Marxist Geographer David Harvey on the G20, the Financial Crisis and Neoliberalism. 4/2/09 3 of 3

[Burdell22000]

And also Lula is a false populist that is giving crumbs to the voters while negotiating with China/France/USA how to sell the big chips out of the country, I don´t know how he can have fooled Chomsky and, by extension, this poor old man who, by the way, just borrowed his sweater

[Schniddo]

@Burdell22000 Harvey isn't talking about Lula though, he stresses the significance of the social movements which give contemporary Brazilian politics their character. That is not to say that the situation over there is ideal, the point is that these movements need to gain size and confidence and reach a level of political clout whereby they can start to mould the future of the country themselves. Isn't that socialism in a nutshell?

[Burdell22000]

The reason why in 2009 there are still pro-marxist people means 1) that they haven´t read Das Kapital o either 2) that they don´t pay attention to XIX-XX-XXIth century econometrics

[Schniddo]

@Burdell22000 What on earth does that mean? Even mainstream economists like Martin Wolf aren't so foolish as to dismiss Marx in that way.

[kskshghg]

Harvey didn't say that Obama DOES have a powerful social movement behind him, like Lula--that's ridiculous. Harvey knows Obama isn't Lula. He said Obama NEEDS a movement to start transforming the establishment. I don't think Harvey believes Obama would follow every demand of such a movement, but it's important because if something like that develops out of the present movements in the US--like Right to the City--it would organize around Obama's figure first and diverge on its own course.

[canaan1967]

I love listening to Harvey but I was dissappointed in his assessmenet of Obama. Obama is a corporate fascist he doesn't want a "social movement" behind him. Everytime Democracy NOw gets a great guest on like Michael Parenti and Harvey it's like they are warned not to say anything negative about Obama.