Let me challange the great minds on this list to do something that would be useful, and yet I don't think would be contrary to the intent as expressed in the introduction.
Start with your own vision -- however vague of what kind of world you hope for. (I know many believe that too much specificity on this issue is wrongheaded, tyrannical and futile.) Specific or general whatever approach you like. It could be as simple as liberty, equality, solidarity, sustainablity.
What I would like you do is something much harder than a vision of the future. I want you to look at your vision, look at where we are now and use your creativity, your knowledge and your imagination to create a path that gets there from here. Assume your vision will win, and imagine yourself a historian fifty years from now explaining how your side won.
In short, I am asking you to use some of your intellect and energy developing a strategy manual for the marxist, or green or generally way left of liberal activist.
I know I'm requesting an act of altruism here. The first intelligent attempts at compliance with this request will probably end up facing harsh criticism. The submitters may even end up having to change their minds in public in response to such criticism. But it certainly would be an attempt to perform the reconciliations or synthesis Doug is seeking on this list.
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> >Many left-liberal activists are unfortunately 'reverse size queens'; they
> >love the idea of 'small is beautiful,' though there is no reason to think
> >that small is necessarily more democratic, ecologically sensible, etc.
>
> The smallbiz ideology also appeals to those who think themselves the
> "natural leaders" of oppressed groups - like urban community activists. New
> York City is full of community organizations from the 1960s and 1970s that
> have metamorphosed into junior partners of the real estate-finance
> consortium. The ideological parallel is the same stratum's self-perception
> as mentors or role models - e.g., as Adolph Reed points out, the black
> petty bourgeoisie, with its new fondness for a segregated world in which
> they were recognized as leaders.
>
> Doug