>From P CB
^^^^^^^ Hi Essentially there is no real difference between the radical left and the right in general. The radical left call for more and more state spending as the means towards the solution of the problems of the working class. In other words they call for the growing expansion of the capitalist state as the solution to social problems. In other words the radical left wants a stronger more all-embracing capitalist state. This is precisely the corporatism that European fascism sought and largely achieved. Their references to a non-capitalist society that they more than times than not call socialism. They dont like to use the term communism, too strong. They also view socialism as more a more ambiguous term that implies for them some form of nanny state. But you cannot have a post-capitalist society that implies a political state. Today in the West the capitalist state has been in continuous growth. Even the Irish state has been subsidising much of the working class through the expansion in welfarism of one kind or another. It has subsidised capitalists too through what is called "corporate dole". This takes many forms such as the state creation of industrial estates, roads, grants, tax breaks etc. One of the chief reasons the working class has failed to come in behind the radical left in any significant way is because capitalism has stolen the clothes of the left. It has been increasingly doling out diverse assistance to the working class and so called lumpenproletariat. What is needed is not a "bigger" radical left since it essentially supports the capitalist state. Indeed to support the radical left is to support capitalism. What is needed is a communist movement that challenges and opposes both capitalism and its state. Instead of calling on Cowan to increase state spending, as the Socialist Party and the SWP do, communists call on the working class to ___ the state and capitalism. P _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
