The Wall Street bailout and the threat of dictatorship - WSWS

[steve2470]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/oct2008/bail-o02.shtml

By Bill Van Auken, Socialist Equality Party vice presidential candidate
2 October 2008

Recriminations have continued to reverberate internationally over the vote in the US House of Representatives Monday to reject a $700 billion bailout package for the Wall Street banks.

Much of the opposition in the 228-to-205 vote to defeat the bailout was attributed to representatives—Democratic and Republican alike—who face tight races for their seats in November and fear being tarred by their opponents as shills for Wall Street who handed over hundreds of billions in taxpayers’ money to the CEOs and speculators who are responsible for the crisis.

In this sense, the overwhelming hostility of ordinary working people toward this massive transfer of public resources to the super-rich found its expression, highly distorted as it was, in the measure’s temporary demise.

What is the lesson drawn by much of the political establishment, as reflected in media commentary? That the American government is too susceptible to the will of the people to respond as required to the demands of finance capital.

more at link above

[tama]

1. “But the revolution has irresponsibility in its soul.” n/t

[tama]

2. My beef with WSWS

(as a former member of a trotter party of IS-tendency) Is that the historical self-analysis of revolutionary socialists as the avant-guarde top guys leads them the self-pompous buffoonery that will never achieve anything real.

If revolutionary socialists were not just the other side of the totalitarian coin (the dialectical other side being capitalistic totalitarianism) but humble and decent folks like the rest of us, they might even be tolerable.

Don't take me wrong, these guys are usually organizational wonders with nearly endless energy, and it would be great to see that energy working for the common good instead of getting tainted by dogmatism and particanship.

Really, are international socialism (even in the most extreme form of tyranny of industrial workers) and "ecoanarchistic" ecocommunities truly opposing forces and ideologies?

Ecocommunities are so far mainly fragile sprouts and seeds and dialectic between international socialists taking over the world governement in their folly of universalist & technocratic (eco)totalitarianism and anti-universalist local ecocommunalism growing under their shadow into what was supposed to be "communism" - so no, I'm not against revolutionary socialists even though in my experience they have no idea what real communism/anarchism means, it's not "out there" but choise that is available each moment, even for Europeans - it's what hippies DO!. So what I'm saying I'm all for letting also international socialists play their evil part in the drama of history. ;)