[lbo-talk] Is WBAI worth saving?

Bhaskar Sunkara bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com
Mon Oct 19 10:32:25 PDT 2009


There are some pretty hilarious quotes from Mao on the power of consciousness in overpowering material conditions, but I wouldn't want to insult the bastard by quoting him off the top of my petty-bourgeois head. I do have a more sensible quote from Marx memorized. "Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past." Third party ventures like the Greens simply are a waste of time... objectively. I'm not suggesting a CPUSA, popular-frontist orientation with the Democratic Party, but I am suggesting a united left pole of opposition that aims to achieve majoritarian support to transcend capitalism (i'll definitely settle for a lot less in my lifetime), as opposed to third party electoral ventures. I made this case before and it certainly isn't a new idea, but unfortunately without major actors and organizations behind it a left refoundation isn't going anywhere.

Ever. Ever. Ever. Leftists are stuck in their ways building microsects, mistakening the Democratic Party for a labor party, but it would be a lot better politics than what we have now---- or the Green "alternative".

Apologize for brevity and glibness. On a train and this wireless condition is not going to last long enough for me to form a more through and coherent point.

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 12:31 PM, Mitchel Cohen <mitchelcohen at mindspring.com
> wrote:


> What could Greens do with such a signal, capable of reaching 18 million
> people?
>
> When it's put THAT way, I of course come down on the side of "Yes, of
> course it is worth it." I wish the battling wouldn't exist. But I also wish
> the U.S. government did not preside over a vicious capitalist economic and
> social order, and that people could explore their different perspectives as
> a positive venture that strengthens us instead of as a
> tear-you-down-at-any-cost attack in which the ends are seen to justify any
> and all means.
>
> I would be glad to participate in a forum that explores the intricacies of
> these questions as pertain to WBAI and the Greens if the folks on this
> listserve are interested in setting up that project, and the hidden traps
> that are snarling at our feet whenever we try to take a step forward.
>
>



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