Opening Borders

[Henry C.K. Liu]

It seems to me that at this moment in history "the left" suffers not from lack
of progressive ideas or revolutionary enthusiasm, at least not in comparison to
"the reactionary right".
The left's weakness rests on the unhappy fact that it possesses less
institutionalized power than it deserves after more than a century of
ascendancy.
While the right now is confident enough to acknowledge openly that its programs
and institutions are far from perfect solutions, it makes the unjustified claim
that theirs are the only or at least best alternatives.
The right, by winning the Cold War, have assumed full control of most of the
world's institutions and governments for more than a decade.  Such victory did
not come from moral or utilitarian persuasion.  It came instead from the
persistent exercise of naked power.  The end of the Cold War did not prove the
deficiency of socialism.  It did prove the errors and incompetence of the
leaders of socialism in one phase of history.
The struggle against Monarchism went on for centuries with many failed
battles.  The struggle against political imperialism went on for two centuries
also with countless failed battles.
The struggle against capitalistic economic imperialism can be expected to be
equally difficult and protracted.
What the left needs to do at this moment is to concentrate on a struggle to
capture as many institutions and governments as possible, exploiting the
inhernet weakness of a system based on exploitation, employing different
strategies and tactics in different existing contexts, in democratic countries
through elections, and in countries under the dictatorship of the proletariat
through the revitalization of revolutioanry ideology.
The global situation now has similarities to 1848, 1917 and 1929, in that a
systemic breakdown of the powerful established order is imminent amid
widespread complacency.  The end of the Cold War is not the beginning of the
Golden Age of global capitalism.  Capitalism has not been able to provide
solutions to former mismanaged socialist economies or other emerging
economies.  Disillusionment is everywhere.
The left has lost its regular army and organized leadership, but its soldiers
are everywhere ready for guerrilla warfare.  The final battle is still ahead.
History has not died.

Henry

Carrol Cox wrote:


> Doug wrote:
> >I think the best thing the U.S. left could do for the rest of the world
> >would be somehow, magically, to weaken the imperial might of the
> >United States.
>
> Doug is much too modest. The *only* thing that the U.S. left can
> do for the rest of the world is struggle to weaken U.S. imperial
> might  -- this is not in question. What is  in question is how "the
> left" comes into existence at any given moment, and how it gathers
> about it or participates in the formation of the more massive popular
> forces necessary to make such an impact possible.
>
> At the present there is no "left" in any sense that can give content to
> the phrase, "the left" but only scattered individuals and collections
> of individuals who more or less self-consciously aim at becoming
> part of "the left" -- i.e., in participating in the creation of "the left."
>
> May I also suggest that among that inchoate left defined by acceptance
> of Doug's point this is no time for extraneous quarrels, personal or
> political -- or at least such quarrels must somehow become secondary
> to resisting this latest outrage from our imperial masters.
>
> Carrol