so, by 'substantiation', you understand the assertion 'it's obvious'?
> [mbs] NOWHERE can you find me claiming that migration is
> 'responsible' for the decline in bargaining power.
is that so? the above sentence looks uncannily like a theory of causation to me.
>It
> could be a factor, and in principle it certainly should
> be.
whether you're claiming it's one factor amongst others, 'could be' a factor amongst others, and -- more to the point -- insist that "in principle" "should be" a factor, all amounts to a claim about causation, liability, in other words, 'responsibility'. still, though, you haven't substantiated any of this.
> Your terminology of "align with the right" is a little
> loose. I was more precise about what, how, and when.
> Fact is right now the anti-global right and left are
> both dwarfed by forces of neo-liberalism. So tactical
> coordination is essential.
i understand alliance as an alliance, your previous words were "block with". doesn't tactical co-ordination assume an alliance?
> This speaks to a more general fussiness that I can see
> from pro-trade lefts. Other people get upset about some
> babble from Hoffa Junior and other politically incorrect
> statements from workers. One of the first debates I got
> into on PEN-L was about the issue of dishonesty in politics.
> Assorted lefts voiced concerns. I was pretty surprized
> as a newcomer. There seems to be a strong Boy Scout
> factor among academic lefts -- a wish for progressive
> politics to be more beautiful and enobling than it is
> reasonable to expect. Call it the no-omelette,
> sunny-side up position.
save the anti-pc, anti-academic rave for someone who might be impressed by it, namely those academics who flip-flop between veneration of the working class and hatred for 'them'. i've no illusions about workers, and even less about left politics -- and even fewer about the ideological inflections of social democrats. first, you're advocating an alliance (oh, tactical co-ordination) with right wing organisations and officials, so you can forget the spin about "politically incorrect statements from workers". second, you're assuming a strategy which excludes those workers whom the buchananite vision implicitly and explicitly derides and degrades.
Angela _________