[lbo-talk] Thoughts on the Tea Party (and why the Left is Dead)

[Carrol Cox]

An opening sentence in the chapter on the working day in _Capital_ has
always remained vividly in my mind. the working class, he says, stunned
by the early stages of industrial growth began to recover its breath or
something like that, and then the struggle began in earnest. The sheer
misery of the long working day and vile conditons had crushed resistance
for about a quarter of a entury.

Carrol

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> On Apr 21, 2010, at 11:08 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> 
> > The Great Depression lasted long enough, continuously, that
> > slight improvements in conditions could generate the hope and the
> > rising
> > expectations that are so vital to left movements .
> 
> The recovery from 1933 to 1937 was very powerful. The unemployment
> rate fell from over 25% to around 11%, and GDP rose by 43% (or over 9%
> a year), surpassing the 1929 peak in 1936. And, as Bhaskar just
> pointed out, the politically interesting stuff didn't really start
> until 1934. That was the year of the Minneapolis general strike. A
> year later, the UAW was formed in 1935, and the Flint strike was
> 1936-37. Rising expectations are very dangerous from a bourgeois
> perspective. Best to keep the working class always a little off guard.
> 
> Doug
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