Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2003 11:20:07 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Scott=20Hamilton?= <s_h_hamilton-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Argentina: Diary of a Revolution




Hi Nate, sorry I didn't see this e mail or I would
have replied to it in my last post. You asked:

> Can you name any examples of 'situations of dual
> power' which have ended in 
> workers' revolution that fits your criteria?

I would offer Russia in 1917 and parts of Spain during
the Civil War as examples of the resolution of a
situation of dual power in workers' favour. I believe
that there are other examples too, but I am less
familiar with them. 

I believe that in the longer term the Bolsheviks acted
to stifle workers' power,  but I don't think that
anyone on this list would deny that a) the smashing of
the Kerensky government b) the smashing of the
Constituent Assembly and c) the destruction of the
capitalist class were necessary and important
achievements. Kerensky's government was clearly a
bourgeois democratic one, and the Constituent Assembly
was not qualitatively different, because a CA is the
most radical form of cross-class bourgeois democracy
rather than a workers' institution. By destroying
these instituions the Bolsheviks and their supporters
destroyed the situation of dual power - between
Kerensky/the CA and the Soviets - which had developed
after the February revolution. Of course, one of the
great debates in Argentina at the moment is over
whether or not to call for the election of a CA.






 --- Nate Holdren <nateholdren-AT-hotmail.com> wrote: > 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Scott-
> I appreciate your questions on this thread. You said
> 
> "History shows that situations of dual power never
> last
> long, let alone provide the stability in which
> economic construction and the alleviation of
> suffering
> can take place. Situations of dual power end either
> in
> workers' revolution or in counter-revolution."
> 
> then you more or less define successful revolution
> as follows:
> 
> "[T]his alternative is precisely what Jordan
> rejects - the seizure of power by the workers. When
> I
> talk of workers' power I don't mean a gang of
> bureaucrats ruling in workers' names, but rather the
> replacement of the capitalist state by the organs of
> dual power already waiting in the wings."
> 
> Can you name any examples of 'situations of dual
> power' which have ended in 
> workers' revolution that fits your criteria?
> Thanks!
> 
> best,
> Nate
> 
> 
>
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===="Revolution is not like cricket, not even one day cricket"

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