[Marxism] Marxist responses to (was liberal forum on) the economic crisis

["Andrew Pollack" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

I very much appreciated Jon and Ivan's contributions to this thread.
As a piece of propaganda (many ideas to a few people), I think the
Action Program covers much crucial ground -- but I realize now we
should have taken out the agitational exclamation points and made the
hortatory sentences into explanatory ones so it was clear this is what
it was (and in fact even before Jon's comments we were refining and
shortening it for agitational purposes).
And I like how Jon has crystallized the main demands and the tasks
flowing from them (this, after all, is why at the end of the Program
we ask for feedback).
Ivan's concerns are all valid and important. Lord knows I am not
looking forward at all to the misery that is coming soon and hard to
myself, my coworkers, to friends and relatives, to the class as a
whole. Nor am I happy with the organizational and political state with
which the class walks into this crisis -- and even if its leading
sections were better prepared, the class would go through in the first
few years of the crisis what it always encounters: a long lag while
the vast bulk of the class focuses, understandably, on
self-preservation, and is hamstrung by fear. There will be important
exceptions, of course, e.g. strikes almost certainly doomed to defeat
which nonetheless will be crucial to be part of and organize support
for. And the local organizing efforts that Jon points to, eventually
merged into national efforts, are designed precisely to shorten that
inevitable lag period.
Finally, Ivan's right about there being many good people who always
come to the Brecht, and I'm sure I'll have good talks with them about
all this.
Andy P.

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