Re: [Marxism] No False Consolations | Novara Media

2019-12-13 Thread Ralph Johansen via Marxism

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John Edmundson wrote

Yes, but perhaps part of the problem was the Left's faith in the Labour 
Party. Have we still not figured that out. It's disappointing to see 
that Richard Seymour, who used to get this, has dived deep into such a 
failed project. When your only mass movement is to the ballot box, a la 
Bernie Sanders' campaign, why should anyone expect a deep commitment 
from the voters?


Cheers,
John

[https://novaramedia.com/2019/12/13/no-false-consolations/]

This is the sort of sensible comment I haven't seen much of. Yes, 
apparently from these results and others elsewhere, much of the working 
class, with insecurity of life chances and resentment at its status in 
the system and at the other, either votes on nationalist grounds for the 
rightwing misleader or stays at home. For now - but it's inevitable that 
the failure of the right is going to become palpable to workers 
everywhere as the system grinds to a halt for most, and that's already 
happening, especially if the protests breaking out are any indication. 
And with the failing ecosystem and the debt-infested stagnant economy, 
there is no fallback to growth for the system anymore; nor will 
no-growth panaceas of any sort work under capitalism, including 
especially those that only benefit the richer nations.


How long will it take before the working class and left leadership of 
the world accept, despite the interim right-populist upsurge and its 
reasons, that declared social democratic parties, with no credible, 
viable socialist program, will never be able to manage or change the 
capitalist state? Will never be able to mobilize a base of power in the 
working class?


Too many contradictions, especially that to simply manage capitalism, to 
ensure the profitability of a capitalist regime on which its survival 
depends, any social democrat apparition must accede to the imperatives 
of accumulation and profitability, and to accomplish that, to pretend, 
equivocate and evade; ultimately, to retain power, workers be damned. Or 
war.


Tony Blair is one poster child among many. An array of populist 
Bonapartists in the poorer countries. Bernie's prospects apply here as 
well. This is certainly not 1933 and no New New Deal or faux Green New 
Deal will do it. If workers now seem unreceptive to the message from the 
left, to the imperative that we take charge of our destiny - I 
nevertheless look to us sooner or later to come to the conclusion that 
there really is no other way. If that does not happen, or does not 
happen in time, before chaos sets in, there's not much anyone can do, 
except stick to the message, counsel people to start by reading Capital 
and take it from there, as my older socialist friends once counseled me, 
and think and act to help fellow workers to devise, from the objective 
conditions and mounting contradictions, the alternative objective and 
the route to it.


It is to the contradiction between capital and labor that we should 
adhere, and never forget or forego.


I immediately think of that knight in the Monty Python skit who keeps 
taunting and tilting against the giant until, where arms or legs were, 
only bloody stubs are left, and who declares he will prevail with his 
lance in his teeth. But that's just my bad monster in there. After all, 
it's Friday the thirteenth.

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Re: [Marxism] No False Consolations | Novara Media

2019-12-13 Thread John Edmundson via Marxism
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Yes, but perhaps part of the problem was the Left's faith in the Labour
Party. Have we still not figured that out. It's disappointing to see that
Richard Seymour, who used to get this, has dived deep into such a failed
project. When your only mass movement is to the ballot box, a la Bernie
Sanders' campaign, why should anyone expect a deep commitment from the
voters?

Cheers,
John

On Sat, Dec 14, 2019 at 3:25 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> By Richard Seymour
>
> This is our defeat, and we have to own it. As if we have a choice. And
> we know what this means. The body count from austerity and the hostile
> environment will multiply. An already fairly awful society is going to
> get brutally worse. And it is difficult to see how this won’t feed into
> yet more violent racism and hatred of foreigners predicated on zero-sum
> ethnic competition.
>
> https://novaramedia.com/2019/12/13/no-false-consolations/
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Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from the goose
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[Marxism] No False Consolations | Novara Media

2019-12-13 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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By Richard Seymour

This is our defeat, and we have to own it. As if we have a choice. And 
we know what this means. The body count from austerity and the hostile 
environment will multiply. An already fairly awful society is going to 
get brutally worse. And it is difficult to see how this won’t feed into 
yet more violent racism and hatred of foreigners predicated on zero-sum 
ethnic competition.


https://novaramedia.com/2019/12/13/no-false-consolations/
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