Dear Richard,
Bravo. Your analysis of the predicament of democracy and the
plight of the progressives is astute and well put. I agree entirely with
your critique of single-issue movements. Of course I don't agree with
your insistence on the nation-state as the framework for organizing a
broad coalition of progressive forces. The megacorporate interests and
the states that front for them pay less and less attention to that
framework, and antisystemic movements must follow suit if they wish to be
effective. There is no reason why a global party could not have national
chapters active in national politics, but if the focus of each national
segment of the world party is largely national, and each segment gets
embroiled and swallowed up in national issues, and there is no
supranational party structure coordinating all efforts at the regional,
national, and local level, megacorporate globalization will just proceed
on its merry way. The sine qua non, for me, is a world political movement
that is firmly set on a course toward a global democratic state. Such
internationalism, in 1996, is not "premature." The real problem is that
It may already be too late.
Nonetheless, I like your article very much, and I note that it
really IS concerned with praxis!
Good luck,
Warren