[lbo-talk] they need us - where are we?

[Philip Pilkington]

>
> Doug,
>
> I think you're one of the most respectable leftists I've come across...
> which is saying a lot... most talk rubbish.
>
> However, I really think we're in a situation where something really needs
> to be done. I mean I'm not saying that X, Y and Z is the key to Communist
> utopia, but most of the Western world seems to me to be in a very precarious
> position at the moment. I'm not saying that we should fire-bomb our local
> bank, but I think that we on the Left have a lot to offer in the way of
> policy advice.
>
> I don't know how we put this forward exactly, but as far as I can see its
> VERY necessarily. This is urgent.
>
>
Sorry, I was being polemicsl...

On second thought I do think that something can be put forward. At least for
Ireland - and possibly any other minor economic power. I think that we can
focus on incubating our own economic base to the precepts of the global
economic order as opposed to trying to attract investment. We can make our
infrastructure more attractive to global investment.

In fact I think that this is the conclusion that our (i.e. small
governments) will come to in the next few decades. And, weirdly, will prove
to be more "competitive" than anything Thatcher/Reagan put forward in terms
of nation states.

And, hopefully, without a hegemonic investment system/dollar hegemony these
should be able to prosper.

Now, if we think of this from a different perspective - I was going
neo-classical above - we have to consider the class relations within these
countries and how they could convert them from within.

That's my politics for now!