File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_2001/aut-op-sy.0112, message 147


Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 03:15:59 +1100
From: Sergio Fiedler <s.fiedler-AT-unsw.edu.au>
Subject: Re: AUT: For Communism


Hi everyone,

These articles are really a good read, but unfortunately they ended up
just replicating the old leninist/trotquist/ anacho-sydicalist critique
of identity politics and silly statements about denying democratic
rights to communists from burgeois society within the organisation, as
if communism did not arise from the conditions created by capitalism
itself, or as if a class position determined mechanistically the
ideology of comrade. If Floyce is in fact for creating communism now he
would also advocate to abolish class division about communists
themselves. Again many stalinist and trotquists parties always procured
to retain a proletarian majority within their central committees, that
did not make the politics of those parties less problematic.

By  genuinely attempting to address the pitfalls of identity politcis
within the left, Floyce ends up bending the stick too much to the other
side, considering as desirable and positive an homogeneous  working
class. This approach deny the fact that the unequal relations of power
within the class are real, and while working class men might not
directly benefit IN THE LONG RUN from the oppression of women, the
former in most cases participate activelly in the extraction of unpaid
labour by capital from the latter. The rejection of the sexual
revolution is equally problematic as if changes in people's sexual
behaviour were irrelevant to the reproduction of capitalism,

To live communism in the here and now is really about transforming the
struggle against system and exodus from the system into a process of
transforming social relations, and open the possibilities for human
beings belonging to the proletariat to present themselves not simply as
working class but as collectivety and multiplicity of needs and desires.
Certainly the differences created by capitalism atomise and fragment tle
class, but that process of difference through atomisation goes hand in
hand with processes of homogenisation like the reduction of everything
to exchange value. So where capitalism creates atomisation, communism
attempts to create unity (or as Deleuze would say, univocity); but where
capitalism creates unity and sameness, communism attempts to create
difference and multiplicty.

I think the articles needs a better definition of "small capitalists".
Often street vendors or out-workers fit technically the definition of
"small capitalist" in classical Marxist framework, however they continue
to be merciless exploited by corporations through a market regulated
social factory.

cheers

Sergio

Floyce White wrote:

