Carrol wrote: > The period from FDR through Nixon (as well as the "social democratic" gains > in Europe) was a fluke in capitalism. Now there is a return to the norm.
Carrol's scenario is certainly a possibility. FDR through Nixon was made possible, to a significant extent, by the existence of the Soviet Union, its role in defeating of the Nazis, the Chinese revolution, the wave of anti-colonial movements after WWII, the global influence of socialist ideas, and the pre-existing power of working people in the U.S. No illusions about the kind of power that working people globally need to build to force any significant change in U.S. society, but there is a sense in which people now are better positioned than they were in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. It seems that we are starting from scratch, but we are not. The difficulties ahead will be huge, but they can be surmounted. Getting to know the new crop of activists inspired by OWS makes one feel that the raw material is ready. The Carrolian scenario is possible but not inevitable. He is too quick to assume a crushing defeat in a battle that is just beginning. I am with those calling for us to organize and fight, rather than those telling us that defeat is inevitable: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/11/14/glenn_greenwald_starting_with_fiscal_cliff _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
