In a weekend discussion I was accused of being on the "far left" and trying to "destroy the President" because I pushed for the public option and disagreed with the pay freeze for federal employees and extending tax cuts for the rich. That makes me "far left."
For some time the right's strategy has been to push a far, far right view on the country, encouraging the farthest right of ideas to be circulated. (Overton Window, etc...) It has worked. The center has moved to the right, and to the right, and to the right. It makes those who are just day-to-day wingnuts sound almost reasonable.
Where is the real far left? How much easier would it be to move the center back if there really was a "far left" out there strategically pushing the goalposts?
So let me throw out a discussion question: What are some things that a real, honest-to-goodness "far left" would be agitating for, and why isn't anyone doing just that?
Here's a start:
Nationalize the oil companies.
Guaranteed job or income for everyone, put to work on infrastructure investment projects, alternative energy projects, retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient, etc.
Cradle-to-grave Medicare-For-All.
Child care for all.
Eldercare for all.
6 week paid vacation for everyone.
Triple Social Security's payments, lower retirement age to 55.
Worker representatives on Boards of Directors.
Limits to the how much of larger companies can be owned by a person or entity.
When companies reach a certain size they become public entities. (Because they have so much effect on everything.)
Companies responsible for externalized cost payback.
A person whose job is replaced by technology receives for life a share of the savings.
Bring back 90% top tax rates. (OK I have been agitating for that one.)
Very very high estate taxes on very large estates. Maybe up to 99% on estates over $1 billion.
Freedom from distraction. We have a right to our own attention, free from advertising and commercialization. The right to public spaces free from commercialization.
How many of these are even "far left" ideas? I'd agree with most of these. Basically I'm describing Europe here, not Maoist China.
So what about some honest-to-goodness "far left" ideas?
(Another installment in this excelelnt series! - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
Community organizers have been criticized for jumping from narrow issue to narrow issue without much sense of the "big picture." Too often organizing groups lack a coherent sense of the kind of social changes that would create the world they would like to have. They know how to demand discrete changes, but don't think enough about how to string these changes together into broad social transformation. In this post, I explore some challenges and tensions involved in bringing coherent actions in the present together with longer-term visions of social justice.
Those new to these posts may want to read Part I and Part II of "What is Organizing?" See the full series here. A paper giving an overview of current organizing challenges and a possible solution can be found here .