> AGAINST SOCIALISM--FOR COMMUNISM
> A Message to All Activists in the Struggle for Peace
>
> September 29, 2001 by Floyce White
>
> Today we gather to oppose President Bush's threats to
> launch a war of revenge--really a war for conquest of
> oil and gas fields and poppy fields.  I too am
> saddened and horrified by the depraved acts of murder
> committed by terrorist hijackers September 11.  But I
> will allow neither warmongering nor pacifist
> "non-politicization" to dissuade me from discussing
> these urgent issues with fellow activists.
>
> Peace is the natural, cooperative condition of
> humanity.  Warfare is an anti-social aberration that
> can be ended permanently.  Peace is a way of life, not
> merely an interval between attacks.  Our struggle is
> to end the entire system that causes war and violence.
>
> Every violent act and threat of harm is based on a
> mistaken idea:  that one person should tell another
> what to do.  Power over others is achieved by claiming
> possession of the things that other people use.  Power
> over others becomes a method of human relations--a
> social system--in which every thing, every place,
> every idea is someone's property.
>
> Ownership takes the actual form of society divided
> into classes.  The upper class consists of inheritance
> units--families--that make huge claims of ownership.
> Economic and political oppression comes as the rich
> enforce their claims.  Employers, landlords,
> merchants, and investors are the instigators of
> coercion and war.  For this reason, rich people must
> not be invited to participate in peace activities.
>
> The lower class consists of the great majority whose
> claims of ownership do not go beyond items of personal
> use.  These dispossessed families are forced to sell
> themselves as laborers to the possessing rich.
> Working-class people are exploited, but do not exploit
> others for property gain.  This concern for others
> before one's self is the only source of peace;
> therefore, the struggle of the working class to end
> capitalism is the same as the struggle to end warfare.
>
> We must advocate action based on the self-organization
> of the working class.  We must reject the elitist
> notion that poor people are somehow unable to
> comprehend theory or practice.  To the contrary--the
> poorest people are the best informed about actual
> conditions and are the most capable of directing
> struggle.  We must oppose any philosophy that tends to
> limit the participation of poor people.  Concepts of
> race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual
> revolution, male chauvinism, experts or authority
> figures, and the like are just excuses for the
> existing structure of oppression.  Comrades from
> capitalist family origins must step aside and become
> sympathizers without voice and vote.
>
> For many years, the goal of the movement against
> capitalism was called "socialism."  Socialists adopted
> the idea of maximizing state (public) property while
> retaining most other forms of family (private)
> property.  The reality of so-called "socialist
> countries" or "workers' states"--such as the USSR or
> China--was rule by petty capitalist clans that
> individually were not big enough to control heavy
> industry.  They exploited the working class directly
> through small business, and indirectly through
> government-owned big business with a hired bureaucracy
> of privileged management workers--many of who were
> from petty-bourgeois families.  As soon as these
> families accumulated enough power to wrest control of
> heavy industry, they dropped their fiction of being
> pro-worker.
>
> Nationalization is part of the ordinary organization
> of capital.  How could it be otherwise?  The
> nation-state is the form of territorial rule specific
> to capitalism, just as the kingdom was specific to
> feudalism.  "Nation-alized" means in the hands of one
> nation of capitalist families.  Most countries use a
> nationalized postal system.  Many have a nationalized
> airline.  Nationalized big business can be found in
> many less-developed countries.  Nationalizations are
> also used by more-developed capitalism as a way to
> rescue unprofitable industries, such as Conrail and
> Amtrak in the US.  Some socialists developed theories
> of "state capitalism" or "statism" that correctly
> identify the so-called "socialist countries" or
> "workers' states" as a form of capitalism, but their
> goals are fundamentally no different.  They too are in
> favor of maintaining property relations--the system of
> exploitation of labor--with maximized state property.
> The struggle against capitalism is yoked to the method
> of nationalizations, which is no more anti-capitalist
> than are syndicates or co-ops.  In many less-developed
> countries, the struggle for workers' liberation is
> also subordinated to the local capitalists' struggle
> for national liberation from foreign domination.  The
> anti-imperialist movement becomes a
> pro-petty-capitalist movement.  Fact is, the entire
> history of socialism is a history of bitter defeats of
> various "minimum programs," "transitional periods,"
> and other experiments in "stages."
