France: Strikes, Protests Mount vs. Austerity Measures

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Doug:
> This is related to the point I was making about Reagan recently - 
> that he projected optimism and possiblity. But everyone said this 
> wasn't true, he was really a prick. He led the right's appropriation 
> of traditionally left discourse about revolution, and rendered labor 
> and the left looking like tired defenders of the status quo. People 
> still don't seem to appreciate how successful this was.

 

I did appreciate your observation (not for the first time).
Unofrtunately, such opinions fall on deaf ears.  Much of the the left
seem to be unable to overcome the received wisdom, mythology, ands
stategies.  A good example is what just read in the Nation (forgot's the
author;s name) - advocating the Vietnam -era stategies.  Today we face a
very different reality, and very different social situation, yet what
some folks on the left are still fighting the old battles.  

The opening from Marx's  _18th brummaire_ comes to mind: "History
repeats itself, as it were, twice - first time as tragedy the second
time as farce.  Both, Reagan/Bush claims to the values of social justice
and the left fighting the wars from the 1960s are, unfortuanately, a
farce.

Wojtek