> Doug:
>
> > today weren't vasly different from the 1930s. The nostalgia behind
> > that call is testament to the fact that we don't really know what we
> > want.
>
> That is certainly part of the problem. Harvey argues that the key
> element of the success of the neo-liberal project was the ability
> of its spinmeisters to connect it to the concerns of the mainstream
> voters (personal freedom, anti-government attitude, cultural
> issues). Following that logic, the left would need to follow a
> similar path and have its spinmeisters connect its program to the
> concerns of the mainstream voters.
One of the neoliberal era's policy-making buzzwords has been fighting "corruption" and increasing "transparency." Usually, these terms are spun by the Right in the interest of fiscal austerity: fighting "corruption" and increasing "transparency" translates, in the hands of the Right, cutting spending (some of which used to go to segments of the popular classes in the forms of patronage jobs and social program benefits) and increasing international financial institutions' financial oversight.
What Chavez and Putin have done is to spin the rhetoric of fighting "corruption" and increasing "transparency" into the left direction (in the case of Putin, some may object to calling what he has done "left," but "left" after all is a relative term), taking control of flows of revenues from crucial national assets (most importantly oil) and collecting taxes more efficiently without going so far as to expropriate the expropriators. In addition, Chavez has spent what he has collected to fund precisely the sort of programs that "left neoliberals" (the well-meaning sort who do grunt work for the World Bank, etc. -- far below the top policy-making levels -- and come up with the idea of micro-loans, micro-enterprises, more spending for basic needs of the poor, etc.) actually recommend (I don't know how Putin has spent his surpluses).
I thought that it might be possible for Ahmadinejad to follow in the footsteps of Chavez and Putin concerning Iran's oil, but the man is having a devilish time getting his nominee for the oil ministry approved by the parliament. The Iranian parliament has already rejected his three previous nominees (who said that Ahmadinejad was an "establishment" candidate and favorite of the Guardian Council, who, backed by the conservative parliament, could do anything he wanted?), and he's struggling to get the fourth choice approved.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>