PEN-L bear watch

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 21/09/01 12:45 -0400, Doug wrote:

> Ok, we're on the PEN-L bear watch again. What do you think we should do if
> the market keeps falling? Just what does it mean that it does? If it means
> a very bad economy ahead, what does that mean? Right now you're sounding
> like the color guy in the ICU, and not much else.

Fair question, but I think there is a specific and a general answer to this.

Specific comment is that the attempts to talk up the markets, whether by
Bush or Greenspan, are now virtually useless. This is of theoretical
interest to left wing students of political economy who believe that
markets are shaped by internal laws and contradictions, independent of
individual human will.

General and more important answer: at times of recession the bargaining
position of labour is weakened, but the opportunities for progressing
political arguments for radical changes, if not revolutionary ones, are
substantially strengthened.

But I think Doug has an important point if the overall effect of inevitably
brief comments is merely to appear to gloat. That can only be answered if
the left wing critics of capitalism increasingly step forward with active
proposals and leadership for an alternative system.

And that means grasping the agenda of radical reforms., differentiating
ourselves from rightist tendencies that say everything is impossible, and
from leftist tendencies, that say anything short of immediate revolution is
too Bernsteinist even to discuss.

Chris Burford

London