And as long as leftist continue to prate about "The Left" "The Left" will n 
ever exist.

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Marv Gandall
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2014 12:56 PM
To: Progressive Economics
Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Prediction: Ukraine's love affair with the West will be 
short-lived


On Mar 1, 2014, at 6:29 PM, Jurriaan Bendien <[email protected]> wrote:



        I think a lot of Left intellectuals get wildly excited when they see 
evidence of what they call “mass activity”, you know, demonstrations, riots, 
people rampaging around and so on, because it gives credence to what they 
imagine a revolutionary upsurge to be. It’s been like that, ever since I became 
more politically aware as a young student in the late 1970s.


Here's an good analysis of the Ukranian situation just prior to the downfall of 
the regime by the eminent Russian Marxist Boris Kargalitsky, who acknowledges: 


"The left on Independence Square in Kiev is invisible and inaudible. A few 
leftists, of course, were earlier beaten up and chased off. Bubtt at the 
moment, the left is so insignificant in terms of its presence and influence 
that no one even bothers any more to beat up its members. For the most part, 
the Ukrainian left exists solely within its own imagination. This, of course, 
does not mean that the left will never again materialise as a political force, 
but the first condition for this will be that it recognises the actual state of 
affairs."


http://links.org.au/node/3734

Most of us would agree that Kargalitsky's observation is valid beyond the 
Ukraine. Outside of a few countries like Greece and Venezuela, the Left - or 
rather the tiny remnants of what was once a powerful international socialist 
movement - does today for the most part exist mostly within its own imagination.





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