack of a socialist analysis is
really a barrier in
crucial times like these.

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