Thank you VC. On 2 Oct 2013 22:47, "VC" <[email protected]> wrote:
> *Course on Anti-Imperialism, War and Peace, Part 4* > > ** ** > > [image: 04 Gramsci]**** > > ** ** > > *Hegemony* > > ** ** > > We have looked at the basic theory of armed struggle, courtesy of > Clausewitz. We have looked at Imperialism, which among other things is a > regime of permanent war. And we have looked at the political theory of > revolutionary insurrection, also courtesy of Lenin. This course will > continue to examine such theoretical problems of war and peace, in the > context of the age of Imperialism.**** > > ** ** > > This week we look at the contested concept of “Hegemony”.**** > > ** ** > > The concept of “Hegemony” is contested between those who would wish for a > third way, or to quote Robespierre, “a revolution without a revolution”; > and on the other hand, those who recognise that there is no such third way, > and that the real history and meaning of “hegemony” is no different from > “class dictatorship”. In other words, Marx and Engels were right to say at > the beginning of the “*Communist > Manifesto<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm#007> > *” that *“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of > class struggles,” *and that the class struggle would have to be fought to > a finish.**** > > ** ** > > For many years past this polemic has been conducted around the historical > personality and the literary legacy of Antonio Gramsci. People, including > academics who should know better, falsely cite Gramsci as if he was a > supporter of some third way, which he was not.**** > > ** ** > > Gramsci was an orthodox communist, and was not in the least bit opposed to > his contemporary, Lenin. All the material published in recent decades to > the effect that Gramsci was a soft kind of communist, or that Gramsci had a > theory of revolution (perhaps called “hegemony”) that could succeed without > any rudeness or unpleasantness of the Lenin kind, is all spurious and > fraudulent.**** > > ** ** > > The term “hegemony” needs to be rescued. A shortened version of Perry > Anderson’s long article (New Left Review, I/100, November-December 1976) > about all this is downloadable via the link below. Here is a quotation from > it:**** > > ** ** > > *“The term ‘hegemony’ is frequently believed to be an entirely novel > coinage—in effect, [Gramsci’s] own invention. Nothing reveals the lack of > ordinary scholarship from which Gramsci’s legacy has suffered more than > this widespread illusion. For in fact the notion of hegemony had a long > prior history. The term *gegemoniya *(hegemony) was one of the most > central political slogans in the Russian Social-Democratic movement, from > the late 1890s to 1917.* > > ** ** > > *“In a letter to Struve in 1901, demarcating social-democratic from > liberal perspectives in Russia, Axelrod now stated as an axiom: ‘By virtue > of the historical position of our proletariat, Russian Social-Democracy can > acquire hegemony (gegemoniya) in the struggle against absolutism.’ [19] The > younger generation of Marxist theorists adopted the concept immediately.* > > ** ** > > *“Lenin could without further ado refer in a letter written to Plekhanov > to ‘the famous “hegemony” of Social-Democracy’ and call for a political > newspaper as the sole effective means of preparing a ‘real hegemony’ of the > working class in Russia. [21] In the event, the emphasis pioneered by > Plekhanov and Axelrod on the vocation of the working class to adopt an > ‘all-national’ approach to politics and to fight for the liberation of > every oppressed class and group in society was to be developed, with a > wholly new scope and eloquence, by Lenin in What is to be Done? in 1902—a > text read and approved in advance by Plekhanov, Axelrod and Potresov, which > ended precisely with an urgent plea for the formation of the revolutionary > newspaper that was to be Iskra.”* > > ** ** > > What Perry Anderson demonstrates is that “hegemony”, far from being an > alternative to the working class ascendancy otherwise referred to as the > “dictatorship of the proletariat”, is in fact exactly the same idea, and > was understood as such without any reservations at all by Antonio Gramsci > in all his works. **** > > ** ** > > This article is worth keeping in mind as an insurance against the > inevitable return of the fake “hegemony-Gramsci” third-way myth. Tomorrow > we will look at a similar but much shorter article.**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > **· ***The above is to introduce the original reading-text:* *The > Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci, 1976, Perry > Anderson<https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses2/17-anti-imperialism-war-and-peace/17041%2CPerryAnderson%2CTheAntinomiesofAntonioGramsci%2C1976%28Part%29.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1> > ** (short version).*** > > ** ** > > **· ***A PDF file of the reading text is attached* > > * * > > **· ***To download any of the CU courses in PDF files please click > here <https://sites.google.com/site/cu2012courses/>*.** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > > __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus > signature database 8868 (20131002) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. > > http://www.eset.com > > -- > -- > You are subscribed. This footer can help you. > Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to > this message. > You can visit the group WEB SITE at > http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery > options, pages, files and membership. > To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected]. > You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to > put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail > to this address (repeat): [email protected] . > > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
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