Richard Wolff: It's time for a powerful unified left organization in the United States

[marmar]

[roamer65]

1. Yup, like Canada's NDP.

We need a Social Democratic Party.

[totodeinhere]

10. Perhaps we should point out however that for all its good intentions the NDP

has never formed a federal government in Canada since its founding in 1961. Yet during that same time period conservative parties have formed several federal governments and now hold an outright majority in parliament.

We need a strong effective party on the left but we need one that can actually win elections.

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. I'll just say +1 ...

I agree.

[rhett o rick]

2. We need to attack this on two fronts. One is to work like hell to oust the damn conservatives

out of our Democratic Party. Do not donate to candidates via the conservative controlled DNC. Support outside organizations that are working to elect progressive Democrats. Donate directly to candidates.

[PFunk]

4. I agree. And the sooner the better.

In fact I think the current democratic party seems like it's rapidly becoming the home of disaffected moderate repugs aka DINO's who are trying to turn it into a new repug party minus the racist/sexist/homophobic baggage. That is if real dems don't start countering it ASAP.

[Doctor_J]

6. The other is do something about Big Media. It's the single biggest factor in our slide to fascism

As long as every TV, newspaper, radio station, and soon internet provider, is owned by a far-right cabal, any movement will be able to talk only amongst itself.

[Dustlawyer]

14. If we all focus on demanding candidates support

Publicly Funded Elections and Complete Campaign Finance Reform (CCFR) we can regain our a representative Democracy. Once achieved we can then bust up the media and Banking conglomerates. We can the pass laws requiring "news shows" be labeled that instead of "Entertainment" which has allowed them to legally lie (Fox won an appeal that said b/c they were entertainment they didn't have to be truthful).
We increase all regulatory agencies budgets after stopping the revolving door with the industries they are supposed to regulate, especially Wall Street and the EPA.
Nothing will change unless we can get the money out of our elections. A vast majority of Americans admit our politicians are bought off, Repug and Democrats alike. We can do this if we focus on this instead of all of the issues we face that are symptoms of this underlying corruption.
Support groups like Wolf-PAC.com!

[rhett o rick]

15. Most importantly we need someone to be working on a strategy for a progressive resurgence.

That includes how to get the word out in spite of the oligarch owned media.

[xchrom]

3. du rec.

[Autumn]

5. Well past time.

Recommended.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. This, although highly desired, is NOT as easy as most folks think...

Agreement on immediate ISSUES over a wide swath of the left IS relatively easy, but that's only good enough for coalitions, not a real party. Even a loosely organized one.

I can give personal examples. The group I belong to (Worker's Power-US) is a member section of the League for a Fifth International. This international group thinks we need another Marxist international because the Third was dissolved by Stalin as an accommodation to the western capitalist powers and Trotsky's Fourth International never really got off the ground and sank into irrelevancy. Ergo the need for a Fifth. This is a form of wider left organization internationally, so it kind of fits the bill. Except you have a LOT of Trotskyist groups that don't want to give up any autonomy at ALL, even though the national sections have the major say on national issues. Even though this autonomy is there, the Fourth International groupings don't see the need for a new international and don't want to give up ANY autonomy or the leadership positions they hold in the Fourth. In addition, the OTHER Marxist groups that are not Trotskyists, including the Stalinist Communist Parties worldwide don't seem to think we even need any sort of international organization at all. And even if they DID come around to the idea of an international, say a reconvening of the Third, it wouldn't be with Trots.

But the League is Marxist. What about the Left that ISN'T Marxist? Well there are a lot of anti-capitalists out there who aren't Marxists, mostly of the anarchist stripe. So you could conceivably have an anti-capitalist grouping that would have a lot in common. Or at least the MAJOR commonality of seeing the need for a change in economic system. And there's some movement in THAT direction in Europe with the anti-capitalist parties and united fronts happening all over like Left Unity in Britain and Der Linke, the NAO and others groups in Germany and Austria. This would probably be the actual way to go as it seems to having at least a little success.

But the anti-capitalist left is still a relatively small part of the left. To bring in a wider attendance you'd have to appeal to left reformists who think that capitalism can be "saved" or reformed. Revolutionaries and reformists will never come together even in a loosely organized actual party. Because one group thinks capitalism can be "saved" and one doesn't. Hence, the best that will happen over a broader left is temporary coalitions over specific issues.

[Demeter]

8. There are Two Kinds of Power: Coercion, and Empowerment

People who opt for Empowerment don't go in for Coercion.

And yet, a powerful, unified Left organization would in fact be coercive either by intent, by structure, or both. Empowerment doesn't work in a Win/Lose game environment, which is what our political system is built to be.

Anyone who works at empowerment is taking the risk that their labors will enable others who didn't believe in "universality" to coerce their fellow man.

That is why public education, which uses coercion for promoting empowerment, is getting canned. It's one or the other, not a balance between the two, or rapid seesawing between, like a bipolar illness.

That's why Obamacare is so despised. Too much coeercion, too little empowerment, and too great a cost.

That's why the Bill of Rights was so important to the first Americans, and why it is under relentless attack by the NSA, FBI, CIA, the Supreme Court etc.

I don't know the solution to this....we've never had a successful Empowerment movement in history, to my knowledge. Look at how Occupy got slammed...the best example of Empowerment I've ever seen. I can only hope that the yeast of Empowerment is building up enough pressure and ferment to blow Coercion out of the water.

[smallcat88]

11. Call me naive

but I think we gave up on Occupy too soon. And if the inequality gap continues to grow - and it show no signs of stopping - we might still see a resurgence of the Occupy movement. One of the greatest drivers of an Empowerment movement is grinding the populace into the ground, something the corporate powers are getting better and better at.

In the end, the solution may actually come from those propping up corporate America. Occupy proved that some are willing to stand up and fight back. Just not enough yet to keep the movement going. But that could change if the current system continues to screw people. If enough people reach the breaking point . . .

[jwirr]

9. Long past time.

[pa28]

16. This is how we'll finally overcome the "lesser of two evils" trap.

The left needs to organize itself, raise it's own money and groom it's own candidates.

Unions and labor would seem to be the natural leaders and I would love to see them stop donating to party and start building a well funded political organization of their own within the party.

Can't recommended this video highly enough.

[pa28]

17. Kick.