Reply #102: It may happen sooner than you think, especially if the double-dip

[coalition_unwilling]

recession\depression I see headed our way right now comes to pass. (I'm waiting to see what effect the rise in gas prices has on the nascent 'recovery' the economists had been touting.)

In January 1933, when FDR was inaugurated for his first term, the national unemployment rate stood at approximately 25%. Think about that: 1 our of every four able-bodied adults who wanted to work in this country could not find work. If this double-dip recession\depression happens, we could easily be looking at unemployment in the same range (U6, a more accurate picture, currently stands at roughly 18%, in contrast with the artificially low U2, which currently measures just under 9%).

One of the DUers who has (dem) socialist leanings has pointed out that in the past few months he has seen far more pro-socialist posts here on DU. I consider DU, for all its eccentricities, to be a leading edge of the left-wing sword. You will hear it here first and months later what you hear will hit the mainstream. That's not to say DU is a perfect forecaster by any means, but it does suggest that socialism and Marxism have acquired a certain gravitas here that they may not have had in the preceding decade.

I think at this point what we should be doing to further the advent of socialism in this country is to sharpen class consciousness among the working class so as to transform a class in itself into a class for itself (Lenin's phraseology, I believe, loosely translated). Wisconsin has offered some glimmers of hope that such a transformation is beginning to occur. But Wisconsin is merely one of the opening skirmishes in what is certain to be a long and drawn-out class war. I'm 51 and sometimes wonder whether I will see it in my lifetime either.