The Movement We Need

                  There is not nothing more left to say, this text says all.  This post is a summary of the book with the incomplete title above published at https://www.thepeopleslobbyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/The-Movement-We-Need-Web1.pdf

                   The global economic crisis gave us all a glimpse of the rot at the center of our economy and politics. Despite the repeated efforts of elites around the world to put everything back together, the crisis has not been resolved. In the everyday lives of the majority of people, it is clear that there has been no real recovery. In moments like this, progressive activists, the pragmatic left, environmental groups, human rights organizations and community organizations must look beyond small scale, short-term fights. Fundamental change is becoming not just desirable but unavoidable. We must set an agenda for a more progressive future, or we will end up in a world even less humane than the one we already have. We must move from a politics of merely exposing injustice through critique to end injustice. We have to move beyond identifying injustice to understanding why it happens in order to change it. Real progress towards equality is impossible without addressing  political and economic exclusion. Movements for rights have made some headway, but so far there have been no serious attempts to deal with the underlying economic forces which render so many and so vulnerable. Any movement to address the vulnerability will find itself constrained by the demands of the market. True justice will eventually require that we eliminate the inequality that currently exists. We have arrived at a point in history where this kind of transformation has become possible. In the 1970s, stagnating productivity had generated the economic dysfunctions of stagflation and undermine popular faith in the establishment. The neoliberal solution was to break the back of organized labor and inspire an even more intense atmosphere of competitive individualism. Neoliberalism unleashed the dynamic power of capitalist development only to know find itself stymied by ever-expanding stocks of capital and ever-narrowing opportunities for their investment. This marks a moment of great danger. Yet the paralysis of a global system also presents us with the chance, for the first time in decades, to fundamentally change the course of our socviety. It's an opportunity we must start taking seriously. The status quo was virtually unassailable. The system itself increased inequality, destroyed unions, and narrowed the civil public sector. Those who wanted something better were reduced either to impotent condemnation or to narrow defensive campaigns against the offensive. The crucial question in our historical moment is not whether there should be growth, but what kind of growth there could be. Economical development can take a distinctly progressive form, one that not only makes ecologically sustainable life a possibility, but that also opens the door to even more political possibilities. A more inclusive society must be based on productive long-term investment. Rather than consigning the economically excluded to the ineffectual care of charities and aid programs, productive investment would actively integrate them into the economy. It would generate a form of growth that by its very logic would reduce inequality, raise the standard of living of those who suffer deprivation, and extend social recognition to those who are treated as trash. The full power of transnational solidarity is not yet evident, but we have had glimpses of its potential. The brutality of the global system has been horrifying demonstrated by preventable disasters. A new global movement must demand that transnational bodies, multinational corporations, and national governments participate in the creation of new, legally-binding global standards governing labor rights, corporate taxes, and environmental protection. We must reject the unfortunate trend of nationalism. This is incompatible with international solidarity. The best traditions emphasize internationalism, human equality regardless of nation, and global solidarity among all of the political excluded. Unlike the champions of neoliberal globalization, progressives understand that our current global society is not one of universal opportunity and progress, but one of inequality, exploitation and political exclusion. The answer, however, is not destroy global society. The answer is to make it just. Those guided by justice and love have been blessed with the terrible fortune of bearing witness to the slow motion collapse of our social and political systems. We have a choice: do we retreat into fear, or do we expand our compassion to new terrains? Do we huddle in desperate enclaves hoping to survive the looming environmental and social catastrophes, or do we address them head-on with a breadth of imagination and intensity that has been missed? What we have outlined is a new way to understand the intolerable injustices and excruciating dilemmas we face today.