These are not the best of times for the American left. As our unions represent fewer workers while industries downsize, as left parties atrophy (and even Ralph Nader is demonized as a spoiler) lots of activism moves on– online –few mass based radical organizations or movements. The radical left has shrunk, and is clearly ageing even as its analysis may be more relevant than ever

For years, there have been debates about what’s left of the left. The long hair of years past is now dominated by white hair in many cases but, there is still fire in the rhetoric and passion of those carrying on the American radical tradition in the fight for a better world.

I spent part of Saturday and Sunday at Cooper Union, the institution that hosted the Abraham Lincoln-Stephen Douglass Debate before the civil war. Talk about old.
The annual Left Forum was in town with a plethora of panels and discussions of a kind that are all too rare these days on campuses or even on TV, except for an occasional public access show or C-SPAN event.

The Left Forum 2007 on the theme of “Organizing a Radical Political Future” was ably organized by Julie Ruben and drew 1500 paying participants– including activists and academics from 30 countries. There was even a delegation from the People’s Republic of China discussing that country’s brand of market Leninism. (Even though China seems to have taken the Capitalist road, they insist theirs if a “socialist” market economy. It was announced at the session that China has just formed a new Marxist Institute, news that will not exactly be welcomed on Wall Street which is so dependent on China.)

All the left magazines and publishers were also on hand and the discussion sessions among the comrades were packed and volatile as you would expect.

“We live in dark times, but also hopeful times,” says their welcoming statement. The Forum posed three questions that were debated endlessly and without any consensus:

“Is protest and resistance a sufficient strategy to stay the hand of the forces of global devastation? Is reform the farthest horizon of our own hopes, or, if not, what are the steps towards fundamental economic, political and social transformation? Can the Left advance an alternative vision capable of capturing the popular imagination?”

Some of the discussions exploring these issues were intellectually charged. Others seemed predictable and polemical.

I was disappointed that the Forum did NOT have any panels addressing media issues or media reform or even any debates about a force that dominates our culture and shapes ideology. Even as we live in media drenched society, the left seems to have tuned out staying with older issues. That may be because the Forum attracts a bookish crowd that doesn’t watch TV. There were also no bands playing or films shown.

Deedee Halleck from Deep Dish TV was there selling new DVDS of historic Paper Tiger shows from the archive that had prominent intellectuals commenting on what’s missing in the media. See www.papertiger.org

Deedee also took some pictures of some of the “delegates.” The email she sent me was labeled “left forlorn.”
www.deedeehalleck.blogspot.com

That could see between progressives and liberals, activists and Democrats” I attended provocative panels on the future of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the state of the debate in post apartheid South Africa, culture and radicalism, a survey of the prospects for America’s unions and two on our economy. I will report more on those later.

Years ago, there used to be socialist scholars conferences. But Socialism seems now to be deemed a non-starter. The Left Forum seems loosely based on the World Social Forum approach—a big tent in which all perspectives can be heard. There were people there I haven’t seen in years and they struck me as old as I may have struck them. But still members of a community that sometimes feels like a tribe or subculture.

There were some younger people there but not enough to sustain these forums unless more is done to popularize a more progressive perspective and find a way to bring a new generation into the mix and the fight. That will take progressive media. There was a panel on student movements but the generational and culture clashes that need to be looked at analytically were not as discussed as much as one would have liked. I guess you can’t do everything but clearly fresh blood is needed.

It was a nice Sunday in New York, and the streets of the Lower East Side were packed. But so were the halls of Cooper Union where radical left ideas reigned but have yet to rule. I was glad I stopped by.

THE DEATH OF INTERNET RADIO

From The doc searl weblog:

On the continuing death of Internet radio Internet Radio on Death Row is a 5,399-word piece I just put up on Linux Journal. In it you’ll find background on the tortured logic behind the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision last Friday to execute Internet radio as we know it. Again.

Only this time Jesse Helms isn’t around to save it. We have to find other means. Or it will die.

Here’s some background many mainstream (and online) journals are missing: The insane fee structure that the CRB process today impose on Internet radio traces back to a deal between Yahoo and the RIAA that was based on plans Mark Cuban made when he was still at Broadcast.com (the company he founded and sold to Yahoo for $5.7 billion) that were intended to snooker small webcasters out of a market that Broadcast.com/Yahoo then dominated…

http://doc.weblogs.com/

CNN HIRES TOM “THE HAMMER” DELAY AS COMMENTATOR

By Mary MacElveen

In an op-ed piece written by John Fund former Congressman Tom ‘The Hammer’ Delay will be joining CNN as a commentator. Oh great, just what America needs is another hot-headed and spiteful pundit on the airwaves. As if the American people did not have enough coming from the likes of Ann Coulter. Just to show how stupid an idea this is coming from CNN, why don’t they create a program called ‘The Hammer and the Man-her Show’? Then again, Ann may wish top billing.

This is what DeLay said of this deal, “I may be their only conservative on air, but someone has to do it.” Note to Tom DeLay: quite the contrary, you do not have to do it. In fact, we have heard quite enough coming from you over the years and here we thought we may never hear from you again. Life is certainly cruel if this is the best that stations like CNN can offer their viewers. Then again to offset this cruelty we will only have to look forward to what Keith Olbermann has to say of this on his MSNBC show Countdown. What name can he give DeLay as he has called Bill O’Reilly, “Bill-O”? I cannot wait to hear his commentaries.

CNN often gives conservative pundits such as Bay Buchanan a podium. Do they really need another? In fact this is what Buchanan stated of those who were the victims of Hurricane Katrina while on CNN’s ‘Situation Room’ with Wolf Blizter, “I think Katrina has worn its welcome.- I think the American people are tired of it.” In a response fax to Bay Buchanan sent on April 28, 2006, I wrote in part, “Would you dare say that of those who died on September 11, 2001? In both situations, there was massive loss of life.”

And What about Glenn Beck? CNN seems to be trying to outfox Fox, a testament to the absence of new ideas.