OEN’s Rob Kall
Editor’s Note: We are gratified that our colleague Rob Kall (OpedNews) has kicked off a discussion that is long overdue. The longer the American left —puny or not—remains on the defensive and disorganized, mired in self-doubt, and easily outnumbered and outdone by the faux left, the worse its prospects for a meaningful role in the all-engulfing global crisis.
Rob has put together a list that enumerates just about all of the salient problems that make the current corporate-dominated status quo intolerable. It is telling that, at 55 points, it is a long indictment, a reflection of how rotten the situation has become at home. And Rob has generously left some things out: like forcing the Pentagon to leave or dismantle phony defensive alliances such as NATO. But the list provides a good departure point for a much needed analysis of Left options, and a compiled roadmap for activism in the years ahead if not a de facto program. One thing we would definitely mention in this context is that the American left has to find a way to neutralize the almost total dominance of the corporate media in its ability to shape the national debate. No battles will be won or stay won until we muster this essential strategic capability. American left activists must break out of the informational ghetto.
We understand this document as “transitional”, since the author still envisions a role for private corporations in the life of the nation. Whether capitalism can ever be tamed or “reformed” enough to function for long in a socially-responsible way is a debatable point. My own belief is that embryonic or not capitalism always constitutes a high risk for society and the earth, and its enormous ill effects on the commonwealth have been amply demonstrated by almost three uninterrupted centuries of expansion in all latitudes. What’s more, a mature capitalism, by nature a tyranny, is always profoundly hostile to democratic power. Those who pronounce “capitalist democracy” without wincing are fooling themselves or fooling others.—Patrice Greanville
One thing to do is expose why mainstream liberals are not the left. Another is to make alliances with progressive unionists to fortify the union movement as a bulwark against further erosion of citizens’ rights.
Good document, indeed. Lots to think about.
Gerry Frommer