tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post1010489823230806859..comments2024-03-28T04:27:27.713-05:00Comments on May Day Books Blog: Liberals are uselessCoreyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07629684440934461513noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-61763250852025312482009-12-09T09:32:58.997-06:002009-12-09T09:32:58.997-06:00Maybe you're right. But history would seem to ...Maybe you're right. But history would seem to suggest that when there is a critical mass of people sufficiently desperate and with nothing to lose, then a mere spark can ignite them into confrontational action. For what it's worth, I expect riots and demonstrations in 2010. For the ruling class an increasingly ungovernable nation must be one of the anxieties it entertains.AAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13242448989166177843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-6021888044348255172009-12-09T01:04:00.257-06:002009-12-09T01:04:00.257-06:00Right now, liberals 'lead' the US progress...Right now, liberals 'lead' the US progressive movement. <br /><br />To defeat liberalism, I do not think it is possible until masses of people start moving. <br /><br />However, my fear is 'that' will not happen.Red Froghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14757809604839647508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-21932441899141371312009-12-08T23:19:11.013-06:002009-12-08T23:19:11.013-06:00Because liberals are an obstacle to real change. &...Because liberals are an obstacle to real change. "Activists" maybe stoke their egos and obtain some camaraderie from the mostly irrelevant activities they engage in -- but that's about it. These so-called left-wingers need to ask what will bring about real change. Passing around leaflets and standing mutely with placards won't create change. Without a violent and revolutionary left, the powers-that be -- finance capital, the military-industrial complex -- will just keep pressing ahead. They meet no concerted line of resistance. If and when they meet that line of resistance, battle will be joined. My wager would be that even when that line of resistance does materialise, it will come from spontaneous public resistance rather than liberals or "activists."<br /><br />Across a spectrum of issues -- health care, war, tax policy -- is anything changing? I can't see it. The American "left" is simply an irrelevance. As Zizek is fond of pointing out these days, the problem is not the right -- which is doing what one would exprect it to do -- but an impotent, spineless and rudderless left.AAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13242448989166177843noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-72969347158845837142009-12-08T22:25:37.862-06:002009-12-08T22:25:37.862-06:00If you honestly believe liberals are useless, why ...If you honestly believe liberals are useless, why are you spending any time on them? I know this may sound like a snotty response, but I mean the question seriously. <br /><br />I've known activists who spend all kinds of time trying to understand the mechanisms that lead to ruling class mentality. To me, that's also a misplaced use of time and effort. <br /><br />As for the "professionalization" of dissent, an excellent book analyzing this phenomenon is called "The Revolution Will Not Be Funded; Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex" by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. I bought my copy at Mayday Books!<br /><br />http://www.southendpress.org/2006/items/87662Ravenmnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11578771107514349258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3358148998045555545.post-30113179576041326652009-12-08T14:58:41.831-06:002009-12-08T14:58:41.831-06:00An essay at dissidentvoice on matters at least tan...An essay at dissidentvoice on matters at least tangentially related to the original post:<br /><br />http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/12/winters-of-discontent-from-seattle-to-copenhagen/<br /><br />QUOTE My concern is that in the US, a lot of what has happened in the ten years since Seattle is an accelerated version of what has been happening for a lot longer: the professionalization of dissent. We may now have the best educated, most tech-savvy, most grant-worthy, best-staffed progressive movement in the world. But that and three bucks will buy you a coffee at Starbucks, as the saying goes. If you have a situation where the comfortable are directing the struggle far more than the afflicted, then you have a pretty toothless movement. <br /><br />Only organizing based on a urgent sense of necessity ever enables real social progress. Only people who have become convinced that it is not possible for them to do otherwise will participate fully, for the long term.UNQUOTEAAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13242448989166177843noreply@blogger.com