>
> For these reasons, we must oppose socialism and any
> pretense to stop the struggle at some "stage."
> Instead, we must advocate the abolition of all
> property relations--both public and private--during
> the overthrow of the capitalist state.  If our method
> is to always relegate the ultimate goal to the far
> future, it will never be achieved.  Our slogans must
> be:
>
> SHARE NOT TRADE
> ABOLISH EMPLOYMENT--END WAGE SLAVERY
> NO RENT--NO MORTGAGE--NO HOMELESSNESS
> COMMUNISM IN OUR LIFETIME
>
> Please post comments for discussion at:
> http://pub84.ezboard.com/bantiproperty
>
> or mail letters to this address:
> PO Box 191341, San Diego, CA  92159-1341
>
>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
>
> AGAINST LIBERALISM--FOR COMMUNISM
> A Message to All Activists in the Struggle for Peace
>
> November 1, 2001 by Floyce White
>
> Petroleum.  Natural gas.  Opium.  Refugee labor.
> These are the commodities on the new Silk Road of
> Asia.  Treasures reaped by the merchants, who fight
> each other for control of trade.  Treasures unseen by
> the millions of dead in the off-and-on oil wars.  The
> prolonged war in South America differs only in
> substitution of cocaine and coffee for opium poppies.
> The rich disco in Cairo and Miami.  The poor kill each
> other for soldiers' pay.  Such is life under
> imperialism.
>
> When the Soviet Union lost the Cold War and its
> government collapsed, the Russian capitalists lost
> most of their empire.  Chinese capitalists returned to
> being colonial compradores to again-victorious
> America.  The "opening of Vietnam" and the attempt at
> a New Bases Treaty for the Philippines were immediate
> consequences of the Sino-Soviet surrender.  The
> advance of US capital into the fringes of the old
> Soviet empire could be seen by satellite photography
> as trails of smoke and dead bodies from its
> participation in wars around the Persian Gulf and
> Mediterranean.  A new version of "Manifest Destiny"
> was unwrapped as the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
> Western European capital hurried to duplicate this in
> its European Union.  Japan became increasingly
> isolated and crisis-ridden as it and the "Four Tigers"
> were no longer special investment opportunities.
> Sheer butchery in Rwanda, the Congo, West Africa,
> Angola, and the Horn of Africa reflected the changes
> in imperial strengths.  The hundreds of millions of
> war-related and economic refugees throughout Eurasia,
> Africa, and the Americas testified that human
> suffering is the greatest product of any empire.
>
> It took only ten years for the American New World
> Order to draw attacks on its homeland.  The threat
> from the skies is every bit as terrorizing now as it
> once was from Soviet and Chinese nuclear missiles.
> The extinction of all humanity from plagues of
> biological warfare is every bit as possible as our
> eventual extinction from radiation-caused genetic
> mutations.
>
> American capitalists tell us that the enemy is foreign
> capital, foreigners, and anyone who seems to not be
> their supporters.  Their advice is to support the US
> military as it drops bombs and shoots radioactive
> shells at foreign targets.  Their advice is to support
> the US police forces as they spy on and shoot people
> who seem to match stereotypes/profiles of the
> "criminal types" who are poor, have dark skin, or
> speak a foreign language.  American capitalists are
> forever telling us to shut up, do as we're told, and
> get back to work.  Foreign capitalists tell us that
> they love Americans--until death rains from the skies.
>
> The ongoing tradition of the peace movement is to
> repeat the lie that capitalists are our friends.  Part
> of the peace movement postures as the anti-communist,
> loyal-opposition pacifists who say that business is
> good and should not be disrupted by war.  Part of the
> peace movement postures as "anti-imperialist" and
> spreads the lie that petty-capitalist rule labeled as
> "socialism" in the USSR, China, Vietnam, or Cuba
> represents the unity of working-class people.  They
> spread the lie that petty capitalists in Central
> America or Palestine are allies in a common struggle
> against big US corporations.  The current
> "anti-globalization" movement is even more blatant: it
> falsely equates worldwide opposition to big capital
> with support for locally-based small capital.  The
> approach of these peace movements is to increase the
> political power of small capitalists--that is why
> communists refer to them as "petty-bourgeois
> movements."
>
> Many working-class people participate in various
> petty-bourgeois movements.  We discover political
> people who mouth "anti-capitalism" but never advocate
> direct workers' takeover of the workplace, direct
> tenants' takeover of rental and mortgage housing,
> direct homeless takeover of empty buildings or land,
> direct community takeover of stores, or any action
> that can immediately end property relations.  We feel
> a burning hatred of the rich, but the rich brats who
> go slumming in leftist movements tell us there is no
> anti-property solution.  Their revolution is the
