[lbo-talk] The Crisis of the Global Left

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Mon Sep 19 06:42:33 PDT 2011


Here is an interesting piece by John Sanbonmatsu. (of course if I wrote this, I would be spat on by some members of this list)

Wojtek

http://www.zcommunications.org/the-crisis-of-the-global-left-part-one-by-john-sanbonmatsu

"In sum, capitalism is undergoing its worst crisis in generations, if not ever; the material conditions of human society and animal ecology are worsening by the hour; and the political right is resurgent in most regions of the world. Meanwhile, the Left seems paralyzed, unsure of itself, weighed down by a past that has not always been noble, and haunted by a future whose elusive horizon seems to be rapidly receding from view. The Left today enjoys majority status in no parliamentary body in the world (leaving aside corrupted liberal organs like the British Labour Party, or totalitarian ones like the Chinese Communist Party). It has no significant intellectual centers or think-tanks capable of influencing state policy, no way to respond effectively to national and international emergencies, and no coherent shared sense of itself as a historical movement. "

"As I write these words, on September 12, 2009, the news shows are filled with images of tens of thousands of mostly white Americans marching in Washington, D.C., to protest President Obama's policies, denouncing him as a "communist" for advocating health care reform and bailing out the nation's banks, and calling upon the American people to take "back" their nation. The march, organized by a coalition of right-wing groups, is the culmination of a year-long campaign of grassroots protests modeled on the Boston Tea Party. How ironic that the torch and pageantry of Revolution should now pass to the political Right. "



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