Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 75, Issue 21: Setting the record straight
On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:57:51 + Karl Dallas writes: > As a former member of the Communist Party of Britain, and a > continued > activist in struggle on such issues as Palestine, I cannot subscribe > to the > basic analysis of Sam Webb in "Setting the Record Straight". > I wrote to the UK Morning Star the following after the Scott Brown > victory: > "So the Barack bubble has burst, just one short year after the > world > rapturously hailed the new dawn of a new presidency, supposedly to > move on > from the dreadful disillusion of the Bush years. > "But now a new disillusion has set in, as Obama fulfills the > classic > function of 'left' opportunism, to see the system through an > otherwise > insoluble crisis, to pave the way for the next swing to the right. Right, except I don't think that one can even call what Obama is doing. 'left' opportunism. That is a label that could be applied to what FDR was doing with his New Deal or Lyndon Johnson with his Great Society. What Obama has been doing hardly measures up to what Roosevelt or Johnson tried to do. And in fact this has been the case with the last three Democratic Presidents, starting with Carter. And I suspect that things are not so different in the UK. The British Labour Party, it seems to me, began shifting to the right under James Callahan. Then once knocked out of power by Thatcher, it briefly shifted to the left, and then resumed moving rightwards when it became apparent that it might soon return to power. That process continued, first under Kinnock and then under Blair who eventually became PM. > "'Things can only get better', 'Yes we can' . . . Blair and Obama > have many > things in common, as under the first, things only got worse, and the > true > lesson to be drawn from the failure of Obama's sloganising appears > to be 'No > we can't'. > "This is what the pundits are trying to teach us. Just as the > disenfranchisement of Labour's core voters has paved the way for the > advance > of the BNP here, Obama's refusal to honour his pledges appears to > leave his > supporters nowhere to go but down. > "It doesn't have to be like that. If what we might call the > scientific left > were to have provided all along a clear analysis of the strengths > and > weaknesses of this reliance on political charisma (a study of > Plekhanov > might be a good place to start), to have used the Blair/Obama > phenomenon to > build an accurate critique that didn't take us by surprise when > leaders > break their promises, we could turn disillusion into > disenchantment. > "It doesn't have to be like that. If, at last, we begin to look > reality > square in its ugly face, things could, indeed, start to get > better." > But I must say that most of the responses in this list have been > infantile > in the extreme. There are interesting parallels between FDR and > Obama, but > important differences also. At this point, I think the differences between Obama and FDR are of more importance than the similarities. First of all while both presidents came into office during periods of economic crisis, FDR did so when the US was on the brink of civil unrest (And it should be noted that Socialists and Communists had been spending years organizing councils of the unemployed). Therefore, he perceived the need for taking dramatic actions. Even though during the 1932 campaign, he had condemned Hoover for engaging in deficit spending and promised to balance the budget, FDR, as soon as he entered the White House, all that talk about balancing the budget went out the window because he realized that the fiscal orthodoxies of the day would only result in disaster if he stuck to them. Obama, in contrast, took office in a country that was still politically quiescent. And unlike the 1930s, the radical left in the US is almost non-existent. Up to now there has been nothing like the movement to organize the unemployed that existed in the early 1930s. FDR as president face strong pressures from the left and those pressures helped his administration's policies to the left. Obama has been largely spared such pressures. Instead, much of the radical left, such as it is, has actively embraced Obama, and so have enable him in shifting rightwards, since Obama, not surprisingly, has concluded that these people have no place else to go. The CPUSA's embrace of Obama is simply one of the more outrageous examples of this phenomenon, but not the only example. Secondly, FDR was, unlike Obama, to the manor born. As a member of the "old money" bourgeoisie, he had a special self-confidence, which allowed him to break with the conventional wisdom so that he could better defend the long term best interests of this class. He was therefore able to accept being denounced as a "traitor to his class," with a certain amount of equanimity. Obama, in contrast, is sort of the epitome of meritocracy, and as such, seems to be temperamentally inclined to embrace uncritically the con
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 75, Issue 21: Setting the record straight
As a former member of the Communist Party of Britain, and a continued activist in struggle on such issues as Palestine, I cannot subscribe to the basic analysis of Sam Webb in "Setting the Record Straight". I wrote to the UK Morning Star the following after the Scott Brown victory: "So the Barack bubble has burst, just one short year after the world rapturously hailed the new dawn of a new presidency, supposedly to move on from the dreadful disillusion of the Bush years. "But now a new disillusion has set in, as Obama fulfills the classic function of 'left' opportunism, to see the system through an otherwise insoluble crisis, to pave the way for the next swing to the right. "'Things can only get better', 'Yes we can' . . . Blair and Obama have many things in common, as under the first, things only got worse, and the true lesson to be drawn from the failure of Obama's sloganising appears to be 'No we can't'. "This is what the pundits are trying to teach us. Just as the disenfranchisement of Labour's core voters has paved the way for the advance of the BNP here, Obama's refusal to honour his pledges appears to leave his supporters nowhere to go but down. "It doesn't have to be like that. If what we might call the