[lbo-talk] European cities hit by anti-austerity protests (correction)

[Carrol Cox]

Doug wrote: Why is the left irrelevant? Because it confused capitalism's
growing dependence on the state as some kind of social progress.

Leaving aside the impossibility of considering "the left" as an agent that
can confuse anything with anything, this still will not do. Leftists (not
the left) are weak  now and for the past seveeeral decades because there was
no "left" issue that (however presented) would reach an active constituency,
no matter what leftists did or didn't do, confuse or not confuse. Why was
that the case? To answer that is to write at least a couple hundred pages
detailing the reaction of capitalists and capitalist politicians against the
left victories of the '60s.

There was nothing leftists could do about it. They have fought a damn good
fight in fact over the last 35 years on many issues -- which because of
capitalist strength could not reach a larger     constituency no matter what
tactics or 'theories' leftists followed.

Carrol