[lbo-talk] Hardt clarifies

[Doug Henwood]

[I asked Michael Hardt to clarify the "new Magna Carta" piece he & 
Negri wrote for the World Economic Forum's magazine 
<http://www.globalagendamagazine.com/2004/antonionegri.asp> - 
specifically, whether it's "descriptive or prescriptive." Here's his 
response.]

It is prescriptive.  (They asked us to write something and we tried 
to make a suggestion they could understand.)  But the prescription is 
not only for the WEF participants (EU included) to rethink and 
question their alliances with W.  The two specific suggestions at the 
end of the piece are to look for guidance to the aristocracies of the 
South, such as Lula and the group of 22, and to look to the movements 
for guidance.  Sticking with your EU example, that is to say that a 
EU oriented toward the movements is better than an EU oriented 
towards the US and the capitalist corporations.

Anyway not a very revolutionary message, but a simple one that we 
thought they could understand and one that could aid the movements 
and the other anti-capitalist struggles.  Something like a 
Machiavellian moment, advising the powerful that their only 
alternative is really to do what makes us much more powerful.

Hope that makes sense.  Seems rather simple to me.