First of all, let's cut 9/11 from the subject line. I'm going to repeat myself here, but I don't think that you start political strategy with some grand organizing principle. Michael Yates wrote something on the LBO list yesterday about how the Marxists in Nepal began with the deep study of their national history and traditions before they even embarked on their struggle.
Repeating myself, I think that successful politics begins with a grassroots engagement in which one wins some credibility, allowing them to begin a two-way dialogue, which leads to some political movement. One final point: this strategy does not lend itself to some grand intellectual reasoning. Events take on logic of their own. Sometimes what moves things seems obvious. Other times, what unlikely events take on much more importance than would be expected. The Walter Reed scandal is pretty obvious, because it gives lie to the central rhetoric of the Bush administration. The emerging scandal about firings of the lawyers is relatively surprising. I wonder how much grassroots political action has been diverted by intellectual masturbation about grand strategies. On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 11:57:50AM -0400, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > On 3/19/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I wrote: > > > > I wish people would focus on _social forces_, the balance of political > > > > power, the dynamics of capitalism and the like. > > > > Yoshie wrote: > > > In the USA? The balance of political power here is against the > > > working class, that's for sure. > > > > there's a good idea in a tough period such as the present: give up. > > The thing is that this doesn't have to be a tough period for leftists, > what with so many Americans opposed to the Iraq War and feeling > economically insecure, but leftists, for reasons that are obvious and > not so obvious, don't seem to be able to converge on these two points > and get ourselves organized first of all, to change the balance of > political power. > -- > Yoshie -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu michaelperelman.wordpress.com
