Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> >Nathan is legally and probably politically correct,
> >but this would be class war -- and if there were a
> >strike like that here it would be class war -- and the
> >working class response would have to be escalate.
>
> Short of that, is there nothing we can learn from France? I find that
> very hard to believe.
Not at this time. The French events take place in a specific set of conditions, conditions with deep historical roots. Before 'we' can learn from the French we have to have gone through a historical process that creates analogous conditions here.
What we have to think out or gain from experience now are the modes of current practice in current conditions which can move us towards such preconditions. The fundamental source of Nathan's aggressively reactionary politics is that he cannot think outside of current conditions; he can't even in fancy imagine different condtions under which current limitations on working-class action would be eliminated (or for that matter, and perhaps equally likely) even stronger than now.
What if "we" did so and so now is an empty, even a foolish, question if "so & so" is only practical under radically different conditions brought about in ways which cannot be predicted.
Carrol