[lbo-talk] Beyond Obama

Julio Huato juliohuato at gmail.com
Sat Jul 25 21:11:34 PDT 2009


DRR wrote:


> 1. Decolonization starts at home. Teach the history
> of the US Empire, why it emerged, why it failed
> (lots of helpful Soviet parallels here), and most
> importantly, the long and glorious history of anti-
> Imperial resistance movements.

Probably at home is where decolonization ends. But, regardless, you're right this is an important propagandistic work.


> 2. Learn from the semi-periphery. Engage with its
> authors, writers, thinkers, mass media. When you look
> closely, the US has an overdeveloped veneer of shiny,
> expensive Imperial politics, but its actual social
> structures are those of a heavily capitalized
> semi-periphery. (A kind of credit card corporatism, as
> it were... only now the credit cards are being taken
> away for good.)

Agree with the first sentence. Not entirely sure that the second one is a fair characterization of U.S. society or economy.


> 3. Keep fighting the local and especially state-level
> battles. Don't even bother bemoaning the military-
> industrial sins of the Federal superstate -- its wars
> are failures, and every day, it gets deeper on the
> hook to foreign creditors. More importantly, Asiazilla,
> Bolivarzilla and Bearzilla will make sure there is no
> return to the unipolar world. But the US states are the
> size of entire countries, and have quite a bit of power.

Yes, local and state-level struggles are important. But I don't see how one can or why one should stay away from the struggles at the national level.

The mass opposition against the invasion and occupation of Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan are, IMO, the embryos of a popular movement aimed at radically reforming U.S. foreign policy. In the long run, I don't think that this embryonic movement can be successfully diverted or dissolved by means of political or ideological manouvering, for as long as its demands (out of Iraq and Afghanistan) are not met and repression doesn't crush it.

The movement for universal health care, also national, has shown to be very potent as well. It's essentially a movement for the economic security of working people, a radical need, a condition inimical to capitalism, which is premised on the powerlessness and fragmentation of workers. Again, short of its mechanical suppression and/or the satisfaction of its demands, this movement is set to continue.

Basically, crowds in political motion will tell what to focus on.

And, I agree, the "developmental states" in the "periphery" are (in one sense) part of the solution. Although they also pose new problems, local and global. I mean, for socialism.

Thanks for the reply.



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