[lbo-talk] Antifa Critique of German "Left Party"

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Sep 23 08:09:00 PDT 2005


Angelus:
>>how Lefists should approach the state,

WS: Same as they should approach earthquakes and hurricanes - it is there and is not going away any time soon, so deal with it. I personally think that any idea that state can wither away is, at the minimum and exercise in idealist wishful thinking that totally ignores historical facts (i.e. that every human society of certain complexity has developed a state in one form or another), if not outright delusions. But that is just me.

As far as your comments re. foreign workers are concerned - there are several ways to address this issue. One is mindless populism of the either right-wing or left-wing variety i.e. bashing or, respectively, glamorizing foreigners that come to one's country. Personally, I think that either variant is bullshit aimed to produce emotional reaction but otherwise inconsequential. Another way is to address the material conditions that push people to seek menial work in other countries - which seem a more promising albeit long - term approach, but would requite serious rethinking of some of the populist tropes that are dear to the left.

So far, I do not think that the left has much to offer in this regard, at least on this side of the pond, aside sanctimonious preaching for the rights of the little guy, which seems rather easy to do from the heights of ivory towers. Again, the capital - proposing organized mechanisms for hiring foreign workers and investing overseas, which creates jobs - seems to be ahead of the left.

Wojtek



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