Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 13:19:19 +0200
Subject: Re: AUT: Andre Gorz


Hi listers.

Richard responded to my text:
>       You are right to an extent, but I think it makes a difference

> whether a reform is achieved via direct struggle on the part of the people,
> or whether a reform is just some gimmick tossed at the people by a
> politician to stave off any trouble in advance or to win some votes at
> election time.

There is also a big difference if a reform or any other achievement was the result
of a struggle one take part in or just a result of other people struggle.

However, any concession of the capitalists can be used to elevate working class
members consciousness to the vulnerability of the enemy.
<snip>

> >> 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."
> >
> >The main thing is hope and feeling of power resulting from successful struggle.
>
>         The question is, power for whom?  Do people really feel much power,
> personally, if every action is the result of choices and commands made by
> remote leaders?

The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend... but my claim was simple: when
working people resist capitalist authority they feel empowered. The more the
resistance is from internal center of control the more the devaluation of external
authority.

> >The success in a strike or another kind of struggle is much more important than
> >any "organizational learning".
> >
>
> But this "organizational" learning is extremely important in that it
> is crucial,

It is very important but not precondition. Every time workers started an uprising
they organized themselves in councils. It was the authoritarians masquerading as
revolutionaries that sabotaged the rebellions.

The exposure of the leninists and other authoritarians is more important than
"organizational" learning.

> if we are to create a society where people really have autonomy,

To have light you do not have to fight darkness... just need to activate any source
of light.

> for people to understand what it is like to be a vital part of the
> social/political process.

Even a slave has a relatively clear idea what is it freedom.

>  In the present climate, especially here in the
> U.S. (as opposed to parts of Western Europe, where I understand that there
> is greater participation and where there seem to be more concrete autonomous
> movements), most people have forgotten what it is like to have a say in the
> management of their own society.

To resign and yield to athority is not the death blow for yearning for freedom. The
first few days of revolt will bring it back. The hope that is the precondition for
revolt, is the gradient in minimum.

> In trade-union actions as in elections,
> people are usually asked merely to vote on options provided by the leaders.
> They are neither asked nor encouraged to take action or make concrete
> decisions individually, and they rarely feel as though they are anything
> approaching equal participants.

Even the most dumb worker in the most primitive work does decide many things along
the work day.... The problem is the lack of enough delegitimisation of the
capitalist order, and a hope.

> >For sure, management of struggle through direct democracy and not by any
> >vangardist or other authoritarian methods, contribute to the feeling of each
> >participant that s/he contributed a significant share to the common achivement.
>
>     I think it contributes to more than just "the feeling";

The feelings are the most important component as the knowledge is ample.

> it determines the nature of the struggle and the ultimate changes that are likely
> to take place.

For sure the ultimate victory on the capitalist class society will be ours or will
not be at all, but the point was on a continuum of struggles within the capitalist
class society.
--
Ilan




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