Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> "William C. Meecham" wrote:
> >
> > This is provokingly pessimistic.  Most of Europe is governed by Socialist
> > parties, almost all of East Europe is as well as the largest nation in the
> > world.
> >
> > At 09:26 PM 6/12/02 -0500, you wrote:
> > >All statements, positive or negative, about "The Left" are false or,
> > >more precisely, utterly vacuous -
>
> You have heard I assume of Gramsci's "pessimism of the intellect,
> optimism of the will"?
>
> But I suspect it's not pessimism/optimism at issue here, I suspect, so
> much as conflicting views of what "A left" would be like. It certainly
> would not look anything like either the Socialist Parties of Europe

Assuming Meecham must have meant "social democratic" parties in Europe,
why wouldn't a viable leftist party in the US look like one of the
social democratic parties in Norway, for example?  Norway has universal
health care, outstanding public transport, strong environmental
conscience (support for whaling and seal hunting notwithstanding);
Norway doesn't bomb or invade anyone, advocates a strong UN, supports
peace initiatives wherever they pop up...

> even the extreme "left" wing of the Democratic Party in the U.S.

There is no extreme left wing of the Democratic party.

> [...] If "A Left"
> existed in the U.S. its two central concerns  would be (a) providing
> real resistance to u.s. foreign policy (ANY foreign policy -- it is
> utopian to think that while capitalism survives there will ever be an
> elected government in the u.s. which will follow a foreign policy that
> could even be critically supported by a left) and (b) the discrediting
> of the Democratic Party.

Then I agree with Meecham that your view is provokingly pessimistic.
You're claiming that if and when the left does form, it will immediately
become irrelevant.

martin

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