[lbo-talk] The Empire's Freedom

[Marvin Gandall]

> Marvin Gandall wrote:
>
>>winning these two fundamental democratic rights - to unionize and to vote
>
> In America, both those things are pretty fucked.
>
> Doug
--------------------------------
Sure, but not to the point that these rights - and the social benefits they
made possible - are no longer considered relevant to those in power or to
those who exercise them. The problem with rights of any kind is that they're
always in danger of being subverted if they're not built on. You can blame
the political and union leaders supported by working people for allowing and
even being complicit in the steady erosion of hard-won gains, but weak or
corrupt leadership, while a factor, is more an effect than a cause of an
adverse balance of forces rooted in changing historical circumstances. This
is worth emphasizing because where this is not acknowleged on the left,
along with the continuing importance of these reforms and need to defend
them, it usually results in fatalism or political behaviour which reinforces
political isolation. I don't include you in this group, BTW, to forestall
any possible misunderstanding.