[lbo-talk] dev'ts in world economy and foreign ownership

[Carrol Cox]

I've got a bunch of posts saved in Word files. Positive Solutions.
Complexity. Repair Damage. Parenti interviews with Iraqis ("Christian
said that one of the few seriously left secular parties wants the US
out, but the UN in. Why isn't that good enough for you? You know
better?") Iraqi opinion polls. Chaos if 'we' leave. Open to better
suggestions (that one sounds like the President was posting LBO). "Get
the electricity and water running in Iraq."

I myself wrote:

<Nothing __NOTHING whatever_ that might be done or said within the
struggle to build a mass movement at this time will have any effect
whatever, absolutely no effect whatever, on whether or not the
electricity and water start running again in Iraq in the next six to
twelve months. 

Anything that leftists can do or say at the present time can conceivably
actually change public policy only in (say) 2005 at the earliest.> (This
was in late August of 2003. You can look the discussions up under the
subject line, "Baghdad: 35 Murders A Day")

Obviously I was overoptimistic. But not wholly. For the first years (and
this will continue to be the case until 2009 at the earliest) the real
goal of the anti-war movement is simply to consolidate itself, recruit
new members, gain experience, be visible. Affect people now, only in the
future affect the State.

Moral: Leftists must focus on the agitational needs of (nascent) mass
movements, not on giving advice to the President. And the only possible
organizing slogan in either October 2001 or March 2003 was "Troops Out
Now!" Everything else is for high-school debate contests. Sandbox
Politics.

Carrol