[Pen-l] Is there a mass move to the left now ?

["Charles Brown" <charlesb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 1:45 PM, Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> I don't see a real mass movement existing at this point that would
> pressure Obama to shift to the left to counteract the main rip-tide
> which is pulling him to the right.

Thanks, Jim, that's exactly what I don't see. And it's exactly why I
see it as the task of the left to build a mass movement that will
pressure Obama to shift left.


-- 
Sandwichman

^^^
CB: I think the whole political spectrum is being shifted to the left. There is a big left movement of many working class folks on several issues. There is still enormous grassroots outrage at the banks getting a huge gift of taxpayers' money without them getting grilled like people who are late on their loans are. "Average" people are calling up on C-Span, speaking out on daily newspaper comment sections, and otherwise.  Bourgeois newspaper editorial boards are angry about it. Right wingers in Congress reflected the rightwing populist sentiment against in their vote against the first bailout bill. This is without mentioning the left and center mass bases. I'm not saying these people have become left, I'm saying their position in the concrete situation is objectively left. And I'm not primarily talking about the Obama campaign.

McCain was pushed to the "left" in the campaign. The overwhelming majority  anti-Bush sentiment and anti-war sentiment is a mass shift to the left. It is not a "movement' like a street demonstrating movement from the sixties, but it is a movement of the mass political spectrum to the left in the last several years, and the economic crisis and giveaway to the banks has accelerated it.



This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com
_______________________________________________
pen-l mailing list
pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l