Reclaiming Freedom for the Left 1--Freedom and The Economy: Democratize or Destroy?

How does the Left envision freedom in the economic sphere? The mainstream Left has struggled to formulate a systematic response to the economic crisis. Against the mainstream push for austerity, the Left has defended progressive taxation, campaign finance reform, and a jobs program. The focus on these piecemeal, defensive goals points to confusion and uncertainty as to the deeper aims of economic order, and to the narrowing of intellectual horizons. The “Occupy Movement” suggests an opportunity to broaden this debate, offering a heterogeneous array of criticisms against the Fed, the top 1%, corporations, and debt. Yet, in general, the most critical attitude is more focused on destroying than democratizing, smashing rather than socializing. The path to freedom appears, in the mood of some of the Occupy Movement, to be about getting rid of or eliminating, rather than appropriating and transforming, the economic practices and entities that rule our lives. This panel will explore an alternative avenue for the Left – to develop a systematic view of economic questions that begins by addressing the impact on human freedom. There is a great deal of potential to escape the kinds of discipline and domination to which most people are subject, while capturing the benefits of national organization, planning and distribution established through the current economic order.