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The failures of the American (sc. anti-capitalist) left have not
been so egregious as those of the American liberals. After all, the
paladin of the latter turned out to be a worse war-monger than his
rightist predecessor. <br>
<br>
The nomenclature in use since 1793 is that Left means tending
democratic and Right means tending authoritarian, the terms being
applied to both the economy and the polity. Thus the title of the
article has a double meaning - "What remains of the Left?" and "What
is more democratic than the Left?" <br>
<br>
The answer to the second question is Libertarian Socialism, which
has contrasted with the traditional Left since before Lenin attacked
it in "'Left-Wing' Communism: An Infantile Disorder" (1920). Today
it is particularly the politics associated with Noam Chomsky, who
wrote in 1970, "I think that the libertarian socialist concepts -
and by that I mean a range of thinking that extends from left-wing
Marxism through anarchism - are fundamentally correct and that they
are the proper and natural extension of classical liberalism into
the era of advanced industrial society." ("Libertarian" in
Chomsky's sense must be distinguished from the later - and
exclusively American - usage, where it means something like
anarcho-capitalism.)<br>
<br>
I'm not so sanguine as Wolff about prospects for the American Left,
but I am sure that it can revive only in conjunction with people who
consider themselves on the Right - notably Libertarians like Ron
Paul. Opposition to the mainstream of US politics - the two
business parties - is indeed growing on both the Left and Right, but
probably faster on the Right. On immediate questions, elements of
the American Right (the paleo-conservatives) have been more
consistent principled opponents of the Long War in the Middle East
than the Left (and certainly more than the Liberals, who often
joined the neo-conservatives to support it: John McCain has praised
Obama for doing what he would have done in the Mideast war). <br>
<br>
Libertarians also oppose the financialization of the economy over
the last 30 years - Rep. Paul has been a lonely voice calling for an
audit of the Federal Reserve System. And they condemn the intense
concentration of wealth in the US over the same period. They
rightly recognize the federal government as the source of these
developments but think that they can be reversed simply by removing
the federal government from the scene of the crime. Again, too
sanguine: democratic control over the economy must replace the
present control by an economic elite working through the federal
government. <br>
<br>
<br>
On 3/14/11 9:28 AM, David Green wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:927735.26063.qm@web65415.mail.ac4.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
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<div>That combination of rising <strong>youthful passion</strong>
and political experience with mass radical action represents a
<strong>potent mass base</strong> for a new US left political
formation to emerge.
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Organization is what the US left lacks.</strong>
Not issues, not members, not a wide public audience: the US
left now has all of them in abundance. Indeed, the economic
crisis that exploded in 2008 – now becoming a social crisis
because the "recovery" bypassed the majority that needed it
most – has only enhanced that abundance. Yet, a deeply
rooted and continuously nurtured aversion to unified
organization undermines the US left's social influence and
collective action at every turn. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/14-2">http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/14-2</a></p>
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<br>
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