> despicable revolving door, where our struggle is used
> to help small capitalists replace big capitalists as
> the ruling exploiters.  Forgotten is the principle of
> worldwide workers' solidarity against all capitalists.
>  Forgotten is the method of listening most to the
> ordinary nobody.  Instead, insults are used to divide
> working-class people--such as the idea that homeless,
> sick, and hungry poor whites somehow benefit from
> racism and imperialism.  As obviously fascist as is
> the movement for "white power," many radical-liberal
> and socialist organizations endorse and promote "black
> power" and other segregation movements.  Day-to-day
> activism confirms the simple fact that
> broadly-inclusive organizations are controlled by
> their purse strings.  Multi-class committees mean
> money-dominated politics.
>
> The concept of "niche oppression" lingers as a stench
> of death over the liberal-oriented socialist movement.
>  All of the devices that capitalists use to divide
> workers are resurrected as sacred cows:  nationality,
> religion, sexual revolution, supposed race or
> ethnicity, and so on.  In this way, the landlord
> always claims to be more oppressed than his tenants,
> since he points out plenty of ways that the culture
> and organization of bigger capitalists restrict his
> ability to do whatever he pleases.  The small employer
> who practices vegetarianism is supposedly
> "progressive" while his junk-food-eating employees are
> "backwards."  Liberal ideas are reflected in all the
> current socialist theories, such as the jargon of
> "triple-layered oppression" or the line that "workers
> can't win by themselves."  The purely-commercial
> leftism displayed on the Third Street Promenade in
> Santa Monica or on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley is the
> suicidal end point of liberalism in the workers'
> movement.  We must totally break from liberalism and
> differentiate ourselves from liberals.  We must unite
> against the rich--and especially against liberal,
> pro-capitalist ideology within the movements for
> social change.  Our slogans must be:
>
> SHARE NOT TRADE
> ABOLISH EMPLOYMENT--END WAGE SLAVERY
> NO RENT--NO MORTGAGE--NO HOMELESSNESS
> COMMUNISM IN OUR LIFETIME
>
> Please post comments for discussion at
> http://pub84.ezboard.com/bantiproperty
> or mail letters to this address:  PO Box 191341, San
> Diego, CA  92159-1341
>
>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
>
> WHAT IS COMMUNISM AND HOW CAN WE ACHIEVE IT?
>
> December 1, 2001  by Floyce White
>
> In the article "Against Socialism--For Communism," I
> present the idea that preserving the forms of
> capitalism--such as nationalized big business--is not
> a step toward communism.  In the subsequent article
> "Against Liberalism--For Communism," I draw the
> conclusion that bourgeois methods of struggle are
> always counterposed to direct workers' control.  Form
> and substance, methods and goals, theory and practice
> coexist to condition each other.
>
> These articles are not written for a small group of
> co-thinkers, nor as an attempt to influence any elite
> group of "experts" or "leaders."  This discussion is
> for the participation of the masses of working-class
> activists.  Millions of communists worldwide are
> influenced by the politics of the Communist Parties
> and descendant movements, and they use the term
> "socialist" to describe the former USSR.  Millions of
> Socialist Party members and sympathizers worldwide
> also define "socialism" as a system with classes,
> states, politics, money, and other forms of property.
> Millions of union organizers and supporters of Labor
> Parties think likewise.  While a majority can be
> wrong, it is important to point out that language is
> fluid.  The meanings of words are determined by social
> movements, not by scholars.
>
> The group of positions taken by Lenin was used by him
> and others as a dogma associated with his status and
> personality.  "Leninism" currently is the predominant
> influence on communist ideas; therefore, Lenin's
> definitions of socialism and communism are the
> standards of current usage.  Many communists believe
> that the group of positions taken by Marx and Engels
> is an unbreakable whole--this too is a dogma
> associated with their personalities.  "Marxism"
> promotes the idea that there must be a prolonged
> "lower phase" of post-revolutionary society.  Lenin
> merely applied the term "socialism" to the "Marxist"
> lower phase, and defined "communism" as the final
> goal.  Just as "Marxism-Leninism" must be roundly
> criticized, so must "Marxist-Leninist" definitions.
>
> Class society is the society of classes of property
> ownership.  Property classes cannot exist without
> property.  The abolition of property in every form is
> the abolition of class society.  Support for a "lower
> phase" called "socialism" that continues property
> relations is merely another way to defend class
> society and its exploitation of the working class.
> The whole point of overthrowing the state through
> revolution is not to secure reforms, not to "re-form"
> the state, but to create favorable conditions to
