See if I can respond to all 3 in post: Hari: * agree--soviet is the most highly developed form, meaning there can be many "lower forms"-- like a simple strike committee; like a workers defense group; like unionizing effort--but a)all are derived from their class basis b) none of the forms are supposed to restrict the participants from presenting their own critiques and remedies. How vigorously the participants exercise those facets is a tactical decision, not an ideological one. * not a question of which individuals participate as individuals or representatives; it's an issue of program and platform. For example back in the day there was a coup in Honduras ( https://thewolfatthedoor.blogspot.com/2009/08/honduras.html ) overthrowing Zelaya. Mass protests erupted. led in the main by unions and unionized workers, which were quickly attacked by the armed forces. Now some wanted a "Constituent Assembly" but the real issue behind the coup was privatization of state utilities (telecom). The US trained Cobra Squadron was used to make Honduras a safe place for private equity. A united front would have emerged, not from the demand for Zelaya's return to power or a Constituent Assembly but from the organization of defense guards from the workers to protect the unions, possibly leading to discussions to place the state utilities under union control, to suspend all US assistance to the military, etc. Possibly * Of course not. But neither is the "nothing" beneficial to a united front. * Again--its's a question of program, actions, demands. If your "widest front" means the "nothing" must be observed, that actions taken by the workers and poor against the bourgeois machinery of corporation and state--then your front will only weaken those workers and poor. The "widest possible front" was tried in Spain and again in Chile. Didn't work. Mark B: * "The movement was a united front of a special type, not between mass organizations of the working class for a concrete set of demands, but between diverse and multiclass elements whose sole bond of unity was to oppose the war"--exactly and w/o debating the whole issue again, that "brief" severely constrained a movement to a single issue that not only resisted identifying the cause, but also welcomed those bourgeois representatives in their attempt to deflect the movement back into the very institutions that executed the policy--the Democratic Party, Congress etc. * "The inevitable logic of a multi-issue umbrella including such groups as SANE would have to be a coalition of radical-liberal forces subordinated to the multi-issue program of the liberal politicians, to a wing of the Democratic Party, in the practicalities of the situation. In Marxist terminology, the technical name for such a coalition is a 'popular front.'"--which is what happened to those attracted to the movement.
MG: * Sure I would. If Trump throws the NY Times out of White House press briefings and the Dems want to organize a protest, while controlling the tactics and limiting demands to "free speech" "free press" I certainly would not join in the structure set up by the Dems to lead the demonstration. Attendance, agitation, in the body of the demonstration is something else. Now if that demonstration was attacked by fascists- I think a Marxist organization would offer physical defense of the demonstrators, but again refrain from participating in the structure created by the Dems I hope I have been sufficiently unambiguous and ambiguous.. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33437): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33437 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109441085/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
