re: no retreat from Doha

[jdevine@xxxxxxx]

Sabri quotes:> "September 11 and its aftermath have starkly exposed what was the glaring weakness of the movement all along. Its analysis focussed on the dwindling power of the state and overweening corporate power. Its disregard for the state was such that it had no strategy for achieving the political power necessary to deliver its aims, and fell back on subverting the state by declaring it impotent. All that looks a bit threadbare now in the midst of war, as the state re-emerges as hugely important in delivering that most basic of its functions - security. Patriotism has re-appeared as a powerful force, clawing in unprecedented poll ratings for Bush and Blair. Nearly every day, we hear of the state granting itself more power - trampling on civil liberties and over financial privacy, and even broaching the question of higher taxation. The anti-corporate movement can no longer convincingly bemoan that the governments of western democracies are simply puppets of corporate in!
terests. It has to revise its analysis of political power and develop its own understanding of how to achieve it."<

I don't think that the national state had really faded away. Capitalism needs the state -- it could not exist without it, since capitalist property rights  have to be defended -- and there's not really a global state to replace it. The US is trying to establish the latter in its own image, but has succeeded yet. In fact, the war is part of that effort. (BTW, we won't be able to talk about truly "global" capitalism until there's a global state. But we can still talk about "globalization," though that's a vague and often misleading buzz-word for other reasons.)

When people talked about the "dwindling power of the state," I think what they meant in practice is the dwindling of the space for social-democratic (or US-brand liberal) reform. If this is what they meant, it's quite possible for the state to grant itself more power ("trampling on civil liberties and over financial privacy, and even broaching the question of higher taxation") without negating what people said. In fact, my impression is that the reassertion of power is almost entirely in the regressive vein.

and says:
>... as we used to say back in the good old days of J18,
>
> In solidarity,

what is "J18"?

in international solidarity,
Jim Devine

PS: didn't the pen-l server used to be called "anthrax"?


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