andie nachgeborenen:
> The distance between what it is like here for an
> ordinary middle class American and what it's like
> for Germans or any citizens of the richer European
> countries is as great as between your condition and
> socialist revolution.
But that's the key phrase isn't it: Germans or any *citizens* of the richer European countries.
The gulf between what it is like for German or European *citizens* and what it is like for the non-citizens of those countries is just as vast as any that you describe.
Any concrete improvement of living standards on this basis is privilege and exclusion, and not emancipatory in content.
That is why, despite some of the horrifying shit being said on this very list regarding immigrants, the demand for open borders and freedom of movement is a minimum consense position for the left. Any movement which rejects this is not emancipatory in content, and does not deserve any political support.
And this is why Fortress Europe does not deserve any political support. It is one thing for Yoshie and Carrol to advocate *taking advantage* of fissures between Fortress Europe and the American hegemon. I have my doubts about the efficacy of such a strategy, but that is different than calling for support for the EU states (and BTW, I apologize for wrongly attributing that position to you. I didn't realize you were engaging in abstract considerations from that perspective rather than advocating for it).
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