On 2010-09-03, at 2:32 AM, Patrick Bond wrote:
> You may say this is trivial, but surely one part of the challenge of
> generating an anti-capitalist narrative, is to alert people that crises
> are part and parcel of capitalism's laws of motion. So the LBO (and to
> some extent SR) arguments to the contrary have done some damage.
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You anticipate correctly - this is trival. I've been suggesting to friends, neighbours, workmates, relatives, and small audiences of various kinds all of my adult life that social and economic crises, even their personal crises, are traceable to the capitalist system. I expect this is true of everyone else on this list and in other left-wing circles we've been associated with at various times.
Though I admit I've rarely gone into the spatial and temporal and other aspects of capitalism's "laws of motion", I've never found it particularly challenging to generate an anti-capitalist narrative in simpler terms because many of those I've encountered already consciously or intuitively understand that the system is inequitable and that the corporations don't have the best interests of the people at heart. But the mass of the population nevertheless remains wedded to capitalism which it has credited until recently with improved living standards and access to a vast array of consumer goods and diverting entertainments. In abrupt downturns like the present, when people are gripped by insecurity and anxiety, they're more apt to cling to what is familiar and to try to fix what is at hand than to take a faith-based leap into the unknown, particularly if it requires confronting the cops, the state, and their employers, those with the power to do them harm.
Which is why they continue to support the liberal and conservative bourgeois parties who promise to restore the old status quo painlessly on their behalf. History suggests the masses won't consider overthrowing the existing system and experimenting with a new one unless and until a) their personal circumstances deteriorate to the point that they consider them life threatening and b) it has become abundantly clear that neither of the established parties has proved able to arrest the slide and c) their desperation for change has finally overcome their fear of repression.
None of my acquaintances referred to above are familiar with either the Left Business Observer or the Socialist Register, so you can rest easy that they haven't in any way been damaged by these publications. I'd consider it a great step forward if they were ready to subscribe.