Letter to Fred Goldstein (author of "Low Wage Capitalism")

Fred,

Wondering how you are, because I got an invitation to join a subscription group called "My Life" in your name. I didn't join because, they tried to trick me into paying a subscription fee (they were not upfront, portraying it as a free service).

I was excited about the possibility of making the connection with you and extending the socialist network. I understand the dilemma about being a socialist writer who has to function within the dictates of the Capitalist system.

I bought your book (Low-Wage Capitalism) and started reading it. I read the first 30 pages or so... I was very much impressed with your ability to write and think logically and present real world examples and apply Marxist and other socialist thought.

Your book reminded me very much of David Korten's book When Corporations Rule the World which I read about ten years ago. Your book is quite similar, but from a socialist perspective (which I prefer). I have read all of David Korten's sequels, but they are very weak attempts to propose an alternative to the Capitalist (he vilifies Corporations, quite rightly, but not the Capitalist system) system, simply because David is either not a socialist and/or was told that a socialist prescription/alternative would not be acceptable in the Capitalist Press and/or marketplace.

My work since reading all of Kortens' and many many other of the treatises that sneak out of the Capitalist Press under the target market that I would describe as "the disenchanted" or "the "protest segment", has been to try to develop that practical socialist alternative to the genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal Capitalist economic system.

I wrote and self-published a book called Who is George Fox and Why Should I Care? finishing it about twelve years ago (before I read Korten). I was very happy with the end product, but could not get a Capitalist Publisher to put it "on the market". I self-published 250 copies and either sold or gave away all but one, expressly telling all to share my work as widely as possible. I wrote a second book, The Balderloki Shamanism, but admittedly it was a relatively weak follow-up to the first book which I wrote primarily in case the "George Fox" book got published and became popular. The "Balderloki" has been lost to blank empty space and lost diskettes (I've had to move many times), except for that which remains in my brain.

Anyway, that Socialist alternative can be found, in a somewhat yet to be organized layout at my web log http://www.peoplesequityunion.blogspot.com/ . My organizing work, however that manifests itself, is waiting to find a market (and an underwriter if it were to become a book). But publishing a book is not my primary goal. My intention in life is to affect positive socialist change particularly as it concerns equity, inclusion, quality of life, peace, and sustainability in a world that is well past its midnight hour.

How did your book tour go? Whereas, I would hope for a warm reception and a maximum of sales for your work, I sense an increasing irrational madness and a fierce sense of hopelessness about and among the people (and for good reason). I don't sense that socialism has recovered much since the fall of the Soviet Union and the propaganda? of the backsliding of the Peoples' Republic into State Capitalism. I hope that I am wrong and that Fidel, Hugo, WSM, Workers' World Party, and ISO and others that I contact, are not as obscure and perceived as irrelevant and uninterested, as I am afrayed that they are...

I have no illusions that my work to advance a socialist alternative is eutopian (Lewis Mumford explains that such a spelling from the Greek actually means "good place") in a Capitalist world that is approaching outopian ("no place") especially for the progeny.

Anyway, I hope that you are well and that your work is being successful.

Please write when you get the chance.