On 2012-11-22, at 2:47 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Capitalists will cut wages & benefits as low as > working-class power allows them to do..."Globalism" > reflects one of the strongest assault on the working class in the history of > capitalism, and it is an assault which cannot be turned back by any "normal" > means but only by direct action of a militant working-class. > > That is the point of departure for useful thought at this time.
A couple of thoughts: 1. There are economic as well as political limits to wage and benefit cuts. Severe austerity inevitably breeds political protest, as today in Greece and the other European debtor nations. But capitalists also have an inherent economic incentive not to drive mass purchasing power so low as to make any kind of recovery impossible, destroying profitability and collapsing the capitalist economy in chaos. Related economic and political considerations will at some stage cause an easing of the capitalist offensive against the working class. The debate at the top between Keynesian liberals and "austerian" conservatives generally turns on when the screws need to be loosened. 2. Often overlooked also is that, in better economic times, reforms do not result exclusively from pressure from below. That is a necessary condition, but I don't know of a single instance when such reforms have not required the consent of an hegemonic liberal wing at the top which recognizes that the reforms, tailored to the system's needs, will strengthen rather than weaken it. When establishment liberals conclude otherwise, they join with their fellow conservatives to ignore and, if necessary, repress the movements agitating for reform. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
