> On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 10:41 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ...As I see it, the intellectual poverty of the left wing discourse lies
>> in its unidimensional economic determinism and populism
>
>
> There are myriad leftists and Marxists who betray your caricature. It seems
> impossible to read EP Thompson, Raymond Williams, Bryan David Palmer, Aijaz
> Ahmad, Adolph Reed, Jr, (as well as people on this list - or even the list
> itself!) etc etc etc and conclude (whatever else you might think of
> them) that they subscribe to a "unidimensional economic determinism" system
> of thought.
Agreed. It's curious to see Wojtek indicting as vulgar economic determinists precisely those who say the Obama administration could have taken a different course well within the constraints imposed on it by American capitalism. I don't share the Trotskyist view, dating back in the 30's, that the crisis of the working class is essentially a "crisis of leadership", but it seems to me the 2008 election was one of those infrequent historical moments when leadership does assume a decisive importance - when the masses are aroused by a serious crisis, and the opportunity for significant structural reform presents itself. One can argue that it is Wojtek and others who say that Obama was too constrained by the system to do other than what he did who in this instance neglect the role of "agency", a charge Woj not infrequently likes to hurl at his critics.