On 1/2/07, Carrol Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
That the core bourgeois democracies are moving (rather steadily) towards more authoritarian forms, and that this move will continue, isn't just possible but (a) it's happening and (b) will probably intensify unless new left forces mobilize (which seems unlikely). But only if new left forces not only DO emerge but become a real threat will that movement towards authoritarianism take a form even remotely analogous to the fascist movements of the inter-war period. From the capitalist point of view fascism is a recourse of desperation, a last-ditch effort through naked repression to fend off revolution.
As I mentioned before, there was no threat of revolution in Japan in the inter-war period. At this point in history, the left, even the Venezuelan left, is not a threat to global capitalism, though the left in Venezuela certainly has a great potential to threaten capitalism in their own nation. The main threat to capitalism comes from forces that are not traditionally thought of as "the left" -- mainly Islamists, both populist and anti-populist kinds -- and it is in response to them (as well as building upon the legal foundations already created by the "war on crime" and immigration control) that bourgeois democracies of the West have begun to _openly and decisively_ reject some of the crucial underpinnings of liberalism: most importantly, habeas corpus. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
