The trouble with this vision (below), which I shared
wholeheartedly until a year or two ago and which I still
have a smidgeon of sympathy for, is that it has no vitality
left. You cite countries like Cuba, but how much enthusiasm
is there for socialism per se? The Cuban ideology is a
typical blend of leninism and nationalism, with quite a lot
of free market sentiment thrown in and a few last vestiges
of marxism. Some of the people there hate it, but they only
say so to foreigners. I like Cuba, I have been there (have
you?) and I intend to be there for a conference in January
next year again if things work out, and I like the Cuban
people. But please, this is not the overthrow of capitalism
- Cuba is getting more capitalist by the day and I have no
doubt that there are elements even in the party who are
waiting for Fidel to go before implementing either a
Chinese-type or social democratic "solution". In other words
you have a holding operation right now, not a launching pad
for world revolution. As I say this old Bolshevik style
schema, which you have hauled out for us one more time, has
no vitality - compare with some of the left communist
debates that are currently going on and check the
difference. Even the language you use is tired. The
"dictatorship of the proletariat" - sure, but please don't
tell me that's what you had in the Soviet Union. In my first
posting on this subject I challenged people like you to show
me in what sense the Soviet Union advanced the world
overthrow of capitalism after the formation of the third
international in the early twenties. Instead all CPs were
required to fall into line with the nationalist interests of
the Soviet Union.
There is a (slightly) more interesting argument that says
that world revolution was not possible at that time (the
twenties) and that the defeat of fascism was a higher
priority. The Trots are even good at this one. But we've
already had that debate a few days ago and I can refer you
to extensive literature that demolishes that argument far
more effectively that I can here.
Cheers
Tahir
>>> "bon moun" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 08/07 9:03 PM >>>
Generally a lurker, and obviously not as erudite as many on
this list. But
I'm struck by the simultaneous specificity and concreteness
of the
scientific discussions, and the ethereal abstraction of the
discussions
related to actual action to overthrow capitalism. A couple
of things seem
fairly apparent to me, having spent most of my own adult
life as an
instrument of US Imperialism--a member of the Special
Operations community
of the US military (now retired).
Any project as vast as the overthrow of capitalism
necessarily implies
certain things.
A clear understanding of the system as it currently
functions to identify
strategic priorities.
A clear understanding of who WE are and what WE are
currently capable of.
A clear understanding based on our assessments of who OUR
allies might be
for WHICH stage of our developed strategies.
An educated guess about what various social sectors around
the world are
likely to choose as courses of action given the direction
that current
trends are carrying us.
Some articualtion of what it is we are driving at, a
compass.
I certainly believe that the linchpin right now is US
Imperialism. Without
the capture of that particular citadel, there is little
opportunity to
begin dismantling the whole global system.
It doesn't get dismantled by sheer will, either. It has to
become weak
through the development of its own contradictions--some of
which are being
possibly identified here--until a conjuncture occurs where
strategic
pressure by organized masses can bring it down.
There currently exists no conjuncture in the US of an
economic, political,
and military crisis deep enough to mobilze a revolution
there, and no
coherent left leadership there to see it through in any
case. NOr is there
any credible alternative capable of confronting it (as there
was with the
Soviet Union, which I miss terribly, warts and all).
This implies a strategy directed at undercutting the sources
of US
imperialist strength by a number of means, which the
old-fashioned, much
maligned commies seemed to understand better than some
people on this list:
National liberation/anti-post-colonial struggles
"Stretching the lines" of the hegemon through proliferation
of well-led
struggles against it around the world--and they can't all be
directly for
socialism, because socialism is not a decree but a method of
production
which requires a material basis... the development of which
is the historic
role of capitalism, or in socialist led countries "state
capitalism."
(We are learning that externalities can distort this
process, but it is
still workable, as Cuba is showing today, and far more
workable than plain
old captialism.)
When these peripheral crises sharpen the economic, social,
political
contradictions at the core, and particualrly in the US, to
the point that
certain sectors increase their militancy and begin to assert
themselves in
organized ways, there needs to be firm (you can use
pointless, undefinable
words like totalitarian if you wish) leadership both to
maintain strategic
focus and to make "despotic inroads" against the ruling
classes. (Yes, I
am a Marxist, and I do beleive the class dictatorship of the
proletariat is
an absolute necessity. It is one of the basic formualtions
of Marxism, and
anyone who tries to escape from it should cease calling her
or himslef a
marxist.)
Does anyone really think our rulers are going to roll over
for us? They
will resort to violence, and we will either employ violence
in our own
defense or we will be eradicated. I don't like it any
better than anyone
else, but I don't relish my mortality either. It's just one
of those
things we have to face up to.
Along the way, we have to organize among sectors that are at
teachable
moments. Sometimes that's the petit bourgeoisie, but it's
never the
bourgeoisie, so we needn't waste our time. It's always
workers, sometimes
patiently for limited goals during periods of relative
comfort, and other
times aggressively when the exploitative nature of their
condition is most
glaring. In the developing world, it is also among
peasants, but don't
talk to them about socialism. They want to hear about land.
Is there any shortcut? I don't think so. Does this mean we
may head into
the catastrophe this list is about, unprepared? Yes. Might
we have that
catastrophe even with a social upheaval leading to the
construction of
socialism? Yes, we may have passed some points of no
return. Is there any
chance at all of stopping it without socialism? Not a
chance in hell.
Captialism is not about the moral failure or short
sightedness of
individuals. It's a set of social relations predicated on
commodity
production--a system. That system requires
short-sightedness. It's part
of every ruling class job description. Convincing people
will not do the
job to get rid of it. People don't want to be convinced.
That's reality.
They want to know if you are with them in their struggles.
Once we
demonstrate that, we might get a hearing, because people do
not learn from
our lectures, but in the struggle itself.
Just a few random reactions. Fire away.
"If insurrection is an art, its main content is to know how
to give the
struggle the form appropriate to the political situation."
-Vo Nguyen Giap
"Rather than seeking comparabilities in statistical terms
among what are
all too often superficial features of different situations,
comparabilities
must be sought at the level of determinate mechanisms, at
the level of
processes that are generally hidden from easy view."
-Eleanor Burke Leacock
"Every day one has to struggle that this love to a living
humanity
transform itself into concrete acts, in acts that serve as
examples, as
motivation."
-Ernesto "Che" Guevara
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