[lbo-talk] OWS Demands working group: jobs for all!

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

Remember, these demands aren't just directed at the state, they are directed
to the general population, as representative of what the movement stands *for,
*contra all the claims in the mainstream media that it's incoherent and they
don't stand for anything.

Here's a snippet from Richard's "How Can the Left Win?" (written this
summer):

A minimum precondition for the Left to win is that it can provide a
plausible explanation for the crisis and, on the basis of that, a persuasive
set of solutions that are neither captive to the logic of neoliberalism – as
are the solutions offered by the center-left, focused on modified austerity
and a slightly tougher regulatory regime to curtail financial “excesses” –
nor improbably maximalist.  Kouvelakis describes the impotence of
“propagandistic attitudes” simply denouncing capitalism, in contrast to the
careful “mediations through which the dominant classes are responding to the
crisis.”  But the Left requires its own “mediations,” a set of reasonable
demands which act on popular attitudes, provide a creditable response to the
crisis, and attack weak links in the ideological articulations of the ruling
class.

On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Joseph Catron <jncatron at gmail.com> wrote:


> That's one way to look at it. Another is, if you aren't going to get the
> minimal acceptable demands (in this case, full employment in the public
> sector, etc., etc.) for the foreseeable future, why not reach for the sky?
> What's the argument against it? Serious question; I haven't heard one.
>