In a message dated 12/01/01 15:02:40 GMT Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Johannes Schneider wrote:
> >In recent postings other organisations have been referred to as being
> >'centrist'. Though especially in Trotskyite circles this is a very popular
> >attribute given to political (mostly other Trotskyites) adversaries, as a
> >moderator I would like to point out, that this kind of lingo is not
> >particularly encouraged on L-I. Rather than using just a shorthand, I
would
> >prefer to see an example and an explanation what is meant in detail and
let
> >the reader come to its own conclusion.
> Louis Proyect
> Trotsky called centrists, like the POUM allegedly, revolutionary in word
> and reformist in deed. I personally identify with the centrist current and
> think that Marxism can learn much from a group like the POUM. Basically the
> POUM-ists broke with the FI because they felt it was a hindrance to being
> rooted in the Spanish class struggle. Looking at the sorry record of the
> official Trotskyist group in Spain, it looks like they hit the nail on the
> head. Of course they adapted to the reformists, but affiliation with the FI
> was no cure for that. Such affiliation would only guarantee the purism of a
> church.
>
> I also identify strongly with the forces in the world Communist movement
> who questioned the wisdom of the 21 points of the Comintern. If Marxism had
> heeded their advice, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today.
>
> Louis Proyect
Centrism is a concept that is immensely important, nay, absolutely essential,
to genuine Marxism today if we are to build a new revolutionary workers
International. This International will probably be called the Fifth
International.
This chameleon phenomenon, centrism, must be understood in all its
variations, by the leadership that eventually renews a genuine Marxism, in
theory and practice, at the quality, or above, with which Lenin and Trotsky
in general applied Marxism in their days.
Rosa Luxemburg was the first to use this term in any modern sense of the word
at a time when Lenin failed in understanding what Kautsky was, before 1914.
Revisionism was in fact an earlier term, much less scientific understanding
of centrist wavering.
Of course Lenin, and later the Comintern before Lenin's death, took up the
term in a much more scientific manner - and it appears in numerous documents
of the early Comintern, that is, before it collapsed into centrism itself.
It was then left to Leon Trotsky to further develop this concept, as he
historically traced the actual changes in the centrist phenomenon, of Kautsky
centrism, bureaucratic centrism of a Stalinist origin, centrism of a mass
reformist origin, the petrified centrism of small sectarian grouplets, etc.
Use of this concept enabled Trotsky to know the point at which the Communist
International had definitely gone over from centrism to counter-revolutionary
reformism, with Hitler taking power in Germany in 1933. Likewise, today, we
can see another type of centrism of a Stalinist origin has emerged, following
the collapse of the Soviet Union - and indeed, added to the complexity of
Trotskyist centrism today, the concept has become even more complex.
Unfortunately, as comrade Johannes points out, this term, now used mostly by
a few Trotskyist groups, has become a swear word, a term normally of abuse,
and it is better when labelling comrades or groups as 'centrist', to in fact
detail which specific arena's of criticism, inadequacy, of sectarianism or
opportunism, we are referring to.
You see comrades, none of the Trotskyist groups who use this term, use it in
a scientific manner. Indeed for it to be used in this way, we have to
understand the most basic, the most essential contradiction in its essence;
that is, centrism wavers between reform and revolution. It means in fact,
that when there is no relatively consistent, all-rounded genuine Marxist
organisation - when there is no revolutionary pole of attraction to which all
the best sincere revolutionaries would gravitate - then where is the material
base of the revolutionary side of the wavering between reform and revolution.
It exists not as a material force, but as an historically derived aspiration.
And wishful thinking is not much of a material force.
To understand this a Marxist must grasp the one fundamental of Marxist
philosophy; must understand Marx's 'Thesis on Feuerbach', or Lenin's
'Materialism & Empirio Criticism'; must know deeply that deeds expose the
truth behind words, as being determines consciousness; must know the Marxist
theory of knowledge.
For in fact, for any 'Trotskyist' or 'Stalinist' today to be correctly
labelled 'left centrist' - if it came from a genuine Marxist (which I doubt
exists) this would indeed be a compliment of the highest order.
Though I would characterise myself as objectively 'centrist' today, and for
the last 23 years as a subjective revolutionary, the term used in public is
of very little help in clarifying matters - as there is no genuine pole of
revolutionary attraction against which to measure centrism. Indeed, myself
and many others on this list would no longer be centrists if such a pole
existed, because we would join that revolutionary pole of attraction, and
become objectively revolutionary.
However, for those most able revolutionaries today who are going to be
building that genuine mass international party, and this will consist largely
of youth; these cadre must deeply understand and know this concept inside
out, must learn about it in every day activity, as with "finger exercises for
a good pianist" - to paraphrase Trotsky. We must grasp this phenomenon in all
its existing complexities and constant changes - for the revolutionary party
will be made out of centrists becoming genuine Marxists, qualitatively
improving.
It is entirely possible, nay necessary, to learn from centrists, especially
like the POUM, but does Louis Proyect really want to stay in that mish-mash
of political confusion? Or is it just an emotional response to their bravery
and general anti-Stalinist approach to life. Explain yourself comrade.
from a self-declared and unashamed centrist, but one who desperately wants to
break out of this morass -
- Steve Myers.
ps - in Trotsky's Writings, 1933-34, comrades will find some wonderful
articles, the best to date we have that define a living centrism. His
writings on this obviously need updating though.
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