[lbo-talk] letter to editor

[Wojtek S]

It is more complicated than simply an outside force. It is synergy of both,
internal dissent and external forces, created by historical circumstances.
Take the race riots, for example.  The managers of the US empire was
fighting the war in Vietnam with a conscript, racially segregated  army that
was increasingly demoralized and fragging their own officers.  They were
losing not only ground but also their "battle for hearts and minds."  Race
riots at home was the last thing they needed at that time.  The brewing
tension would further undermine their war effort.  So they come up with War
on Poverty.  Today, they would simply send in the marines.

Wojtek

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 1:32 PM, Bhaskar Sunkara
<bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com>wrote:


> I agree.  There's a whole Hobsbawm-perspective that sees socialism/leftism
> as an outside force that influenced the West during the 20th century, as
> opposed to emerging from internal contradictions and struggles.
>
> On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 12:40 PM, Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Ricky Page <rfpage2008 at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > > In the end the
> > > only reason for the allowance of any change in a progressive way,
> > especially
> > > here in the USof A was the total war against the Soviet Union and it's
> > allies.
> >
> > Really? So workers, wildcat strikers, beatniks, hippies, SDSers,
> > housewives, civil rights activists, feminists, queers, transgendereds,
> > Chicanos, Black Panthers, the disabled, and students had absolutely
> > nothing to do with it? Got it. Thanks for the history lesson.
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