Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 14:46:35 +1000 From: rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au (Rob Schaap) Subject: M-I: Re: Wondering About Workers' Power Adam wrote: I think this points to a reason why things this time are different from 1968 and after : the ruling class simply cannot afford a long period of concessions in order to maintain its rule. These concessions are after all precisely the things that governments all over Europe are trying to dismantle. [Absolutely right! The impotency of the state, to perform functions of amelioration and legitimation, is, I think, the SALIENT dynamic of our time. Here lies the genesis of a fundamental confrontation that capitalism can neither avoid, nor win in terms of its own political economy. And the objective interests of the middle classes, the sexes, diverse national populations, the unemployed (30% world-wide, says Chris!), and the working classes are converging and entrenching themselves. Something big must come of this!] Adam also wrote: Of course, our side has taken a right battering, and we have not completely recovered from it. And, the collapse of the left makes it easier for the extreme right to grow. [Right again! Just as there is evidence of intensifying socialist assertiveness, so is there of the rise of fascism/nationalism (this bit could have been written in the Germany or Italy of the twenties, couldn't it? And there lies the guts of the challenge, as a crisis of equal magnitude - and perhaps greater significance - beckons.) As I've been shrieking for weeks, what comes of all this is not yet written! We need numbers *now* of people well versed in socialism - who blame system and not other workers, who apprehend the global dimension of their hopes and responsibilities. History shows us a desperate proletariat is powerful indeed. If the other side gets 'em first, we'll find out things can actually get worse than they are now. And serves us right. We live in interesting times ... I'm away for a few days - best wishes to all, Rob] --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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