17 May 2009
towards a clear programme
Roger responds to the Non-Aligned Lefties report:
'I’ve pondered the points from the non-aligned meeting you published. I’ve been wondering if I am just a grumpy and factional guy - or no, I am that -, or whether my gut feeling is right that the problem is horribly misstated and the non-aligned, like obsessive compulsives, are repeating the same gestures that have doomed left faction before. The problem doesn’t seem to me to have anything to do with disunity by the left. In fact, one of the huge problems with the left is they always look at social crises and recode it as a 'problem for the left.' That is a beautiful way to stick your head up your asshole and leave it there, in my opinion. I thought the problems were: the lack of democracy, the unjustifiable increase of inequality between the rich and the rest over the last thirty years, and the stubborn and robust survival of a 19th century social hierarchy that blocks access to basic political, social and economic rights.
I’d much rather have seen some more Commie Manifesto pointmaking:
a. a call for a 35 hour work week
b. a call for crushing the shadow financial system by crushing the peer to peer system by which financial instruments outside of stocks and bonds are traded and creating a transparent and regulated forum, like the stock market, in which they must be traded.
c. a call for crushing the power of the speculative sector by requiring equities to equal the total worth of the company – reinstating watered stock laws that progressives first proposed in 1910. This abolishes the difference between market and real capitalization, and transforms the ownership of stock from a speculative act to one of real, pedestrian ownership.
d. a call for the total reformation of the legal system, so that nobody can “buy” a better outcome by buying a better lawyer.
e. a call for the abolition of the House of Lords (in the UK) and the Senate (in the U.S.) and any other legislative body so constituted as to represent special interests.
f. a call for an investment in protecting the environment equal to the environmental threat – which would elevate the environmental sector far over the military sector (not so big a deal in the UK, but a bigger deal in the US).
Etc. An obvious, clear program.
Moreover, the cringing speak about “slightly pretentious intellectuals” was disturbing, to say the least. More insolence, please! Rather, the strength of this group is that it has attracted intellectuals. Rather than reaching out to other parties, I would think that one would want to build on that strength. Create a listserve that allows for discussion of issues of the day, targeting media topics, suggesting interventions – which could be as simple as going to some comments threat on Comment is Free to challenging media to publish articles from Non-Aligned members. In the U.S., I’ve been happy to see liberal bloggers around TAP using a listserve to create a message program. That has actually been working. I don’t know what it is like in the U.K., but in the U.S., the media is like a big, fearful slug, and so you have to hit it repeatedly until it becomes afraid enough to make gestures of “fairness”.'
'I’ve pondered the points from the non-aligned meeting you published. I’ve been wondering if I am just a grumpy and factional guy - or no, I am that -, or whether my gut feeling is right that the problem is horribly misstated and the non-aligned, like obsessive compulsives, are repeating the same gestures that have doomed left faction before. The problem doesn’t seem to me to have anything to do with disunity by the left. In fact, one of the huge problems with the left is they always look at social crises and recode it as a 'problem for the left.' That is a beautiful way to stick your head up your asshole and leave it there, in my opinion. I thought the problems were: the lack of democracy, the unjustifiable increase of inequality between the rich and the rest over the last thirty years, and the stubborn and robust survival of a 19th century social hierarchy that blocks access to basic political, social and economic rights.
I’d much rather have seen some more Commie Manifesto pointmaking:
a. a call for a 35 hour work week
b. a call for crushing the shadow financial system by crushing the peer to peer system by which financial instruments outside of stocks and bonds are traded and creating a transparent and regulated forum, like the stock market, in which they must be traded.
c. a call for crushing the power of the speculative sector by requiring equities to equal the total worth of the company – reinstating watered stock laws that progressives first proposed in 1910. This abolishes the difference between market and real capitalization, and transforms the ownership of stock from a speculative act to one of real, pedestrian ownership.
d. a call for the total reformation of the legal system, so that nobody can “buy” a better outcome by buying a better lawyer.
e. a call for the abolition of the House of Lords (in the UK) and the Senate (in the U.S.) and any other legislative body so constituted as to represent special interests.
f. a call for an investment in protecting the environment equal to the environmental threat – which would elevate the environmental sector far over the military sector (not so big a deal in the UK, but a bigger deal in the US).
Etc. An obvious, clear program.
Moreover, the cringing speak about “slightly pretentious intellectuals” was disturbing, to say the least. More insolence, please! Rather, the strength of this group is that it has attracted intellectuals. Rather than reaching out to other parties, I would think that one would want to build on that strength. Create a listserve that allows for discussion of issues of the day, targeting media topics, suggesting interventions – which could be as simple as going to some comments threat on Comment is Free to challenging media to publish articles from Non-Aligned members. In the U.S., I’ve been happy to see liberal bloggers around TAP using a listserve to create a message program. That has actually been working. I don’t know what it is like in the U.K., but in the U.S., the media is like a big, fearful slug, and so you have to hit it repeatedly until it becomes afraid enough to make gestures of “fairness”.'
