On Thu, 12 Mar 1998, valis wrote:
> Your immense admiration for the German and Japanese systems suggests
> to me that their judicious compromise between stalemated capitalist and
> SD forces is the best we can hope for, there or here. Is that so?
Admiration? Hardly. They're capitalist, planet-raping bastards, too, it's
just that working folk in their system have won a fairer deal from their
systems than we ever achieved in ours. In reality, we've got to fight
against the US warlords *and* the EU/Pacific Rim hegemons, at the same
time. But that can't happen unless the American Left starts to think and
act globally: meaning, turning the globalization-is-necessity mantra of
our ruling elites against itself, by fighting for European-style
proportational representation for US elections, rebuilding the welfare
state, re-unionizing the de-unionized, building a mass Green or Labor
Party, and applying some of the economic measures implemented in a
haphazard and uncoordinated way by the Pacific Rim countries, i.e.
developmental planning, controls on capital and finance, etc. as part of a
conscious strategy (a fancy way of saying, putting the flame-thrower on
Wall Street). This is a tall order, to be sure, but so was suffrage for
women, rights for African Americans, and Social Security and Medicare for
all, once.
-- Dennis
