Certainly you can work within a united front, class-based, around a constituent assembly, but the fact of the matter is, such an assembly is incapable of resolving any of the issues that drive the revolution forward. So any support really has to be critical support.
You think this is about Zelaya getting thrown out of the country? At core? Not hardly-- that's just the triggering incident. Democratic revolutions don't come to power period, I would think that much is painfully obvious based on the last 92 years of history. Not for nothing, but the demand for a constituent assembly in Russia was never realized, never acted upon, and never separated from the existence of the soviets, and the growing demands for the soviets to take power. And there is no evidence that agitation of for around a constituent assembly leads to anything beyond retreat, retrenchment of the struggle. I know it's a tender issue for some, but look at the history of the MNR in Bolivia. Look at the MAS in Bolivia now and the demand for a constituent assembly. Where did that go? The constituent assembly, which is the radical version of a government of "national reconciliation," resolved almost nothing, and its "sovereignty" was jettisoned by those who proclaimed the CA as central to democracy. I don't know that those struggling in Honduras are struggling more for "democracy" than they are for "socialism." You don't know that either. What you see is the movement erupting from deep-seated social reasons, economic reasons, class reasons, that are, in essence, irresolvable by democracy or a "democratic revoluton." No, soviets do not exist in Honduras-- but strike committees do and did, and perhaps there are other self-defense organizations that represent the kernel of self-organization of the urban and rural poor. So... so it's one thing, if in these initial eruptions, democracy is token, the proxy, the appearance, of what is at core a class struggle. It is something else altogether to accept this appearance as the essence, and the limit to the struggle. ----- Original Message ----- From: "nada" <[email protected]> To: "David Schanoes" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 9:05 PM Subject: Re: [Marxism] Fight far from over in Honduras: Will pact allow Zelaya to use the bully pulpit? ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
