All Power to the Soviets

Even with his convincing victory in Indiana, we have to admit, Bernie has Burned his Bern and Roared his Roar, but no, he's not going to be the Democratic nominee. He is absolutely right, I think, to  stay in through California, to take his issues to the convention, to give his voters, as he says, the chance to show their preference for him. And to point the way to bigger victories to come.

The French protest movement Nuit Debout, which has been equally inspiring in its way (see previous posts), may be reaching its term as well. Alliances with the unions and the immigrant citées have failed to materialize, and though some see the increasing tension and scuffling with police as a next stage, I suspect the creative, open-ended, 'horizontal' phase will be hard to sustain, just as Occupy Wall Street was, after a while. The many voices who say that Occupy was futile, though, are simply wrong: it has borne much fruit in the BlackLivesMatter and $15 wage movements, not to mention the Sanders campaign--and Nuit Debout, which has inspired much poetry, may prove equally consequential in the longer run.

Ours nonetheless remains a time of retrenchment: we Americans will be asked in November to choose between a center-right conservative and a demagogic, racist, misogynist, xenophobic asshole. Most of the European social democracies aren't doing much better. Syriza seems trapped in a blind alley, Podemos hasn't made the leap to governance, Labour is confronting some ugly skeletons in its closet, and Left parties all over Europe are abandoning their social goals. Politics in the formerly social democracies is increasingly reduced to a contest between upholders of the corporatist status quo, and far-right nationalists. Not a pretty sight.

But we go on because we have no choice. Deep down we know that Big Corporations and Big Finance will drive us over the cliff, promoting ever grosser inequalities on the way  to environmental disaster. There is an emerging eco-socialist alternative, at least in theory and sometimes in local practice. The young people in the place de la République are trying to invent new forms of social organization. So are all those people at Bernie rallies, and in thousands of other movements, projects, and initiatives all over the world. Green energy, local sustainable agriculture, cooperative and shared economic structures--a new world is taking shape here and there. The young get it--they know their futures are at stake. Even in this cold rain there are signs of spring.