Well, I think Stew is right here in his description of the world today --at least at the level of folks who hold power. Of course they favor the "free market" (propaganda term --nothing "free" about it); they all see the writing on the wall, the "necessity" in a micro-motive global marketplace of attracting capital on capital's terms (and thus the "race to the bottom" in terms of working people/labor, environmental protection, universal health care and other social service protections, etc.). In a word, they've all sold out, and they will continue to do so until their is a global movement that says "Stop," that "surrounds" capital and says you can go nowhere if you do X or Y to workers, or the environment, or the marginally-employed, etc. This mean global organizing --connected to local, grass-roots organizing-- is the only answer. Which also brings to mind the interesting observations Marx made in the Communist Manifesto over 150 years ago (anyone recall an essay by Marshall Berman on the anniversary in 1998?). Marx may have be way off the mark in his reading of history and of capitalism's vulnerability --but he was pretty much on the mark with respect to the economic imperatives of capital. Anyway, I think the globe is simultaneously alive with ominous forces and ripe with potential. Ted Morgan StewA@aol.com wrote: > JW > I really don't know what world you're living in. > In my world almost all the nations that called themselves socialist no > longer do so- and those that still do are probably headed for capitalism. In > my world all the labor and social-democratic parties that once advocated a > moderate version of socialism no longer do (they all favor the free market.) > And in almost every country that once boasted of a welfare state - that > welfare state is in a state of retreat and collapse. In our own country there > has been a major reduction in social programs and the military is now seen as > the government way of dealing with social problems - let the poor become > soldiers. Anyway JW - that's the world I live in - now tell me about your > world which I gather is much the better one. > Stew > http://hometown.aol.com/stewa/stew.html
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