Julio's "Rushed thoughts" are an insightful enouragement to us all to get on with it.
Gene On Dec 3, 2012, at 7:13 AM, Julio Huato wrote: > Marv wrote: > >> Carrol would not describe casual participation on the Pen-L list >> as a form of left-wing political activism. > > Rushed thoughts. > > An immense amount of the "activist" work of Lenin and his comrades > before 1917, many of them in exile, had to do with the logistics of > publishing, smuggling, and distributing newspapers, journals, books, > etc. in Russia.(*) The continuity of the party framework relied on > the work of the exiles abroad, due to repressive conditions in Russia. > So they also were busy finding housing, etc. for newcomers, and -- of > course -- doing lots of fundraising to support all that. The media > publishing work was at the heart of their "activism." It was this work > which they thought integrated all sorts of struggles into a coherent > national and international movement, and it was this integration (and > the resulting political scale-economies) that underpinned their > intervention on those struggles. > > The media publishing work entailed -- of course -- much prep work > researching, maintaining ongoing communication with contacts in > various places to gather news, write articles, edit them, etc. I > don't know about others, but -- to me -- these lists (as well as > Facebook, Twitter, youtube, news aggregators, readers, search engines, > blogs, web sites, online journals and databases, etc.) function as a > de-facto newspaper of the sort Lenin and his comrades strived to put > together. The stuff does not necessarily fit together, but we > shouldn't idealize the level of coherence of the Bolshevik publishing > experience either. What is entirely different now is that the > expenses (in time and other resources) required to sustain that > enterprise are minimal by comparison. Ability to broadcast ideas at a > reasonably low cost has increased tremendously. And, in spite of > all, this may be putting *us* at an advantageous position vis-a-vis > the class adversary. Things could be better, but these lists in > particular are already helpful as information filters. If making a > serious effort to participate on these lists does not qualify as > "activism," then I don't know what would. > > I'm not saying that this is all there's to do. The premise is that > people at their workplace, community, town, school, etc. are > coordinating actions, staging protests, doing propaganda or agitating, > and the stressful work of dealing with bosses and authorities to > negotiate and enforce better working and living conditions, etc. But > the ability to conduct that work requires that you live or work at a > place where you can do that effectively. > > Back in Mexico, I spent several years of my life at an organization > with a ferocious cadre discipline > (http://www.youtube.com/user/MAntorchista). In spite of our > deficiencies (and serious vices go with the territory in almost any > conceivable cadre organization), it was impressive the speed with > which we would see entire communities transform themselves from the > ground up through this kind of disciplined, relentless, systematic > effort. We often redeployed ourselves as we thought needs warranted > it. Perhaps too often. There were (not infrequently) arbitrary > decisions, as willingness to relocate was a badge of honor among us. > Cadres would get exposed to a diverse array of experiences, which > helped our development. But the downside was that it was hard for us > to lay deeper roots in a given community. > > In my experience, in the U.S., unless something changes drastically, > we are not going to function this way. Maybe younger people can > afford this measure of self denial for the sake of the struggle, but > regular working people here will be much more assertive of their > individual needs. Efforts in the cadre direction are not to be > discouraged. This is the good side of Jodie Dean's critique of OWS. > But I doubt the cadre way will be dominant. This is deep in the > culture. And it's not necessarily a bad thing. It makes up for a > broader and more robust approach. Look at OWS, which is a roughly > representative sample of the U.S. left, perhaps with some > overrepresentation of the young and old tails. At this point, > "coordination" simply means that individuals and small groups, each > with a particular pet project, are letting one another know what they > are doing. Joint actions are circumscribed to those who are in their > groups or in the political vicinity. As a result, each individual or > group may be partially undoing what the others are doing. > > Of course, this is already proving to be insufficient. Much more > coherence is required to advance. But how we gain coherence is going > to be a more organic result, I believe. So, all this is my roundabout > way to say that, in the U.S. today, "leaders" cannot just think out > and assign people the tasks they view as yielding the highest > political returns. People have to choose the tasks they are most > inclined to carry out well. And that gives a much greater weight to > our discussions (e.g. on these lists), propaganda, and academic work. > (I was going to say theoretical, but that sounds more pretentious in > English.) More weight to our discussions, because that's the only way > we can help one another to *freely* choose the complementary tasks > that are necessary to advance. > > (*) I don't want to give the impression that I view the Russian > revolution as a sort of blueprint. It is not. Chance played a large > role in the apparent and very temporary success of the Bolsheviks. We > really know very little about how things may turn out in our case. > But there's nothing wrong with drawing parallels and analogies, as > long as we see how clearly deficient they are. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
