Re: Shiller on housing bubble

[sam gindin <sgindin@xxxxxxxx>]

I agree the opportunity is there - neoliberalism has now been around enough to be exposed. But two inter-related problems. First, and most obviously, the absence of a left organizational form that can take advantage of this. Second, that in the absence of such a left and collective responses, workers survive by moving to individual responses rather than collective struggles that end up further fragmenting the class and actually reinforcing neoliberalism (work nore hours, go into more debt, concede a little more to protect what you have, look to lower taxes since you're not getting much for what you pay, look to mutual funds since it looks like social security might be eroded, etc). And the growing stratification of the class marginalizes those doing the worst while often making those better off 'grateful' for what they have. None of this inevitable, but neither is it inevitable that the emerging/potential anger and frustration Louie rightly raises will take a progressive form or will necessarily controbute to building some future working class capacities. I'm not saying to add to our collective despondency but to emphasize the need to figure out what-must-be-done at this moment.

As for the Socialist Register, your point about paying more attention to struggles elsewhere,(a point you raised in your generally sympathetic review of SR earlier) is fair enough. You are certainly right to raise the importance of something specifically on Venezuela and Bolivia.  What is unfair, however, is to imply that SR is  completely ignoring this.  Aside from the fact that the issues on imperialism are clearly meant to be of relevance to those struggles (and, in fact , the last issue of SR was translated into Spanish with the first run selling out surprisingly fast) note that over the past five years, SR has also included: 4 articles on the struggles going on in Latin America; 3 each on struggles within India, Africa, and the Mid-East   (including in both the formal anf informal sectors);  4 articles addressing forced migration and the impact of immigration; and articles on the struggles in Chiapas, the working class in Russia, the general relationship between workers in the north and south, the tenuous borders  between 'peasants' and the working class.

 

Original Message-----
From: PEN-L list [mailto:PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Louis Proyect
Sent: June 18, 2005 9:13 AM
To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Shiller on housing bubble

Sam Gindin wrote:
>When the housing bubble bursts, there will be some pain, unevenly felt
>(some may even find they can afford the lower price of home) and there
>will be some 'adjustments' in the economy, some perhaps quite
>stabilizing (though this too will lead to some responses from the fed
>to ameliorate, to the extent it can, the depth of the crisis. But what
>more are people expecting than a semi-crash or a recession? Are people
>on the left arguing that a serious economic collapse and turning point
>in capitalism is imminent (Or only that we're in for a roller-coaster of a ride and some retructuring)?
>That a new movement will emerge out of this (rather than a working
>class intent to just get back to 'the good-old days' even if it means
>some concessions)?

I would maintain that the lingering impact of other economic strains (crisis is an overused word) are already having a significant political impact even if something like the Million Worker March was a bust (for reasons having as much to do with the inexperience of the organizers.) The growing unwillingness of American workers to put up with the war in Iraq is being fueled in my opinion by economic pain which did not exist in the Vietnam period. A couple of months ago I filled up the tank of the rented car I was returning to NYC from upstate NY and was shocked to see that I had to pay $28 for a fill-up. There is nothing that will hasten alienation more from a government in the USA than this sort of thing. When those mortgage payments are doubled after the interest portion is paid off, the alienation will increase dramatically. Can you imagine what some working class stiff will feel like after he has to commute from the hinterlands of New Jersey or Pennsylvania to his job in Brooklyn with $3 per gallon gasoline and monthly mortgage payments that have doubled? And with a government that is awash in corruption, greed and hatred toward working people? And that has no problem spending billions in an endless war in Iraq? And that has no opposition from the Democrats? This is a political environment that favors radical opposition. And if they reinstitute the draft, the shit will really hit the fan.

>My own take is that in the absence of a working class already strong
>enough to limit the options facing capital and the state, the crisis
>will be limited...

There is such a working class, however. It is in Venezuela, Bolivia and elsewhere. It is singularly unfortunate that it tends to escape the attention of your colleagues at Socialist Register.