>Had the Labor Party acted more quickly and aggressively while the US
>economy was still in the middle of the boom, we might be facing a
>different political landscape today, but it's too late to mourn the
>missed opportunity. Whether we like it or not, we are in for hard
>times, perhaps even a hard landing. It's time for the Labor Party
>to reassess its strategy, confronting the reality of the empire, or
>else it will not have any political future.
The problem with this is that a party based on unions is a membership organization. A lot of rank and file unionists supported the war in Afghanistan. If you want to be democratic in your organization you have to reflect that. As Tony Mazzocchi used to point out, a lot of oil workers' contracts include the first day of hunting season as a holiday - so the LP was in no position to support gun control, as left-wing intellectuals and activists would tell them they should. So there are constraints on any reassessment of strategy or confrontation with the reality of empire.
Doug