>In Europe at least the championing of the interests of small
>shopkeepers against the big department stores was traditionally
>the provence of the political right. In Germany, the Nazis made
>a campaign issue out of the threat that the department stores
>posed to small shopkeepers (and they made use of the fact that
>some of the department stores were Jewish-owned to play
>the anti-Semitic card as well).
I'm rushing to finish an LBO, so I don't have too much time to get into this, except to erupt:
Is the only choice Wal-Marts or the petit bourgeoisie? Really? Is the True Marxist Position to cheer on the heirs of Sam Walton? Has what Marx called the civilizing power of capital been reduced to big retail boxes surrounded by parking lots? There's nothing progressive about that - it's fragmenting, alienating, exploitative, and ecocidal. It's barbarism in overdrive, and the hell with it, I say.
Doug