[lbo-talk] Taibbi (was Re: Fwd: Antioch College Closing!)

ravi ravi at platosbeard.org
Fri Jun 15 13:56:07 PDT 2007


On 15 Jun, 2007, at 1:29 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Jun 15, 2007, at 12:19 PM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
>> How about: (1) universal and affordable health care, (2) guaranteed
>> living
>> wage jobs for everyone, (3) elimination of poverty and cultural
>> dysfunctions
>> it creates, (4) equal educational opportunity for everyone, (5)
>> proportional
>> political representation free of corruption and monied interests
>> (public
>> funding of election), (6) clean environment for everyone and
>> rational use of
>> natural resources, (7) humane treatment of animals, (8) safe an
>> nurturing
>> community for everyone, (9) freedom to enter the relationship of
>> one's
>> choice regardless of sexual orientation, and (10) foreign policy
>> based on
>> détente, peace, open borders, internationalism and respect for the
>> universal
>> human rights.
>
> This is a good list, but it's hardly original, you know. The labor
> movement and much of the "respectable" left has been pushing for much/
> most of this for a long time. Haven't you noticed?
>

I am not sure I have, unless we have different ideas of what labor [sic] movement means. Which is possible. I look at organised labour and I do not see any great enthusiasm for many of the projects above, including my "pet cause" (i.e., no pets ;-)) expressed as (7) above. IIRC it wasn't till very recently that US organised labour changed its mind on immigrants. The CWA (there's a union for you!) still make thinly veiled racist comments about the "quality" of workers in other parts of the world (to whom they lost their job, suddenly awakening their class consciousness).

Re: pet issues and the Taibbi post: I too found a lot of things to criticise about Taibbi's article, but I do think he is right about the left position becoming the sum of a few chosen "issues". By left I mean of course liberals, progressives and the blogosphere -- i.e., people left of Rudy Giuliani with enough numbers and energy to make a difference; not 150-odd die hards on mailing lists and such. Taibbi laments that these issue goals obscure fundamental and structural analysis and struggle. I would say that it creates a low-hanging fruit mentality. Much of the liberal blogosphere has a carefully crafted position where certain things are better off not said. For Taibbi and much of the hard-core Western Left this fundamental analysis and struggle is one of class. For non-Western leftists like me it is one of humanism....

... I guess what I am trying to say is that at the end of the day, I greatly appreciate Woj's presence on this list, despite my own outbursts when his cynical eye turns on my pet causes.

--ravi



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