>>>>> On Wed, 28 Jun 2000 18:10:45 -0500, Carrol Cox
>>>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> So unless you really do agree with Hans Ehrbar on the need
> for an elitist putsch to stop global warming, you had
> better give some thought to how that mass support can be
> (beginning now) marshalled
It is not my view that an elitist putsch can stop global
warming. On the contrary, only those who experience the
exploitation and oppression of capitalism by their own body
and soul every day are able to put up the consistent fight
against capitalism that is needed. An appeal to the
intellect that the world is burning will not change the
members of PEN-L or any other email list into the devoted,
disciplined, selfless fighters which are able to overturn
the system. Thinking that it can or that it ought to is
idealism. Such fighters exist today, capitalism creates
lots of them every day with its cruelty, but in the leading
industrial countries they will always be in a minority. We
intellectuals have to join the organizations of these
committed workers and help them write a consistent programme
how to avoid ecological catastrophe by a world wide
proletarian revolution, and establish a minority
dictatorship which will carry out this programme with
Stalinist methods.
You will be surprised how many liberals with support such a
proletarian-based movement once it is big enough. Therefore
my advice is: join any proletarian communist party, whether
it be the Worker's World Party (my personal favorite at the
moment), the CPUSA, the SWP, etc., whatever, and help them
reach more workers or improve their theory. For those who
cannot function in such an environment, an alternative might
be to use your computer skills to build a new internet-based
international which combines all these scattered proletarian
organizations. Sven Buttler and Jim Hillier's
marxist-leninist-list is working in this direction. Or use
your computer skills to write the software for a
computer-based planned economy, which could then perhaps be
adopted by countries like Cuba, using Cockshott and Cottrell's
"Towards a New Socialism" as the starting point. Whatever you
do, think big. Stop diddling around.
I am appending a message I sent to the bhaskar list on June 12
which explains more of the theory behind this.
Hans Ehrbar.
> Sunday morning I sent the following message to Louis Proyect's
> marxism list and to leninist-international. I think it might
> also be of interest to the Bhaskar list, since it was
> inspired by RB in at least two respects:
>
>
> (1) Bhaskars criticism of Marx that he, following Hegel, put
> too much emphasis on internal, at the expense of external
> contradictions (the ecological limits of the earth are an
> external contradiction of capitalism, and Marx's dictum in
> the preface that "the problem itself arises only when the
> material conditions for its solution are already present or
> are at least in the course of formation" is only valid for
> internal, not for external contradictions).
>
>
> (2) Bhaskar's repudiation of the fact-value distinction
> which encourages me to say here that only those who truly
> hate the capitalist system have a correct grasp of its
> reality.
>
>
> I have not yet received any responses for this posting on
> the other two lists. Something tells me that I might get a
> response on this list here.
>
>
> > Capitalism makes profits by the exploitation of labor.
> > Those who create all the surplus value, on which capital
> > depends in order to function, see their lives reduced to
> > drudgery, without enough time or money to care for their
> > children, without access to proper medical care, see their
> > neighborhoods blighted, their youth terrorized by police,
> > denied their life chances and a decent education, driven
> > into drugs. Every day they are reminded of the contempt the
> > system has for their lives and everything that is dear to
> > them. These people get to the point where every molecule in
> > their body hates the system. They are also the ones that
> > can overturn the system, because capital needs them,
> > organizes them, teaches them hard work and discipline, and
> > at the same time makes implacable enemies out of them. They
> > are willing to face bullets and torture and their own deaths
> > and continue fighting after 1000 defeats. This is what it
> > takes to overturn the system. This is the vanguard which
> > needs to organize itself world wide, even if they are a
> > minority in countries like the USA.
> >
> > Capitalism also silently destroys the ecosphere. This side
> > effect is worse than the human suffering of the workers,
> > because it threatens to end all human civilization. It
> > alarms lots of people of all classes, their numbers will
> > eventually be greater than the minority I just talked about,
> > and it drives some of them to heroic deeds. But being an
> > external contradiction, it is not experienced by millions on
> > the same gut level as exploitation is. On the contrary,
> > many environmental fighters live under a huge cognitive
> > dissonance: their own lives are bearable or even comfortable
> > but they know that the Titanic they are traveling on is
> > about to sink. They see the destruction of the environment
> > but they can never be sure whether it is really necessary to
> > overturn capitalism, which has treated them tolerably, to
> > save the planet. The capitalists will do everything to get
> > them on their side with empty promises to clean up, and when
> > it will be apparent that this is an illusion it will be too
> > late. These people are the best humankind has to offer;
> > they are valuable potential allies of the communists, and we
> > should cherish their sensitivity and try to earn their
> > respect, but we cannot expect them to doggedly and
> > instinctively fight against the capitalist system against
> > all apparent odds.
> >
> >
> > This is why we have to prepare for a revolution led by a
> > determined minority. The environmental beautiful souls will
> > be our allies as soon as they see that we can be strong
> > enough to make a difference. But in order to gain this
> > strength we have to develop a core of dedicated and steeled
> > working class fighters which has cleansed itself of all
> > opportunists. Instead of contempt for the "sects" because
> > of their small numbers we have to learn from their mistakes.
> > How can you be a minority ready to fight in a sea of
> > passivity and false hopes, and maybe wait for decades for a
> > constellation where revolution is possible, without going
> > insane? This is a problem which many organizations are
> > faced with, and these are the issues which the concentrated
> > brain power of a list like LP's marxism list or
> > leninist-international should be addressing.
>
> Hans Ehrbar
>
>
> --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
