AFL-CIO/DP?

[Rakesh Bhandari]

Let's say that identity politics is irrelevant to the Betty Dumas and her
comrades in the American working class. But let's be clear: that doesn't
then make the AFL-CIO  and the Democratic Party the  vehicles of their
emancipation.  Going on and on about the collapse of the left into identity
politics and thirdworldism and about the nastiness of Republicans only
enables the conscious and non conscious spokespersons here for those two
bureaucracies from facing their real problems and limits.

Now a leading researcher for the AFL-CIO has outlined a structural
Keynesian program that he wants the Democratic Party to implement. I
believe his name is Thomas Palley, and the book is titled something like
Getting Nothing Plenty from Princeton University Press (1998--it's $26, so
I haven't bought it yet). It's not like Palley is Rudolf Hilferding, an
actual Finance Minister with his fingers on the switches of power. This may
or may not be a good thing. But he's got a program to recommend.

 I was wondering whether  Palley's post-Keynesian ideas are what Max, Brad,
Nathan here think the left should be organizing to implement and whether
they think find it realistic that such policy could indeed be implemented.
>From the back cover, I noted that William Greider, James Galbraith
(postKeynesian economist), Michael Hout (an author of the Bell Curve
Critique done by the Berkeley Sociology Dept) and others are quite high
about Palley's ideas. I didn't notice Doug's name.
best, rb