I don't quite follow your reasoning. Are you saying that since capitalism
will not give any reparations this transitional demand will enable "the mass
movement" to overthrow capitalism and immediately there is socialism there
will be no difficulties?
And why will there be no reparations under capitalism? Various groups
have received reparation payments from capitalist states haven't they?
Aren't land claim settlements a type of reparation for expropriation of
native lands? As I recall Japanese Canadians received some reparation
payments for their treatment by the Canadian government during the war.
Tobacco companies have paid reparations for damaging the health of smokers
as a result of successful suits in several states haven't they? I believe
that courts in Canada have ruled that various Church groups must pay
reparations for treatment of aboriginals in residential schools but I am not
positive about this.
The communist manifesto certainly does not see the transition to
communism as immediate but as involving transitional policies even when the
proletariat have political power. Preusmably there would be difficulties
during this period. The transition policies by the way make no mention of
feminist issues-although he does elsewhere in the manifesto-, sexual
orientation, nor reparations for injustices to racial groups. Marx obviously
is a great promoter of socialist industrial agriculture rather than organic
farming and he even suggests there should be industrial armies especially in
agriculture. As a Marxist I am sure you agree with all of this. Or are you
one of those Marxists that would lead Marx to say: I am not a Marxist. ?
Cheers, Ken Hanly
P.S. Which specific Trotskyite group comprise the crackpot Trotskyite
movement? Are they your former comrades? I thought you wrote a while ago
praising Ernest Mandel. Is he a crackpot Trotskyite?
>From the Communist Manifesto:
The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all
capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in
the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling
class; and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible.
Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of
despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of
bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear
economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the
movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old
social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the
mode of production.
These measures will, of course, be different in different countries.
Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty
generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to
public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a
national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in he hands of
the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state;
the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the
soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies,
especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual
abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable
distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of
children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with
industrial production, etc.
----- Original Message -----
From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 7:49 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:10384] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The case for reparations
> >Come on, Louis. You can do better than this. Everyone must recognize
> >that the administration of reparations will raise difficulties. I
suspect
> >that the best solution would be to give money to the community rather
than
> >to individuals, but even then I am not sure how it would be administered.
>
> There will be no reparations under capitalism. Under socialism, there will
> be no difficulties. Reparations is a kind of transitional demand. The
> crackpot Trotskyist movement was built on the notion of transitional
> demands, but can't seem to sense one when it emerges from the mass
movement.
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
>
