> On Thu, 27 Jul 2000, Seth Ackerman wrote:
>
> > Nathan Newman wrote:
> >
> > > Worse, the welfare states of Europe and folks in the US enjoy the
> standard
> > > of living we do to even attempt such self-payment only because of
> massive
> > > expropriate of the labor of third world workers producing consumer
> goods
> > > as sub-level wages. The goal of any real socialist or even social
> > > democratic moevment has to aim for expropriation of the income (at
> > > minimum) of the first world wealthy to pay not only for a welfare
> state
> > > here but for redistribution globally.
> > >
> > ---
> >
> > Nathan, you amaze me. Your political vision combines ever more
> grandiloquent
> > dreams of global socialism with fervent loyalty to a series of
> increasingly
> > centrist New Democrats.
> > Without global redistribution, you say there is no hope of socialism or
> even
> > social democracy. But the US government will not even allow third world
> > countries to voluntarily *withdraw* from the global system. Asking the
> US to
> > *fund* such a withdrawal is hilarious.
>
> Let's see- if "the US" won't do anything, ever, never, let's all go home,
> get some sleep and stop worrying about it. Of course, the point is that
> "the US" is not some monolith (even if capital power may have extreme
> dominance) so what we aim for is to change the balance of forces within
> the world economic and political systems, including within the US
> political system.
>
[...]
> Whenever I hear that this or that strategy "won't work" because the
> capitalists won't allow it, I have to ask, what strategy are you proposing
> that they won't stop?
>
---
You can build solidarity with people in the third world who want to withdraw from the current system and build their own, more humane one. (Renounce their debt, set up their own regional trade & financial systems, reorient toward domestic needs, etc.)
Then, when the US tries to send in the Marines, you can pour into the streets to try and stop it. You can try to *restrain* the imperialists in power instead of trying to encourage them to give more money to the third world.
But, Nathan, there's a risk involved. The commander-in-chief you're protesting against -- might be a Democrat!
Seth