Re: Re: Harry Magdoff on market socialism

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

> Socialism (of any kind) is not in the cards in rich nations like the
> USA, Japan, & Western Europe right now.  Otherwise, why would Lou,
> for instance, write a series of long posts on Ralph Nader???  Cuban
> socialism can only take place under conditions nearly identical to
> Cuba's, history doesn't repeat itself, so we can't think in terms of
> "models."

Which is why I said that off-the-shelf models are useless -
intellectually amusing, maybe, but politically useless - and that you
have to proceed by bending and transforming what exists. So I'm for
really boring stuff like strong, militant unions; a minimum income;
national health insurance; free child care; free K-PhD education; a
higher minimum wage; serious alternative energy research; steeply
progressive income and wealth taxes; more worker control; shorter
workdays and longer vacations; ...

There's a lot to admire about Cuba. If I were Haitian, it would look
like paradise. But it's a small, poor, barely industrialized country
(though with a growing dollar sector). I really don't think it has
much relevance to First World leftists, except as a place to
compensate psychologically for their own political weakness at home.

Doug