Date: 02 Dec 96 22:05:12 EST
From: jonathan flanders <72763.2240-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: M-I: Random Thoughts on Lukacs and Gramsci


 >> Throughout the 1980s, the working-class was *quiescent*. Other social 
layers were in motion. Socialists should, as George Breitman used to put
it, go where the action is. <<Louis P

Jon Flanders:

  Well, its taken a little longer than a lot of us thought, but I suggest
to you that the "action" is moving in the direction of the working class.
I sure don't see any other layers moving right now.

  Look at the last couple of years. The first contested election for the 
head of the AFL-CIO in history. A convention representing actual 
organized workers calls for the founding of a labor party. More than half
of the electorate stays home in a presidential election.

  Granted, we don't see anything like the French strikes here. And no, 
workers are not rushing to join socialist organizations. But I am telling
you, that the range of political discussion you can have now with "white 
industrial workers", the people who have always been at the rear of the 
proletarian train, is opening up in a way that I have never seen before.

  And if you won't take my word for it, check out Michael Moore's new 
book and the response to it. It is another example of the phenomenon. 
Given the items on the agenda of this next Congress, I am fairly 
confident that the union officialdom is going to have to make a "left 
turn." When this happens, you will see something besides quiescence.



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