scientific left were to have provided all along a clear analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of this reliance on political charisma (a study of Plekhanov might be a good place to start), to have used the Blair/Obama phenomenon to build an accurate critique that didn't take us by surprise when leaders break their promises, we could turn disillusion into disenchantment. "It doesn't have to be like that. If, at last, we begin to look reality square in its ugly face, things could, indeed, start to get better." But I must say that most of the responses in this list have been infantile in the extreme. There are interesting parallels between FDR and Obama, but important differences also. It would be helpful if people on the left, instead of internecine name-calling, were to examine those parallels and differences and develop appropriate strategies for the current capitalist crisis. It is tempting to regard this crisis as terminal. But it will not be so, unless we on the "left" face up to our revolutionary responsibilities. NOTE FOR THOSE OUTSIDE UK: "Things can only get better" was Tony Blair's New Labour theme tune in the 1997 general election. BNP, British National Party, is a fascist organisation making worrying advances in the polls, because of the alienation of the white working class. This may strike a chord on the US side of the Atlantic. --- Go well. Karl Dallas Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/karldallas Want to help the people of Palestine? Then follow http://www.twitter.com/bradfordvp and http://www.twitter.com/dpalestine 2010/1/24 > Send Marxism-Thaxis mailing list submissions to >marxism-thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >marxism-thaxis-requ...@lists.econ.utah.edu > > You can reach the person managing the list at >marxism-thaxis-ow...@lists.econ.utah.edu > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Marxism-Thaxis digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Setting the record straight (c b) > 2. Re: Setting the record straight (Ralph Dumain) > 3. Re: Setting the record straight (c b) > 4. Re: Setting the record straight (Jim Farmelant) > 5. Re: Setting the record straight (c b) > 6. Re: Setting the record straight (Ralph Dumain) > 7. Re: Setting the record straight (c b) > > etc > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight
Ralph Dumain wrote: > This sort of politics worked during the New Deal, which was the CPs > heyday. And that was partially because the nebulous long-term vision > of socialism could be seen as the logical conclusion of short-term > reform efforts and the growth in power of labor organizations, and > because using the state to reform the capitalism system could be seen > to involve using the state or gaining control of the state to take > social democracy to its logical conclusion. And because the CPUSA > could be seen as a viable, effective organization that could achieve > tangible goals. NONE of these conditions are present now. This means > that Webb is enacting a form of ritual cleansing and bonding, the > same sort of nonsense I used to hear at Blowhard Bondan's Socialist > Scholars Conferences--preaching to the faithful, admonishing them for > their faults, and cathartically reasserting their fundamental values. > This is a ritual performance for the faithful and a reinfiorcement of > the delusion that the CPUSA and American democracy have a future. CB: How about a little crititicism-self-criticism. Since you ain't go no "viable, effective organization that could achieve tangible goals" nor do any of the other left critics of the CPUSA, we can presume that your political analysis and discussion is a form of ritual cleansing and bonding and nonsense. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight
This sort of politics worked during the New Deal, which was the CPs heyday. And that was partially because the nebulous long-term vision of socialism could be seen as the logical conclusion of short-term reform efforts and the growth in power of labor organizations, and because using the state to reform the capitalism system could be seen to involve using the state or gaining control of the state to take social democracy to its logical conclusion. And because the CPUSA could be seen as a viable, effective organization that could achieve tangible goals. NONE of these conditions are present now. This means that Webb is enacting a form of ritual cleansing and bonding, the same sort of nonsense I used to hear at Blowhard Bondan's Socialist Scholars Conferences--preaching to the faithful, admonishing them for their faults, and cathartically reasserting their fundamental values. This is a ritual performance for the faithful and a reinfiorcement of the delusion that the CPUSA and American democracy have a future. At 10:35 AM 1/24/2010, Jim Farmelant wrote: > >On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:52:04 -0500 Ralph Dumain > writes: > > Brain-dead. Delusional. Cretinous Party USA on its deathbed. > >Can anyone figure out what the CPUSA gets in >return for its apparently unrecquited love >for Obama and the DP? > >Jim F. > > > > > At 09:34 AM 1/24/2010, c b wrote: > > >Setting the record straight > > > > > >by: Sam Webb > > >January 20 2010 > > >tags: Obama, elections, strategy and tactics, communists > > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight
An award for better political thinking than the anti-Obama left. On 1/24/10, Jim Farmelant wrote: > > On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:52:04 -0500 Ralph Dumain > writes: > > Brain-dead. Delusional. Cretinous Party USA on its deathbed. > > Can anyone figure out what the CPUSA gets in > return for its apparently unrecquited love > for Obama and the DP? > > Jim F. > > > > > At 09:34 AM 1/24/2010, c b wrote: > > >Setting the record straight > > > > > >by: Sam Webb > > >January 20 2010 > > >tags: Obama, elections, strategy and tactics, communists > > > > > > ___ > > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > > > > > > Senior Assisted Living > Put your loved ones in good hands with quality senior assisted living. Click > now! > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=clfnFIot4-pMl77gxPeSqgAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAASUQA= > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight
On Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:52:04 -0500 Ralph Dumain writes: > Brain-dead. Delusional. Cretinous Party USA on its deathbed. Can anyone figure out what the CPUSA gets in return for its apparently unrecquited love for Obama and the DP? Jim F. > > At 09:34 AM 1/24/2010, c b wrote: > >Setting the record straight > > > >by: Sam Webb > >January 20 2010 > >tags: Obama, elections, strategy and tactics, communists > > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > Senior Assisted Living Put your loved ones in good hands with quality senior assisted living. Click now! http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=clfnFIot4-pMl77gxPeSqgAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAASUQA= ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight
Already dead, The Ghost of Stalin On 1/24/10, Ralph Dumain wrote: > Brain-dead. Delusional. Cretinous Party USA on its deathbed. > > At 09:34 AM 1/24/2010, c b wrote: > >Setting the record straight > > > >by: Sam Webb > >January 20 2010 > >tags: Obama, elections, strategy and tactics, communists > > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight
Brain-dead. Delusional. Cretinous Party USA on its deathbed. At 09:34 AM 1/24/2010, c b wrote: >Setting the record straight > >by: Sam Webb >January 20 2010 >tags: Obama, elections, strategy and tactics, communists ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Setting the record straight
Setting the record straight by: Sam Webb January 20 2010 tags: Obama, elections, strategy and tactics, communists It is said by some on the left that the Communist Party USA has no differences with President Obama. Just to set the record straight: we do and we express them. For example, we opposed the nearly unconditional Wall Street bailouts and deployment of more troops to Afghanistan. We argued for a bigger stimulus package. And we said the president should push the envelope more; otherwise he runs the danger of the extreme right turning the popular discontent over the economic crisis against him, the Democratic Party, and the people's movement that supports his agenda. Isn't this what we saw in Tuesday's election in Massachusetts, where a right-winger was elected to the Senate? But in expressing our differences with the president, communists go to great lengths to state them in a constructive and unifying way. We don't do it to score points or demonstrate our "militancy." We don't lose sight of the class nature of this struggle. The main organizations of the working class and people are not always in sync with the president on every issue either. But they don't turn their differences into an unbridgeable divide between them and him. In fact, they consider him a friend and are mindful of the unrelenting attack, steeped in racism and other forms of division, coming from right-wing extremists, against our nation's first African American president - something that was so evident in the Senate election in Massachusetts. The left has something to learn from the approach of these people's organizations. We are too comfortable in our role as an exceedingly small, but "principled and militant" grouping in U.S. politics. Such a posture, which could easily gain greater currency in the aftermath of Tuesday's election, may feel satisfying, but it won't help us evolve into a political player that exercises a major influence on U.S. politics nor get us a flea hop closer to socialism. In my view, the president has made mistakes, particularly his handling of the financial, jobs and health care crises, but he isn't the main obstacle to social change; he is not the "enemy," or even an "enemy." President Obama is a reformer, not a socialist reformer, not a radical reformer, and not even a consistent anti-corporate reformer, but a reformer nonetheless whose agenda creates space for the broader people's movement to deepen and extend the reform process in a non-revolutionary period. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson were Democratic Party regulars, but, with the help of a popular and sustained insurgency, both of them stepped outside of their comfort zone and morphed into change-makers, thus opening up space for substantive reform - Roosevelt with the New Deal and Johnson with civil and voting rights, Medicare, federal aid for education and the "War on Poverty." Unfortunately, Johnson's mistaken decision to escalate the war in Vietnam stained, perhaps irreparably, his presidency and historical legacy. Barack Obama in my opinion has the same potential to "grow on the job" and enact reforms that measurably improve the lives of the American people and reframe our nation's place in the world. Right-wing extremists and powerful sections of capital feel much the same. Hence, the formidable opposition striving to sabotage, block or contain even the tiniest reforms by any means necessary. To make matters much more difficult, the broad coalition supporting reform is not yet of sufficient size, strength and understanding to consistently elect people's candidates as well as guarantee passage of the president's reform agenda - let alone radical reforms such as sustainable and just economic development, a national "profit-free" health service, a massive full employment program with affirmative action and living wage guarantees, fully funded, integrated, quality public education from child care to college, and a new foreign policy that accents peace, cooperation, equitable relations and a commitment to end global poverty. Until that movement is at such a level, it is premature to say what the political limits of this president are, or, to put it differently, smugly dismiss him as simply another Clintonian Democrat. When our movement reaches the level of the popular upsurges of the 1930s and '60s, we will be in a better position to say where he fits on the political spectrum and whether his views are elastic enough to accommodate more deep-going changes. Don't think we will succeed if the Obama presidency fails. If it fails, we will once again be fighting an uphill, defensive struggle as we were in the Bush and Reagan years, or worse. Witness the election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate. There will inevitably be differences and tensions with this White House as we go forward. In most instances, the differences will pivot around the pace and depth of reform; in some instances, such as the decision to escalate t
