Lenin's Tomb wrote:
>
> The fact that liberals - even in the
> capitalist media, I note - have been provoked into defending socialism by a
> right-wing hysteria campaign over healthcare has meant that as a political
> term it is more acceptable. That's a propaganda opportunity for the Left.
> As someone once said somewhere at some time - if they give you a handle,
> turn it.
This presupposes the existence of "a left," as well as the existence of audiences that (a) are aware of that existence and (b) come to the auditorium to hear the speech or buy the pamphlet to read. But left propaganda has little or no audience at this time other than among leftists. And perhaps even more imporantly, there is no ongoing mass activity into which anyone affected by that propaganda can be inserted. During the '70s and '80s, merely by talking about Greek literature in historical terms, every few semsesters I would (without even aiming at it) attract a student or two to Marxism. But that was meaningles, because there was no left movement which they could attach themselves to, thereby 'fixing' their otherwise rather temporary sympathy into serious conviction. Passive opinion is allthat conservative/liberal politicans need, but in the absence of a visible mass struggle, such opinion is mostly useless to leftists. As Lenin would say, it butters no parsnips.
Carrol