Re: [Marxism] liberal forum on the economic crisis

[Jon Flanders <jonflanders@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2008-10-10 at 21:43 -0400, Andrew Pollack wrote:
> 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.

I agree that the liberal left has solutions, such as they are that fall
short. No question about it.

But when I looked over the SA proposal, I didn't feel that it hit the
mark either. Not because it didn't say all or much of the things that
need to be said. I cringed a bit when I read it because it came off to
me as a way too lengthy piece of marxist boilerplate. I couldn't imagine
the workers that I talk to every day managing to get through it.

So far, the sense I get of a starting point is pretty simple. Other
people have said it on this list. The workers shouldn't have to pay a
dime or suffer in any way because of this crisis.

Let the rich pay, through heavy taxation or confiscation of their ruined
properties.

A corollary to that is resistance to evictions and very soon layoffs.
This resistance will take place in neighborhoods and workplaces. We will
want to spread the word about any organized resistance, with the goal of
inspiring fresh pockets of the same.

I suppose demands to popularize might be No One Loses Their Home, No One
loses Their Job, to pay for sins of the rich.

Then the task would be to find ways to merge those battling eviction
with those fighting layoffs and wage cuts. 

I think that we should expect battles to start very much locally and
specifically. We won't be jumping to national "conferences of labor"
right now. It will be hard enough to get local unions to see that they
should support anti-eviction movements and the battles of other workers
around the crisis.

We are at the beginning of what may be a protracted "ground war". It
will take some time for the accumulated experiences of workers in this
war to jell  before the basis would exist to deal with what the SA is
proposing.

Jon Flanders










________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu