Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Social Democracy 4/8/09
Surely not in America. Well, Bill Moyers had an interesting conversation on it a couple of weeks back and here is a response - I Love Bill Moyers, but He's Wrong About Socialism.
The author's conclusion.
The left needs to help build grassroots movements and a political party that will confront the rule of corporations and Wall Street--something the Democratic Party cannot do no matter how much we push Obama to the left, given the place of finance and the corporations in the party. We need such movements, and an independent party that represents them, not only to wrest concessions and victories today but also so that people can learn how to truly govern themselves tomorrow. And along with activism, we need at least multiple sketches, if not a single blueprint, of a workable socialist future. If we are not inspired and guided by the vision of a socialist alternative, in the end the corrupt financial and political elites that have brought us to this point will continue to run the show.
And from a blog - Global Labor's Forgotten Plan to Fight the Great Depression.
In the early 1930s, as global unemployment tripled in two years and the world plunged into the Great Depression, the world’s labor movements developed a program for fighting the global crisis through international public works. It’s a little-known historical might-have-been that could have helped halt the Great Depression, the rise of Adolph Hitler, and the Second World War. And, as the efforts of world leaders to address today’s “Great Recession” threaten to break down in nationalist rivalry and petty political bickering, it bears lessons – and perhaps an alternative vision – for today.
Workers and organized labor have historically advocated government public works as a solution to unemployment. Not only would they provide jobs and income for those directly employed, but they would raise overall purchasing power, thereby creating demand for the products of other workers and creating a virtuous circle of economic growth. In the context of swelling unemployment in the early Depression, discussion of national public works programs developed in many countries.
The author's conclusion.
The left needs to help build grassroots movements and a political party that will confront the rule of corporations and Wall Street--something the Democratic Party cannot do no matter how much we push Obama to the left, given the place of finance and the corporations in the party. We need such movements, and an independent party that represents them, not only to wrest concessions and victories today but also so that people can learn how to truly govern themselves tomorrow. And along with activism, we need at least multiple sketches, if not a single blueprint, of a workable socialist future. If we are not inspired and guided by the vision of a socialist alternative, in the end the corrupt financial and political elites that have brought us to this point will continue to run the show.
And from a blog - Global Labor's Forgotten Plan to Fight the Great Depression.
In the early 1930s, as global unemployment tripled in two years and the world plunged into the Great Depression, the world’s labor movements developed a program for fighting the global crisis through international public works. It’s a little-known historical might-have-been that could have helped halt the Great Depression, the rise of Adolph Hitler, and the Second World War. And, as the efforts of world leaders to address today’s “Great Recession” threaten to break down in nationalist rivalry and petty political bickering, it bears lessons – and perhaps an alternative vision – for today.
Workers and organized labor have historically advocated government public works as a solution to unemployment. Not only would they provide jobs and income for those directly employed, but they would raise overall purchasing power, thereby creating demand for the products of other workers and creating a virtuous circle of economic growth. In the context of swelling unemployment in the early Depression, discussion of national public works programs developed in many countries.
Labels: Hell In Handbasket
