A Pretty Good Election, but the Right Still Rules (tags)
The November 6, 2012 election turned out fairly well for progressives — from Barack Obama retaining the presidency to a true Left-wing Democrat like Bob Filner winning for Mayor of San Diego — but the Right is still strong. The issue agendas and terms of discussion continue to be dictated by an increasingly militant Right wing and America's pathetic, ill-organized remnant of a Left no longer has the power to put pressure on the political system for progressive reforms the way it did in the 1890's, 1930's and 1960's.
Labor Radicalism Alive & Well in U.S., Smith Says (tags)
Author and activist Sharon Smith came to San Diego to speak to Occupy San Diego's Labor Solidarity Committee, the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and other community members September 1, but it was her unannounced co-speaker -- a teachers' union activist from Chicago identified only as Becca -- who galvanized the crowd. Smith used the Chicago teachers' union struggle as an example that radical labor activism in the U.S. is alive and well despite decades of repression from the ruling class.
Occupy Wall Street and its sister movements, including Occupy San Diego, have dramatically changed the terms of political and economic debate in the U.S. Before they arose, it looked like the only choices the American people would be given to understand the disaster that has befallen them in this nation's economic collapse was the mild pro-corporatism of the Democratic Party and the ardent, Ayn Randian pro-corporatism of the Republicans and the Tea Party. What's more, so far the Occupy protesters have shown an ability to learn from the Left's past mistakes, pattern their movement after the American Revolution (as the Tea Party did) and junk the hideously unworkable process of consensus decision-making.
Tea Party America and How to Fight It (tags)
The recent debate in Washington, D.C. over raising the debt ceiling has underscored just how totally the radical Right in general and the "Tea Party" in particular have taken over America's political debate and the economic and social consciousness of a majority of Americans. The remnant of a Left that still survives in America can only fight back if it first realizes, like a rehab patient, that we've "hit bottom" and then musters the kind of internal and external discipline it will take to mount an effective counter-attack. Instead of critiquing ourselves in public, we need to settle our differences behind closed doors, present an image of rock-solid unity to the outside world and get rid once and for all of the insanity of "consensus decision-making."
Bin Laden: Justice or Revenge? (tags)
The recent killing of Osama bin Laden by a U.S. Navy SEAL team spells an end to a remarkably successful terror operation that, by mounting one effective attack on September 11, 2001, ratcheted up the level of terror and fear in the U.S.; provided public support for a long-standing radical-Right agenda to effectively eliminate the due-process rights of the U.S. Constitution and put Americans under continuous surveillance; gave the Bush administration the pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq (the Obama administration has upped the number of wars the U.S. is fighting against Muslim nations from two to three by participating in the so-called ?no-fly zone? in Libya); and in general undermined American security while also encouraging millions of people in the Muslim world to take up terrorism out of hatred against America. The climate of fear carefully created by the U.S. government and corporate media around bin Laden is too useful to the Right-wing corporate agenda for them to allow it to be dispelled simply because bin Laden is no more.