Harry Steele wrote:
While there is undoubtedly some truth in what Comrade Klo says in his
comments on the Moldova election victory, I must say I found the tone
rather
dismissive and lacking in a broader view of the struggles underway in
former
socialist countries.
There is a fundamental question here about the possibility or otherwise
of what could be termed “halting the counter-revolution”.
After the best part of a decade of “actually existing capitalism” the
people of Moldova have turned to the Communist Party to deal with the
problems they have faced.
There are increasing signs that a similar process is underway in
Ukraine
and also to some extent in Russia, so the question posed takes on some
significance.
The communists in the former Soviet republics tend to express a
“pro-Soviet” position in that they favour greater economic and political
ties with Russia ? some movement back towards union. Their positions tend
to
favour a “slowing down of reforms” and in some cases a halt to
privatisation
and return to state managed economies.
I am not aware of the full position of the Moldovian communists with
regard to the questions of capitalist economic reforms, but I note that the
day after they were elected they were at pains to “reassure” international
financial organisations that they intended to continue with “reforms”.
My reply,
Bingo. Now you are on target. That's a major part of what I am talking about.
However it is too easy to use such statements to dismiss them as social
democrats, opportunists etc as Klo does.
My reply,
I did not dismiss them as anything "yet." I said be wary and don't get your
hopes up. We have been down this path many times in the past decade.
The people have elected them to govern in a situation of economic and
social crisis ? the fact that the people turn to Communists, who we were
told were “hated” and “despised” and had been “cast out forever” should
encourage us.
The country they have been asked to govern is utterly dependent on
foreign loans and credits as a result of the counter-revolution. Without
such resources they will be unable to deliver even the most minimal of
demands of workers and other strata in Moldova.
My reply,
False. Were they to expropriate without compensation the means of production,
distribution, and exchange they would not need to go begging to anyone. The
former traitorous leadership sold it all for a pittance; therefore, the masses
should be able to take it back for a pittance. Until you get your hands on the
wealth you can forget about doing anything significant.
What in this situation is a Communist Party to do?
My reply,
I just answered that.
It would, in my opinion, be an ultra-left folly, for communists in a
small, dependent, poor country such as Moldova, to announce to the IMF and
the World Bank that they have rejected wholesale the programme of reforms
that credits and loans have been linked to.
My reply,
It would be folly to think they are going to accomplish anything worth talking
about if they did not expropriate wholesale and reject the IMF and World Bank
in masse. Yours is a prescription for a march toward the quicksand bog.
The tap would be turned off and the Moldovian people would pay the
price and the Communists would never be forgiven.
My reply,
Not with my program. They will pay the price in spades if they think the IMF
and the World Bank are going to save the day. Of that there can be no doubt.
You sound like Gorby. Capitalism is not going to save anyone or any nation.
Trust me!
In the absence of a strong socialist camp to back up Moldova, the
communists have no choice but to the best for their class, within the
limited options they are given in current conditions.
My reply,
That is a prescription for more degradation and disintegration.
Communist parties were not formed to govern in such situations.
Most parties were formed in the wake of October and they expected to
come to power with the might of the Soviet Union and then later People’s
China alongside them.
That is no longer the case.
My reply,
So you recommend surrender and capitulation. Said like a real
"Marxist-Leninist."
The South African comrades Klo refers to had hoped to come to power in
an era when the Soviet Union would have been a strong ally and could have
assisted them to develop on a non-capitalist road as happened in other
African and other liberated countries.
My reply,
False. That was never Mandela's program. He's a nationalist but not a
Marxist.
That did not happen. Liberation in South Africa came in an era of
historic defeat and massive setbacks for the international communist
movement.
So the South African comrades have had to deal with the situation as
they
found it.
That does not mean that communists who are elected to power in such
situations should be totally defeatist and carry out without complaint the
policies of international capital.
My reply,
That is the essence of what you are recommending. You are saying one thing but
surreptitiously promoting another.
On the contrary they must clearly set out to move as much as is possible
towards socialist forms of production, they must explain clearly to the people
the conditions in which they have been forced to operate and they
must not foster illusions in the possibilities that will be given to them
by
international capital.
My reply,
Yet your program negates that which you claim to foster and support. You are
telling them they are driving to the left all the time you are directing them
to the right.
In effect they are essentially being asked to carry out what has
traditionally been the role of social democracy ? they are the mass parties
of the working class who have been elected to power, not driven into
power by a revolution.
My reply,
Precisely, and yet you are asking the masses, the working class, to follow what
is a social democratic line by your own admission.
But Marxist-Leninists have never denied the possibility of moving
towards socialism in countries outside the sphere of advanced capitalism.
My reply,
Yet you are advocating that they not move in this direction.
It
was certainly much easier in the days of the USSR but as Cuba shows it
continues to be possible, albeit damn difficult.
Nor have communists ever abstained from the responsibility of governing
when they have been put in that position.
History does not work towards a set timetable. Russia, according to some
theorists was not ready for socialism because it had not yet gone through
the capitalist phase of development but the Bolsheviks dealt with power
when
they achieved it.
My reply,
You don't have to go "through the capitalist phase of development" in order to
be "ready for socialism." This
cookbook approach to Marxism is utterly non-Marxist.
Other countries that advanced on the socialist path did so in various
stages of historical development.
My reply,
Exactly, so you can trash the cookbook.
Now we are dealing with a new situation post counter-revolutionary
Soviet Union. Is it possible to advance on a socialist path in such conditions?
The answer, as always has to be yes, but it will be very difficult.
My reply,
My friend, under your program it will be impossible. When do you propose to
turn the corner and start the march toward socialism and away from capitalism.
This is the same problem I have with the current leaders of China. The
employment of capitalism during the early stages of transition is acceptable as
Lenin and Stalin showed, but China has reached its 1928 and
the reversal has become mandatory, if the inevitable qualitative leap to
capitalism is to be avoided. Stalin, Molotov and their allies made that
reversal and received the condemnation of the capitalist world in the process.
But it absolutely had to be done because the alternative was not a sane option;
they made the right decision. Had they not done so I shudder to think what
would have occurred in the 1930's and how WWII would have ended. When the
allied powers in the West hit the beaches at Normandy in 1944 they knew they
were going to pay a high price. But the decision had to be made. It is war
and class warfare is no different.
So clearly there will be no glorious Moldovian revolution,
My reply,
Then there will be no Modovian renaissance and the deterioration will continue
unabated, whether under the guise of "communist" leadership or not.
Chisnau will
not become the new revolutionary centre for the international communist
movement, but their victory is yet another sign that we have not reached
“the end of history”.
I for one wish them the best of luck.
My reply,
Under your program, luck and prayers is about all they will have because you
have jettisoned everything that really matters.
Comradely
Harry
For the cause,
Klo
_______________________________________________
Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
