The Corrosive Impact of the 60s Left on the Movement Today
Recently, correspondent “Wormbin” (an interesting nom de guerre) raised an important point regarding the continued and
powerful influence of the “old school” veterans of the 60s’ and the overwhelmingly dominant approach that reduces organizing to around the terms of redistribution of our society’s wealth—more jobs, more benefits, better working conditions and cedes to capital the major decisions and initiative in organizing the power of the market and deciding on what to produce, how to produce it, management, technology, the terms of finance, etc.
Much of the left and activist movement is finally only comfortable with the mechanisms of the state as the defender of public and economic interests. Not that all the aspects of redistribution aren’t important—they must remain a key foundation of our efforts. They are required but insufficient as I argue in my earlier article on markets.
