Adjustments in order

  • July 13, 2021

To see economic and political processes in the present and future as simply a continuation, with slight modifications, of the past is analytically mistaken and politically counterproductive. A vibrant, open ended Marxism should take into account discontinuities, changing conjunctures, and new phenomena at the national and global level that emerge in the course of capitalist development and modify, not only the conditions for the production and realization of surplus value, but also class and democratic struggles at the national and global level. When these modifications are deep going and thus possess potential for far reaching economic, social, and political change, adjustments in strategy and tactics in an expansive and flexible direction are usually in order.

More an art than a science

  • July 13, 2021
The political coalition that scored victories last fall at the ballot box and this spring in the halls of Congress stretches from conservative William Kristol to CEO JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon to President Biden to AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka to Senator Bernie Sanders to AOC to long time radical Black activist Angela Davis. Like any coalition that is politically and socially diverse, it possesses, seldom in equal measure and rarely in a static state, cooperative and contested relations that structure and animate its interactions and policies.
 
Setting the agenda and defining the terms of engagement in this far flung coalition is the Biden administration. This isn’t to say that others in this coalition are voiceless or passive actors. Not at all.
 
Each presses its demands and priorities. Where differences and tensions arise (and they are inevitable), they usually pivot not around the direction, but the pace, scale, and scope of the reform process. Only on matters of foreign policy where the administration’s approach fits into the old Washington consensus are the differences of a more fundamental nature.
 
In these circumstances, politics becomes more an art than a science, in which differences are articulated and pressed, but not in such a way that they shred the threads of unity and cooperation on a wide range of issues. After all, unity was the template of last year’s victory at the ballot box and this year’s legislative successes, not to mention the main requirement to carry this coalition across the finish line victoriously in next year’s elections.
 
This coalition, to say the obvious, is locked into a titanic battle against another coalition that is its mirror opposite – white nationalist, authoritarian, and revanchist. And, without any sense of exaggeration, its outcome will position the country to either address the great challenges that it faces or throw it on a long, downward, and chaotic trajectory. If the latter, It may not end in “barbarism,” but the resemblance will be unmistakable and no exit will be in sight. 

A new look at old understandings

  • July 13, 2021

If the review is a fair representation of Bhaskar’s Sunkara’s new book, “The Socialist Manifesto,” I like the questions that Sunkara is exploring and the direction that he is suggesting. I’m impressed that he has the temerity to mention, according to the reviewer, the “counterrevolutionary” Kautsky in a favorable light.

Against the background of a left in the U.S. that hasn’t come close to “storming heaven” on the one hand and the experience of existing socialism in the 20th century – much of it went belly up – on the other, you would think that new thinking about socialism – what it looks like, who its protagonists are, and how to get there, not to mention the causes of its crisis and collapse in the first place (simply blaming “imperialism” is insufficient to say the least) – would be in high demand. But that isn’t the case. Old ideas, even when evidence isn’t on their side, resist burial, thanks to their zealous defenders of the faith who are captives of what my old friend Fred Gaboury called, the “politics of assertion,” while new ideas that challenge old understandings are quick to meet resistance by the same crowd.

I have said before that if anyone worries too much about defending yourself from criticism from the defenders of the faith on the left, they will probably serve up nothing but old bromides and formulas, dressed in a slightly different clothing and tone deaf to actual experience. The pressure to be “right” on the left militates against thinking that goes against the grain, as it applauds at the same time the repetition of received wisdom. And who needs that? Anyway, I look forward to reading Sunkara’s new book.

Missing

  • July 13, 2021

What is missing in Vanden Heuvel’s analysis is the imperative of popular action at the local and national level. Vocal support outside the halls of Congress, history tells us, complements the Biden-Democratic legislative initiatives and bills inside the House and Senate. Biden, Bernie, and Pelosi need the leverage of millions on the street to rein in their own caucus, defeat GOP opposition, and pass legislation that is game changing – a break from neoliberal economics and Trumpian politics. Nothing is more important at this moment. All eyes and energies – people and social movements – should be trained on this Congressional battle.

What do you think

  • July 13, 2021

I can’t quite understand why the coalition of organizations and people that elected Biden are not doing more to acquaint and win the support of the American people for Biden’s domestic agenda in general and the American Jobs Plan in particular. One would think that progressives and the left would be all over this, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I have some thoughts as to why, but I will leave that for some other post. What do you think?