Socialist Progressives
Related: About this forumThe Problem Is Capitalism: Only radical reforms will solve neoliberalism’s crisis of democracy
from In These Times:
The Problem Is Capitalism
Only radical reforms will solve neoliberalisms crisis of democracy.
BY Joseph M. Schwartz and Maria Svart
In Lean Socialist: Why Liberalism Needs Socialismand Vice Versa (May 2013), Bhaskar Sunkara calls for the rebirth of a socialist movement that would work alongside liberals for immediate gains for working people, while simultaneously offering a vision of a socialist society that would extend democracy into the economic sphere. And, at the same time, that movement would fight for the structural reforms most likely to lead towards that goal. We at Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), including our founding co-chair Michael Harrington, have always embraced this strategy. The problem? Socialists became indistinguishable from liberals because the liberals and a strong labor movement disappeared, swept away when the tides of neoliberalism moved in. As Barbara Ehrenreich frequently noted in the 1990s, with liberals and social democrats endorsing Clintons and Blairs kinder, gentler dismantling of the welfare state, socialists were often the last defenders of the liberal gains of the 1930s and 1960s. But to go beyond liberalism, we absolutely agree with Sunkara that work must be done alongside movement activists, rather than so-called liberal technocrats. Socialists need to teach the liberals to fight once again. But how?
First, we must remind liberals of history. Before social democracy retreated, socialists foresaw the dangers of insufficiently radical reforms. In the 1970s and 1980s, European socialist theorists such as Nicos Poulantzas and Andre Gorz joined Harrington in warning that if the Left failed to socialize control over investment, the corporate drive for profit would lead capital to abandon the social contract compromise of the welfare state. Socialist governments in France, Sweden and elsewhere pushed for democratizing investment. But capital immediately fought back, beginning with the CIA-aided overthrow of the Allende regime in Chile in 1973 and continuing with French capitals strike of the early 1980s. In the face of the onslaught, democracy and old-style liberalism began to crumble. This time around, liberals must recognize the true enemy and embrace radical reforms. Socialists will be there to push them to do so.
Second, we must remind liberals that racism and the center and Rights use of a racialized politics played a central role in the rise of neoliberal capitalism. Thatchers and Reagans opportunistic attack on income-based child support for single mothers (aka welfare) played a major role in constructing a right-wing majority. Though the main beneficiaries of means-tested welfare were white, Clinton passed welfare reform to rein in mythical, non-white welfare queens. This distracted the public from Corporate Americas job-killing deindustrialization and outsourcing policies. So, since conscious socialists are but a small part of the American public, how do we build the revived Left that Sunkara calls for? Clearly, we need an anti-racist radical movement capable of refuting pervasive myths about the U.S. welfare state. The emergence of a militant immigrant rights movement and low-wage workers movement will be central to a Left and labor revival, as will the resistance of underemployed and indebted college graduates.
We take heart along with Sunkara that younger people are favorable (or at least open) in their attitudes toward socialism. But 30 years of neoliberal capitalist state policies have fostered a deep skepticism about politics. Many find it hard to envision mass movements winning reforms in state policy that would improve their lives. Sunkara is right to issue his impassioned plea to Lean Socialist, and young people are joining the socialist movement, in part due to the invaluable intellectual work that he and his colleagues carry out at Jacobin magazine. .....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15005/the_problem_is_capitalism
bvar22
(39,909 posts)When the American Working Class & The Poor realize WE have more in common with each other
than we have in common with the RICH Ruling Class Elites and their puppets in Washington running BOTH Parties,
then WE can have "change" too!
VIVA Democracy!
I pray we get some here soon!
[quote][size=large]"The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that nation states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."[/size]
----Bolivian Reform President Evo Morales
[/quote]
Overseas
(12,121 posts)socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)can happen if there are no REAL reforms of the system. The whole idea is to make things better for the working class, so if the neo-liberals want to back off their entire ideological agenda in favor of reforms that help the vast majority of people in the world, I'd be happy to see it.
I just don't think it's going to happen without the serious threat of a systemic revolution. And if we get to the point of a systemic threat of revolution, then why stop there? Capitalism has PROVEN over and over again that it won't stop trying to rip apart any regulations that try to make it more egalitarian. So why put our grandchildren into the position of fighting this same fight over again?
TBF
(32,139 posts)As much as I love the peaceful views of the hippies from the 70s (and today's yoga gurus come to mind ...) the reality is that we get nowhere when we try to be nice. The equivalent on this website is the number of folks I've found who seek some special "blend" of socialism and capitalism. If they think they are going to trick the wealthy into their magical blend they've seriously gone soft in the head. If anything the last 30 years should illustrate that when the guard is let down capital takes over - and the first thing they do is break unions because organizing is the only thing that threatens owners. Folks (to be specific, rich folks) freak out and call that "class warfare" but we are not the ones that waged this war. You are absolutely dead on that serious threat is what it takes, and the way to make headway in that goal is to organize.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)And that "special 'blend'" of socialism and capitalism (read-regulation of capitalism) has been tried at least twice- TR's reforms after the Gilded Age and in the 1930s- and BOTH times regulation has failed the people. COMPLETELY failed the people. As I've said before, I'm not sure that if we develop a credible threat to the system this time we ought to try for ANOTHER "special blend". Do we really want our descendants to be refighting this battle every second or third generation?
Beer Swiller
(44 posts)I see no point in reforming or preserving capitalism in any way. Capitalism is a system which has only one goal: the accumulation of more profit, or capital, soonest, by any means possible. That's it. It's really quite simple.
It is also dangerously insane. People who can accomplish its goals are often classified by psychologists as either psychopaths or sociopaths, because they really don't care about the effects their actions have on others. They can't afford to. It's "just business." The times where a businessman has actually tried to improve the lot of his employees have been rare indeed for most of my life, and that's why. The shareholders, in their insatiable lust for more profit, will throw a CEO like that out on his or her ear every time.
Capitalism always leads to war and to destruction of the environment and civil society itself. It thrives on conflict and the old imperialist principle of "divide and rule." It's not evolutionarily viable, either for our species or the biosphere itself. So why keep such a system in any form? It's just not logical to try and do so.
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)see the need to keep fighting this battle every few generations. IF we get to the point of a systemic overthrow of capitalism this time, we shouldn't be bribed off by a few more crumbs from the owner's table.
TheKentuckian
(25,035 posts)The forces of capital begin the work of undoing regulations and controls before the ink is dry and the gains themselves evaporate less than a generation from peak and it is already time to do a serious overhaul to prevent a collapse.
The insistence on evaluating a system based on exception, ignoring the rule is almost a form of mental illness.
Taverner
(55,476 posts)A definition of 'person' that means what it is
Not a company, not a group, not money, but a person.
roamer65
(36,748 posts)We need to look back and borrow a page or two from FDR. It's time to start substantially increasing taxes on the wealthy, stop their tax dodging ways and use that money to start rebuilding the middle class. It's time for a "Newer Deal" and single payor Medicare for all. It's time to put people first, and corporations and profits second.
BOG PERSON
(2,916 posts)people are killing themselves because they're unemployed and this article is pretending it's being written forty years ago