[OPE] Responding to the crisis

Rather than flooding the list with links I'll briefly comment an article
by Mike Macnair, a brighter element of the otherwise deeply sectarian
British left-wing organizations.

    o Responding to the crisis
    Mike Macnair examines possible outcomes of the present economic
    crisis and outlines how the workers’ movement needs to respond with
    a programme of defence. Taking power in Europe must be our strategic
    goal.
    <http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/741/responding.html>

While I'm not entirely convinced by his economic analysis I think the
political analysis is correct. "Public ownership under democratic
control not merely shares in the banks, but the whole financial services
sector" would be an appropriate response to this crisis from the Left if
it were not for the fact of ideological excommunication from the
official public discourse. (Although when the bailout is to cost e.g.
the British government nearly the equivalent of one year's education
budget, this might be changing.) But such a response will not prevail if
implemented only on national level as Macnair makes clear. It is
therefore imperative that national left-wing parties and trade-unions
abandon their national-centric analysis (as is the case of Sweden) and
adopt at the very least a pan-European outlook and program.

Macnair is also right on when he writes:

    "The workers' movement will have to reconstruct the basics of
    /social solidarity/ --- support for the unemployed, pensioners and
    the sick, education and so on --- on the basis of its own resources.
    If it fails to do so, this role will be played --- as it is already
    beginning to be played --- by the churches and other religious
    organisations."

I think it is very important to counterpose social solidarity with charity.

//Dave Z
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Received on Sun Oct 19 10:10:49 2008