Greetings Economists, On Feb 5, 2007, at 7:40 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
For the first time in this cycle, a net plurality of respondents tell Gallup that this is a good time to find a quality job, and the highest share of respondents since 2001 tell the Conference Board that jobs are "plentiful."
Doyle; This a debate about how to understand what is to be done. A down cycle in the business climate does have political consequences. The job picture will probably change in a few months. So we have to have a sense of what that means. To me there is not the threat from the right, the threat is to neo-liberalism from the U.S. public tired of failure. Is this period different from the thirties? Yes. There is no great war preceding this period. There is no experience of massive war. Rather war as a principle of power is being weakened. We don't have adequate ways of conveying that to the massed public. The economy up or down has a left view of it that represents social justice. The downturn breaks support off from the base of people who don't challenge things. Doug writes; I get really tired of leftists going on about the next crisis that never arrives, or talking like an ordinary recession represents some great political watershed. Doyle; I think this period does have watershed characteristics. The U.S. power appears to be weakening. Not just because Bush made mistakes. The war, and economic policies are yielding fragile results that threaten more and more people. Externally enough for civil war to erupt in Iraq. Internally in the U.S. to re-invigorate a left movement in the U.S. A left in the U.S. now has to have very large and significant female leadership and participation. That mass base is big enough and strong enough to found a significant left of our times and place. The class nature of the times is revealed by the massive immigration protests. Class economic pressure is increasing by various routes. I think traditional left means of organizing don't work to make women the central actors of the mass movement. I think this period is dominated by knowledge production changes that offer 'connection' as the primary goal of a left movement. That basic premise is tailor made for women to run with. Do you disagree? thanks, Doyle
