Liberal WP and WS

Dear WSNers: just a note of clarification on the proposals for a liberal 
wp. It
does not follow that a more moderate approach to a WP is a rejection of the 
view
that the world system must be taken into account. What is rejected is the 
view
that a worker's revolution with a Marxist ideology is the solution. The 
call for
more creative proposals is a call for proposals that address the role of big
money and power. Aren't there ways of restricting the behavior of global
capitalism short of violent revolution? An effective world party would try 
to
establish power centers in various countries that could help to enforce 
policies
enacted by global institutions like the UN. The problem with the UN is that 
it
has no teeth. If member countries wish to ignore, they often can. However, 
if UN
actions/policies had the backing of a wp in the various member counties, 
then
they might be effective. THink of how much more successful the Rio 
environmental
summit would have been if Bush had had to deal with a powerful environmental
constituency back home. So the liberal wp acknowledges the existence of a 
world
system; it is just that a different approach is called for.

The argument that this is simply not enough is utopian in my view if it 
implies
that a world government is the only solution. Again, it isn't going to 
happen,
and it wouldn't be a good thing anyway.

I am also struck by the fact that some on this list seemed to have missed a
great deal of recent history. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the 
discrediting
of non-market approaches to the economy seem not to have registered with 
some
people. Yes, we need to work on restricting the market, but the idea that 
there
are non-totalitarian and effective non-market economic arrangements just 
doesn't
seen plausible.

Randy Groves