From: "Greg Schofield" <g_schofield-AT-dingoblue.net.au>
Subject: Re: AUT: Perplexing Times
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 09:33:43 +0800


Peter, thanks for you thoughts below, of which I am in profound agreement.

There is a methodoilogical illusion which traps most of the left. Everthing in history is in a sense "new" most of the time we can successfully understand these twists and turns via past experience (the novel appearing as the familiar). However, if there has been a major shift this can lead to misunderstanding what is happening.

You are right that it is banal simply to state that this all derives from capitalism and that this misses the point.

Use the last decade and half as a bracket of comparison with what existed beforehand (leave a gap of a decade so the flow of history is interrupted). Things now appear very very odd.

The collapse of liberal social democratic "middle ground" is profound.

The irrelevancy of the left, especially its party organisations is likewise large.

The roll back of social gains which stretch back to the great depression and further is likewise great.

The direct competition between third and first world workers stands in stark contrast to the previous period of protecting the homeland working class.

The spead of the leading means of production away from the frist world is unprecedented.

The destruction (by commercialisation) of social-cultural organisations which previously bound class segments to capital has been almost complete.

The collapse of the pretense to morality and ethical behaviour by the ruling class is obvious and likewise the social cynacism which has never been so deep rooted or widespread before.

The spread of what I would call social fascism through bureacracies (private and state) the corruption of important social institutions (health and education) - the promotion of fascist managerial ideology becoming the general response to all sectors of social life is unlike anything previously experienced as indeed is the growth of management itself.

The incorporation of unions as professional bureacracies, the openly class collaborationist position they often promote and their anti-militant, parochalism and deal making is almost universal.

The list could go on and on, some of it merely the exaggeration of what previously existed, but taken all together it points to something very different in the history of capitalism as we have known it.

I suspect though things are nowhere near clear that what is on the boil in class terms will make the sixities look like a child's exercise. Of course we should add to this the near complete inability of the left to address this new age or articulate its contradictions in a believable and useful way.

Before others comment, I am well aware of how this can all be put down to the victory of capital in the last decade and more, but comrades that is itself a banality.

Thank you Peter

Greg


--- Message Received ---
From: Peter Jovanovic <peterzoran-AT-hotmail.com>
To: aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 11:28:56 +1100
Subject: Re: AUT: Perplexing Times

Hi All

I'd like to take up a point made by Greg Schofield.

>And finally, The peculiar nature of international affairs today.

I've also been puzzled about the current strangeness of the world for a 
while now.

Here's a very incomplete list off the top of my head of significant 
struggles in the last few years:
1)Argentina
2)Bolivia
3)Ecuador
4)The overthrow of Suharto
5)Continuing mass strikes in South Korea
6)Struggles by airline workers throughout the world
7)The uprising in the Berber areas of Algeria
8)An insurrectionary strike in the city of Sabzehvar Iran, see: 
http://www.webcom.com/maxang/combust/kamikaze_bombings.htm
9)Genoa et al
10)Continuing strikes in Italy
11)The overthrow of Milosevic

So has a new wave of proletarian struggles begun? Are we now at a point in 
time analgous to 1967 with significant struggles in the recent past and 
bigger explosions soon to come? Or is it just my relative youth and 
inexperience showing and could a similar list have been compiled for any 
period of similar length?

Couple this with S11 and the assault on Afghanistan, the crisis of Israel's 
occupation of Palestine, Enron, the looming bankruptcies of Japan and Saudi 
Arabia and we at least have a long list of odd stuff going on.

I couldn't begin to say how if at all these events are interconnected (apart 
from the banality that they are all part of capitalism) but is anyone else 
prepared to offer suggestions?

Relating this back to the anti-imperialism stuff, IF we are on the verge of 
big revolts it is extremely dangerous to be pushing anti-imperialism with 
the excuse "that it is stupid to tell people to wait for world revolution". 
A reinvigorated anti-imperialism could be of great value to capital in 
recuperating future struggles.

Peter


----------------------------------------
Greg Schofield
Perth Australia
g_schofield-AT-dingoblue.net.au
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