The Problem with Chomsky

rc-am rcollins at netlink.com.au
Mon Dec 20 05:30:39 PST 1999



> max can write, without offering any kind of substantiation as i asked,
"The
> elimination of limits to migration increases the bargaining power of
> capital relative to labor. Control of migration has the reverse effect.
> The latter should be our goal"
>
> [mbs] isn't this obvious? how could it be otherwise?

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 _________



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