> But isn't that the same analogy people made during perestroika?
I wonder how the perestroika would have proceeded if global capitalism had then been in the midst of a raging crisis.
How can we widen a bit the edge of the fine knife along which revolutions in the South have to walk? Let's concentrate resources and build socialism in Brooklyn or Detroit, or wherever the fruit may hang lowest. Last Saturday, we had over at our place a group of neighbors (women!!) leading the organization of a fundraiser (a silent auction) to help PS 11 in our neighborhood. I was telling them that we (well, they) have *all* the wits and organizational talent (and then more!) required to take over Brooklyn and reorganize it from the foundations; that they would do a much better job that Markowitz, Bloomberg, Cuomo, and their mafias, so busy now gutting out our public school system and other basic services. Apparently worse things have to happen before we gather enough energy to react seriously to this crap.