Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 20:19:12 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: AUT: Andre Gorz


        Thanks to Franco Barchiesi and Thano Paris for their detailed
answers to my query about Gorz.  I know very little about Gorz; I was just
quite impressed by his essay "Reform and Revolution:  A Socialist Strategy
of Reforms," to be found in _An Anthology of Western Marxism_, edited by
Roger S. Gottlieb, published by Oxford U. Press.  Now, with reference to
Thano's comment:

>By the way Gorz
>is reformist up the ass and is a strong influence on the Greens. I think
>Midnight Notes also published a critique of Gorz "The proletariat waves
>bye bye" or something like that. 

        ... I appreciate the fact that Gorz, in the essay that I read (which
was written way back in 1967), wrote so clearly about the distinction
between reforms from above -- i.e., forms of appeasement offered by the
state -- and reforms achieved through pressure from below.  I am already
fond of quoting the following paragraph:

        "Certain maximalists conclude from this that reforms are meaningless
while the capitalist state continues to exist.  They are right when it is a
matter of reforms from above, volunteered and institutionalized in cold
blood, but wrong in the case of reforms brought about in hot blood by active
struggle from below...  The emancipation of the working class can become a
total objective for the workers, warranting total risk, only if in the
course of the struggle they have learned something about self-management,
initiative and collective decision -- in a word, if they have had a
foretaste of what emancipation means."

        As Thano knows, I come from an anarchist background and still work
in anarchist groups.  I do not, however, agree with the kind of anarchist
who would dismiss all intermediate measures as "mere reformism" and am more
the kind who would welcome palatable measures that might make the life of
the working class (to be defined in the most expansive way possible) a
little less harsh, especially in this age of regressive neo-liberalism. 

        To me, Gorz's strategy, as stated in the above-mentioned essay, is
important, because it shows one way in which shorter, "reformist" goals can
be sought while the ultimate goals of revolution (which must always be kept
in sight) are implicit in the method of seeking.  To me, this emphasis on
the method of seeking -- in terms of the type of organization involved and
in terms of the empowerment of every person, as an individual, within the
struggle -- is an important feature of both sound anarchism and liberating
Marxism.  But whether Gorz really sticks to revolutionary goals in his later
works is another question, which I hope to answer in my own mind as I
explore the works that Thano and Franco have recommended.



Thanks again,


Richard Singer

 













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