The left has been very slow to bring forward a program and platform that liberals can relate to. The majority of the working class is "liberal thinking." I think many on the left like Hedges tend to confuse "neo-liberalism" with "liberalism" and there is no kind of association between the two. The labor leaders Hedges refers to are "neo-liberals" not liberals... ditto for the Democratic Party.
Liberals are not the enemy. They are liberals because for one reason or another they are not acting on their liberal thoughts.
The left, on its own, is far too small to do anything on its own other than be a catalyst for change... at the point where liberals agree with leftists to act on the ideas we share we get a progressive movement/s.
It was such mass progressive movements that won the New Deal reforms of the 1930's and the important Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's.
Hedges gets away with this because it has been "New Left" thinking, which rejects "liberalism," that has dominated our movements for far too long.
Ironically, it has been many of the "gurus" of the New Left who reject liberals who have become the biggest supporters of the NEO-LIBERAL Barack Obama... but, turning so far left as Hedges does to make enemies of our liberal friends will not move us any further along the road to peace, social and economic justice and socialism.
I hope we get some real discussion on this... I might be wrong but I don't think I am and I welcome Hedges and his supporters to challenge me by explaining how the left is going to stop Obama and Wall Street and turn this country around.
A short while ago, Hedges seemed to lament and regret the demise of the Communist Party and the many united fronts and unions it led as part of "the people's front."
It is very unfortunate that a small group of right opportunists most likely employed by the FBI as part of its COINTELPRO operation, have hi-jacked the Communist Party USA but we are trying to correct this. In the meantime left wing people are going to have to muddle through this Wall Street assault on the world through wars and austerity at home by organizing some kind of socialist study and political action clubs in their neighborhoods, where they work and go to school.
For the open-minded on the left who aren't afraid to read the ideas of someone who has been viciously attacked from the left and the right I suggest they check out a book by the architect of the "people's front," Earl Browder, who wrote a book by the same name, "The People's Front." This book was the most widely read book among workers and farmers seeking real change. The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party built the most powerful political organization that ever existed in the United States around the ideas embodied in this book... you can get the book through Internet used booksellers or order it through your local library usually through inter-library loan programs.
Liberals are not the enemy. They are liberals because for one reason or another they are not acting on their liberal thoughts.
The left, on its own, is far too small to do anything on its own other than be a catalyst for change... at the point where liberals agree with leftists to act on the ideas we share we get a progressive movement/s.
It was such mass progressive movements that won the New Deal reforms of the 1930's and the important Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's.
Hedges gets away with this because it has been "New Left" thinking, which rejects "liberalism," that has dominated our movements for far too long.
Ironically, it has been many of the "gurus" of the New Left who reject liberals who have become the biggest supporters of the NEO-LIBERAL Barack Obama... but, turning so far left as Hedges does to make enemies of our liberal friends will not move us any further along the road to peace, social and economic justice and socialism.
I hope we get some real discussion on this... I might be wrong but I don't think I am and I welcome Hedges and his supporters to challenge me by explaining how the left is going to stop Obama and Wall Street and turn this country around.
A short while ago, Hedges seemed to lament and regret the demise of the Communist Party and the many united fronts and unions it led as part of "the people's front."
It is very unfortunate that a small group of right opportunists most likely employed by the FBI as part of its COINTELPRO operation, have hi-jacked the Communist Party USA but we are trying to correct this. In the meantime left wing people are going to have to muddle through this Wall Street assault on the world through wars and austerity at home by organizing some kind of socialist study and political action clubs in their neighborhoods, where they work and go to school.
For the open-minded on the left who aren't afraid to read the ideas of someone who has been viciously attacked from the left and the right I suggest they check out a book by the architect of the "people's front," Earl Browder, who wrote a book by the same name, "The People's Front." This book was the most widely read book among workers and farmers seeking real change. The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party built the most powerful political organization that ever existed in the United States around the ideas embodied in this book... you can get the book through Internet used booksellers or order it through your local library usually through inter-library loan programs.
1 comment:
Interesting post. For some reason, I always get depressed when I read an article by Chris Hedges or listen to one of his talks. He always seems to have the same message - it's hopeless, just go home and don't bother about it. We used to have someone who talked like that in the single payer movement in Seattle - only it turned out some CIA-funded left gatekeeper foundation had paid him to infiltrate our single payer coalition (kinda like Obama in Chicago).
By the way, the last time I talked to any members of CP-USA, they were little old ladies in their late 60s. I assumed most of them were dead now.
I write about my experiences in the single payer movement in my recent memoir THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE (www.stuartbramhall.com). I currently live in exile in New Zealand.
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