-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Marxism] Is Capitalism Losing the
Debate?
Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:14:42 -0400
From: Louis Proyect <[email protected]>
Reply-To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
<[email protected]>
To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition
<[email protected]>
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/31-3
Published on Monday, October 31, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
Is Capitalism Losing the Debate?
by Carl Finamore
A remarkable shift in mass public opinion is occurring right before our
eyes. It does not happen often. Normally, only when there is a severe
breakdown in public confidence about the future.
Now is such a time.
Millions are demanding clear explanations for the economic turmoil
surrounding their lives and rejecting en masse standard platitudes from
an increasingly discredited political establishment.
Fox-News pundits, Heritage Foundation business scholars, glib right-wing
loud mouths and two-faced politicians from both major parties have been
exposed as stand-in ventriloquists for the wealthy - shockingly, all in
a few short weeks.
It all began with only a few hundred protestors camped out on Wall
Street challenging conceited notions of the one percent.
Through it all, the Occupy Movement is discovering what my generation
learned during the civil rights, antiwar, feminist and gay rights
struggles begun some 65 years ago - the ideas of the rich and powerful
just don't stand up.
They don't hold water. That is, they do not accurately explain what is
happening around us, the measure most rational people use to determine
if something is true or false.
There was bitter political conflict with the status quo during the
conformist "American Dream" decade of the 1950s.
Fundamental rights of equality were denied and numerous US military
interventions into Central America and Asia were excused by a
conservative, misinformed and compliant American population.
Eventually, it all turned around.
Principles of humanity and fairness displaced racist fears. Support for
national self-determination and non-interference in other nations'
internal affairs ultimately won out against cold-war anti-communist
interventionist hysteria.
How did this happen? Simple, false assumptions of the dominant powers in
this country were challenged and examined.
There was a conversation in almost every American household. Some were
hotly contested with families torn apart.
Historical hindsight confirms the best reform proposals in American
history have come from socially conscious mass movements. They have not
come from traditional leaders positioned inside the political machinery
that has so consistently and miserably failed us.
So it was in my days as a young activist.
In the end, the social, economic and political demands of the popular
mass movements thoroughly overcame retrograde "Jim Crow" prejudices and
reactionary "cold war" misrepresentations.
The massively extensive political dialogue that broke out in this
country changed America.
For a precious few years, the lives of national minorities, women and
gays actually improved and, significantly, lives were also saved as it
became more difficult for the United States to invade countries using
illegitimate pretexts and lies.
Extensive political debate can have a greater impact today because the
economic and social crisis is deeper. Again, we have an opportunity to
change our country and the world.
Ideas, Like Rivers, Do Not Flow Backward*
The first collective statement from the original Occupy Wall Street
encampment is an extremely damning indictment of corporate America:
"We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over
people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run
our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to
let these facts be known."
In response, there has been no serious attempt by the establishment to
engage in authentic dialogue or in spirited defense of their policies.
On the contrary, authorities have responded by letting loose riot
police, spewing slander and unsuccessfully trying to change the subject
by complaining about loud drum noise and unsanitary conditions.
Really, it is quite a lame and ineffectual response coming as it is from
the most boastful and arrogant power in the world that only a few years
ago gloated about the triumph of American free-enterprise over the
Soviet Union.
For a while, another "American Century" was trumpeted.
How quickly it has all imploded, not just their system but their self
confidence; and not just for US rulers but for their cronies across the
world as in Tunisia, Egypt, Spain, Italy and Greece.
In fact, many of the protestors' claims are now considered valid by most
Americans. Even the corporate-controlled media has acknowledged alarming
facets of corporate control they previously ignored such as the vast gap
in wealth.
For the first time in decades, political, economic and social ideas are
being reviewed more closely by millions of working people.
The rich and powerful retain control of the US economy, that's for sure,
but they have been embarrassed off the public stage where the Occupy
Movement holds the world's attention. It's laughable and also quite
revealing that Governor Rick Perry doesn't want to debate anymore
because he complains he just gets ridiculed.
Millions are fed up with the steady diet of distortions concealing an
infinitesimally small group of super-wealthy financiers steering our
economy into a ditch.
Occupy the Economy
Radicals have long accused capitalist western democracies of being phony
by asserting real democracy is impossible while a small minority runs
the economy.
Now, even this radical idea too is being seriously discussed.
For example, talented documentarian Michael Moore, a self-described
liberal and supporter of President Obama, proclaimed to thunderous
applause at a recent Oakland, California rally that real change will
only come when the 99 percent "begins to Occupy the economy."
Yes, it is true that the Occupy Movement has not precisely defined what
that means nor have they coalesced around a common set of solutions.
But, really, at this early stage, how could it be otherwise? In fact,
why should it be otherwise while the movement is still growing and
developing its legs?
The really momentous accomplishment is that a mass political discussion
is occurring throughout America, kept alive by regular actions of the
Occupy Movement.
Eventually, adoption of various programs and demands will have to be
considered and nobody has the unrealistic expectation that divisions
will not appear.
But we should expect, and actually firmly insist, that differences not
deter us from continuing to act together against common symbols of greed
and injustice and in vigorous defense of civil liberties.
Let discussion on America's future ensue in every home, workplace and
community as the movement continues to mobilize and as it begins to
refine its goals and objectives.
*Victor Hugo
JAI
RAC-LA
https://lists.riseup.net/www/admin/newplanet-newlives
http://revolutionaryautonomouscommunities.blogspot.com/
http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=JohnAImani
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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