Who has ever claimed that ideological exposure from the sidelines of the class
struggle is enough? Of course the Bolsheviks did take an active and leading
part in the day to day class struggle, but they were not economists, and they
knew that consciousness was the key to a proletarian revolution.This is why
while actively fighting and organizing wherever the masses and the working class
in particular were and fought the Bolsheviks led an ideological struggle against
the misleaders and/or all other political forces. You however seem to think that
taking part in ongoing class struggles will lead to a revolution (we are
talking here about a socialist revolution!) by itself. This is the kind of
spontaneism which Lenin always and ardently fought against. Already in 1905 he
wrote in "The Reorganization of the Party" (LW Vol.10, p.32): "The working class
is instinctively, spontaneously Social Democratic, and more than ten years of
work put in by Social Democracy has done a great deal t o t r a n s f o r m
t h i s s p o n t a n e i t y i n t o c o n s c i o u s n e s s." I don't
know how much Lenin took part in demonstrations or strikes when in Switzerland,
but I know that he wrote lots of polemics. What is if not outright idealist so
at least mechanical materialist ans metaphysical in reality is to neatly
separate thinking from 'the living class struggle'. Ever heard about dialectics?
A.Holberg
PS. I agree with Johannes. If you think that my historical arguments (PCC
and Batista etc.)are wrong, please explain why. Are the facts wrong, or is my
interpretation of the facts wrong? With another method of discussion we will
surely not get anywhere.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky schrieb:
> Date sent: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 11:10:16 -0400
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: [L-I] What to do if the KLA and NATO fight
>
> >Louis,
> >
> >I do not think one-liners like this advance the discussion at all.
> >
> >If you feel Anton is wrong or using stereotypes, explain it.
> >Otherwise keep quiet, please.
> >
> >Johannes
>
> Anton is wrong because he is using the methodology common to all
> idealist deviations from Marxism. It opposes a mental construct to
> the
> living class struggle. In this mental construct all that is needed to
> fight opportunism and reformism is exposure to the truth. So to make
> a socialist revolution in Chile it is necessary to explain the
> treachery of the popular front. To make a socialist revolution in
> Venezuela it is necessary to wake the masses up to the dangers of
> populism.
>
> What's wrong with this methodology?
>
> It assumes that ideas are the driving force of history rather than
> the class struggle. When the Bolsheviks toppled Kerensky, it was not
> the result of an ideological debate. It was because they had
> participated in every step of the class struggle as leaders from the
> 1905 revolt. Workers had confidence in them. In October 1917 an
> assault was mounted on the bourgeois government because that
> government was seen as violating the democratic rights of working
> people and prolonging a miserable war. But to reach that point, the
> Bolsheviks had to have accumulated political capital over decades.
>
> A fool once said that as soon as he accumulated one million dollars,
> he would become a capitalist. The same kind of foolishness exists in
> revolutionary politics unfortunately. Revolutionary credentials are
> accumulated through action in the class struggle that produces
> positive results. To attack the reformist enemies of the
> revolutionary movement is not sufficient.
>
> Louis Proyect
>
> The Marxism mailing-list: http://www.marxmail.org
>
> Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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