Doug wrote: > Without any popular movement to discipline him, > Obama's would govern as a Rubinesque neoliberal.
I agree. I'd just add that, as we speak, *there are* popular movements -- people in political motion, with varying degrees of organizational coherence and intellectual clarity. In these times, obviously, since the electoral process takes frontal stage, these movements are not at their most intense and militant. But the sources of these movements are not going away. Therefore, the movements themselves are not going away either -- unless their demands are met or decisively defeated. There's a strong popular opposition to the occupation of Iraq. (The defeat of Clinton and the probable defeat of McCain will owe much to it.) There is a strong demand for universal health care, which is now alloying with a broad concern about the broader economic conditions of working and "middle" class families. Although momentarily weakened by repression, the immigrants rights movement persists. There is a strong movement for sexual and gender equality. There is also a broad environmentalist movement. There is a movement for racial equality, at this point partially subsumed under the push to get Obama elected. And I could list other movements, somewhat narrower, topically or locally. It is true that the full political potential of these movements to induce the broader unity of the working-class and further political progress can be re-directed, diffused, absorbed by the system. So, even if not crushed mechanically, these movements can be betrayed and led astray. Of course. But, at this point, what can people in the left do? I think that, at this point, the task of people in the left should be to engage these movements, to assist in their organization and -- perhaps most importantly -- to argue their case (and the broader case for socialism) more clearly and more compellingly. That is what could strengthen our hand in influencing the specific course those movements may take under a new presidency. The immediate danger I see is people in the left disengaging from these movements because the course the movements appear to be taking at the moment doesn't meet some pre-conceived ideological criteria. That is almost a guarantee that these movements will lack the valuable intellectual input of socialists and that socialists will continue to dwell on ideas not grounded in the reality of actual social movements. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