> rapidly shatter all forms of class society.  Socialist
> revolution nowhere did this.  The obvious defects of
> socialism caused a great deal of discouragement and
> introversion among communists.  A dogmatic and
> sectarian pitting of the views of one "leader" against
> another with "leader-ism" dragged the workers'
> movement further and further away from any useful
> theory. Ideas come from the struggle, not from
> politicians.  To develop meaningful theory, we must
> examine the struggle and the social relations behind
> it.
>
> The natural ecology of all living things is to adapt
> the environment to fit their needs.  In doing so, the
> environment changes.  As the environment changes, so
> do living things.  Our great ability to make tools and
> artifacts changes our selves, our society, and all
> life in a way that no other animal can.
>
> The rise of property classes was the humiliation and
> subjugation of productive activity.  The division of
> labor, specialization of trades, mechanization, and
> other techniques of labor management cause some
> productive behaviors to be isolated from other
> associated and complimentary activities.  Unrealistic
> labels of "work," "education," and "leisure" are
> created.  Specific "work" behaviors become the
> subjects of economic thought, and the false
> distinction between economic and non-economic activity
> is used to promote an economic fetish.  As with all
> fetishes, it originates from class society and serves
> to support class society.  Communist theory is
> influenced by this economic fetish, and communists are
> won to the belief that society must pay excessive
> attention to and must always strive to maximize the
> "work" behaviors.  The result is the idea that
> communism must be defined as an abundance--or at least
> an adequate supply--of the goods and services that
> result from "work."  The gushing adoration of
> producers is, in reality, backhanded support for their
> continued alienation.
>
> Communism is first and foremost a relation between
> people, not a relation between people and things.
> Relations between people are not altered by changes in
> the quantities of things.  Relations between people
> change through the violent, revolutionary process of
> imposition and suppression, whereby new social
> relations are imposed and the old social relations are
> suppressed.
>
> An ongoing system of social relations can be either
> communist and peaceful or propertied and violent.  The
> application of violence prevents people from using
> their productive abilities to reduce shortages in
> food, shelter, fuel, clothing, or necessary artifacts
> except as it benefits the aggressors.  The application
> of violence forces people to use their productive
> abilities to make an abundance of goods and services
> that do not correspond to physiological needs--workers
> produce use-values that are useful to continue the
> rule of the aggressors.
>
> Communism is not the permanent elimination of hunger
> and disease, nor is it any temporary abundance of
> things.  Conversely, communism is not a religious
> appeal to suffer and sacrifice for someone else's
> betterment.  Communism is the well-reasoned concern
> for one's self as an inseparable part of the
> community, as opposed to a cunning, competitive
> calculation of "mine" and "theirs."  Communism is
> thinking and doing for the well-being of
> everyone--knowing that each of us came from and always
> will be a part of that everyone.  Communism uses the
> method of people sharing things, regardless of how
> abundant or scarce those things may be.  Petroleum,
> natural gas, and coal are natural resources that
> become increasingly scarce as we use them.  Scarcity
> of fuel will not undermine communism.  Rather,
> communist, non-violent social relations will allow us
> to produce fuel crops if needed instead of setting us
> against each other in a scramble for control of
> naturally-occurring fuel.  The never-ending fuel war
> in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and Central
> Asia is the total opposite of communist society.
>
> Communist ideas are the history of struggle against
> violence and exploitation.  These ideas are discussed
> and change as more history is made.  Communism can be
> achieved only by integrating the lessons of history
> into current workers' struggles.  Working-class
> activists learn from history and become communists
> through our participation as fellow workers in their
> struggles.  Communism can never be achieved by
> redirecting workers' fury into bourgeois causes.
> Communism can never be achieved by an elite vanguard
> of bourgeois commanders who herd workers as dumb
> cattle into the holding pen of socialism.  Communism
> can be achieved only as the intentional product of the
> organized action of the entire laboring class.
> Communism always was and forever will be
> achievable--it has never depended on the technical
> development of workhouses.  The "struggle within the
> struggle" remains the same:  against liberal-oriented
> socialism--for communism!
>
> __________________________________________________
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