[lbo-talk] An Open Letter to Lefty Friends, Colleagues and Bitter Foes Who're Disappointed by Obama

[Gar Lipow]

On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 8:52 AM, mart<media314159 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> i googled 'communist hypothesis'.   (it turns out this is the idea that the free market is not the only way society can be organized.    guess my only question on that might be if it can be  organized in a different (classless) way, will it still be carbon-based, or instead, silicon based (or something else))---maybe a techno fix is needed, because the effects of the carbon footprint extend beyond al gore's paycheck.
>
> while obama is not the m(a/e)ss(u/ia)h  the alternative proposed ('communist hypothesis'---ie a set of academic conferences for tenured white male radicals and cranks) might not be total liberation either.
>
>    http://www.nplusonemag.com/fifth-international

I'm going to reply, and obviously I speak for me, and not for Dwayne.
And that first sentence reveals our real weakness. The alternative to
speaking for Dwayne might be to speak for "us",  or to offer critical
support to an "us". But there is no "us". There is no organized left,
not even one that makes huge mistake, which one could support when
right and criticize when wrong but which we still try to build. And in
spite of Carrol's impossibility theorem, I think trying to create such
a movement has to be part of activism. While I would hate to see such
an attempt dominated by d conferences and gatherings, I think
conferences and gatherings should be part of such a movement. We have
had enough empty anti-intellectual attempts over the years. Also
conferences and gathering do have people at them. My view is anywhere
dozens or hundreds of people are together in opposition to capitalism
is an opportunity for movement building or movement creation.

So what should we try to create. Well I'd hope to see both a view and
a movement. I'd like to see a view that capitalism is the problem not
the solution, U.S. military power is the problem not the solution,
police power is the problem not the solutions, and markets on many
issues are the problem not the solution. I'd like to see a movement
that works on issues from this point. Probably a networks or coalition
rather than an organization.

The key would be a whatever that is not the captive of any one party
that is not part of the Democratic party and does not waste its energy
working within it, that is not an instrument of the the Green party,
that concentrates on issues rather than "electing good people".
Maybe such a group could get into electoral politics at some point,
but if so it should be when it is strong enough to have an effect on
electoral politics without devoting a substantial amount of its energy
to elections. Working for candidates can be endless time sink and
energy drain. The time to do something along those lines is if you are
such a big and powerful movement that you can elect and defeat
candidates as a tiny part of the work you are doing.