>From my observations of young socialists today i think one factor is just the reality of new generations. Younger people, newly exploring socialist ideas/theories, aren't necessarily going to be guided by what some old folks say (about Kautsky, or anything else); they need to learn and be convinced for themselves. In my limited exposure to Cosmonaut it doesn't seem to me that these are young socialists who will be found 'at the barricades', on the leading edge of activism and class struggle, they like to read, contemplate and discuss marxist theories.
Then there are the Sunkara/Eric Blancs who identify with Kautsky precisely because of their preference for reformist practice. Ben Lewis must be much closer to the Cosmonauters age than our age but imo unlike them he is clear on the 'what is to be done' merits and demerits of Kautsky (see excerpt from one of his articles next below). On the other hand for Ben Lewis, studying Kautsky and the SPD of Germany is a graduate degree and an interesting intellectual career. It will be a more interesting career if more people can be interested in the subject matter. *German revolution: diverted and betrayed by leaders of official social democracy* *In this supplement, Ben Lewis shows how the heroic actions of November 1918 were doomed by misleaders* Weekly Worker, Jan. 11, 2018 https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1225/german-revolution-diverted-and-betrayed-by-leaders/ . . . "But those who should have known better were claiming the very opposite. Although now a member of the USPD, Kautsky’s renegacy from Marxism became evident once again in his tacit approval of the SPD’s approach. Bafflingly, he claimed that the working class had come to power in November 1918. This was deliberate opportunist obfuscation and, it should be noted, the inverse of Liebknecht’s voluntarist proclamation of the ‘socialist’ republic. If the Kautsky who had written of the significance of republican democracy in Marxism in 1905 had been the same person writing in 1919, as opposed to the ‘renegade’ Kautsky who had disavowed what he once wrote, then he would have been in no doubt that the working class had not conquered power." . . . On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 6:23 AM Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > > I just don't get the Kautsky revival. Cosmonaut is far more committed to > Marxism than Jacobin. But I've managed to get through life without > reading more than a couple of his articles. I would put him far beneath > Bukharin, Mariategui, Gramsci and CLR James in terms of relevance to the > class struggle today. > > https://cosmonaut.blog/2021/02/01/the-revolutionary-karl-kautsky-with-ben-lewis/ > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6091): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6091 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80314096/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
