> CB: What Marxist Left's success in the past ?
Wojtek: The Russian revolution and the industrialization project that followed in half of the world - not perfect but much better than capitalist alternatives, not to mention of the status quo. Not a trivial feat - the pie-in-the-sky populists and capitalists detractors notwithstanding. The Soviet planned economy was a huge success, given what it tried to accomplish- i.e. to modernize backward economies in a half of the world without trampling the masses of laborers into mud while making a few rich.
^^^^^^ CB: Truly. Not to mention with the biggest warmachines in history attacking and threatening to attack THROUGHOUT.
^^^^^ There was a social cost, some of it avoidable some of it not - but I would argue that this cost was much lower than that of capitalist development in England or the US, when we add non-white populations of Africa, America and Asia to the equation.
And that the USSR did not "bury" the US? Why should such a foolish macho boasting be treated as a criterion? A better way to portray the "cold war" was a race between an athlete on a bicycle and a handicapped person on a wheel chair. Obviously, the guy on a bike finished ahead the guy on a wheel chair - but the guy on the wheel chair made it to the finish line, and that is a huge success. He accomplished that success thanks to his wheel chair. Without it, i.e. had he tried to ride a bike or go on foot instead he would not have gotten very far.
Then there is the popularity of Marxism all over the world - do you think that the plight of pampered (by global standards) German or US workers losing their a part of pensions will capture the world's imagination to the same degree?
^^^^^^ CB: Nope.
I'm trying to think more concretely about your idea
"to promote globalization, just as the capital does, but on alternative terms."
Lets say some U.S. trade union makes the breakthrough to this. What would be some more of the specifics of their international economic program ?