[OPE-L] New Mailing List about Socialism

ehrbar@LISTS.ECON.UTAH.EDU

Announcement of mailing list about socialism.

In light of the recent call by Hugo Chavez about the need to
develop a socialism for the 21st Century, this seems like a
particularly appropriate time to re-start an old project---
a new mailing list which will discuss: what do we want
socialism to look like, and how can it be built?

(1) We will not discuss the old canard whether it is
legitimate to write cookbooks for the kitchens of the
future.  Socialism has been feasible for a long time, and
even if it is not politically feasible in the USA right now,
the time when it becomes feasible may arrive much more
quickly than we all think.  Even at the present moment it is
politically feasible in a country like Venezuela and Cuba.

(2) Rather we will discuss what we should have learned from
the attempts to build socialism in the 20th century,
what is not to be done and what must be done.

(3) We live in a new century with a new global context.
What does this mean for the socialism we are going to build?

(4) Utopias are permitted.  Many different kinds of
socialism are possible, and we must know what our goal is in
order to build it.  A utopian idea of socialism cannot be
refuted by a proof that it cannot be reached, but only by
the development of better utopias or by the proof that what
seems to be an utopia is really a nightmare.

(5) Past experience shows that this discussion will not
spontaneously evolve in a fruitful direction.  Therefore it
will be a moderated list in which all postings of new
subscribers will be subject to moderation.  At the
beginning, Hans Ehrbar will be the moderator, in
consultation with Al Campbell, Paul Cockshott and Mike
Lebowitz.

To subscribe, go to

http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/socialism

or send an email to

socialism-request@lists.econ.utah.edu

which says "subscribe" in its header or body.