I have to say that what Patrick describes and reproduces here
>a radical critique of capitalist
>> >crisis joined by a completely mealy-mouthed position
Is all too familiar a combination these days.
I've just been reading the report of the British Government's Social Exclusion Unit, drafted by one-time Stalinist and now Blair advisor Geoff Mulgan. What is remarkable is that this govt. document is so explicit about the problems of social division and poverty. But its policy recommendations are so universally reactionary, from workfare to new policing measures etc etc.
As a left-wing activist I can remember spending a lot of energy trying to knock the prejudice that capitalism is self-righting mechanism that leads to growth and prosperity.
Reading the key governmental and capitalist thinkers these day I begin to think I was wasting my time. Every government minister, conservative ideologue and city advisor is queuing up to denounce the market as a destructive and inhumane system.
>From Tony Blair to John Gray to George Soros - everyone is peddling doom
and despondency. The funny thing is that none of these Jeremiahs draw
any positive conclusions from their negative assessments of the market
system. Instead they all say that what we need is more regulation of
markets and more repression of the 'criminal elements'.
It seems that there are no necessarily progressive conclusions to be drawn from an acknowledgement of social problems - not without a critical left to push the point. Perhaps it is because they are under no pressure that so many establishment figures feel relaxed about talking about how terrible things are. After all, such problems can be used to justify there social conservatism as the solution to such problems, instead of a more radical solution. -- Jim heartfield