Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 09:17:53 +0100
Subject: Re: M-G: Re: Just a thought


Hugh writes;
>a stone is worthy of consideration. And there's always the "cockroach"
>factor to be taken into consideration, where class oppression produces such
>a hatred for the oppressing society that even valuable products such as
>culture are seen first and sometimes exclusively as expressions of a
>hostile class rather than of the creative spirit of humanity.

and
>
>Human beings aren't just sexual and political animals, they're also
>cultural animals. It's one of those things that finds expression anyhow,
>regardless of the social setting, even though the form of the expression is
>deeply and sometimes brutally determined by the society the artists live in.

How quaint Hugh!

I don,t particully agree when Hugh uses the term "Cockroach factor" in
painting a scenario of those horrible lumpens and proletarian elements
coming out of the middle of the night in order to revenge themselves by
destroying bougeois culteral institutions or individual works by some
particular artist. 

In fact Cockroach has never advocated
destroying bougeois cultural institutions in anyway despite the rightful
rage poor and working class people can certainly have towards these
institutions.

But Cockroach does stand on the side of the poeble! Off with their heads!
The cry of the Paris Commune was certainly defensible despite that innocent
people certainly went to the big knife! 

Where by the way does the line go Hugh? Should communists have stopped the
plundering of the closets of the ex dictator Marcos wifes shoe closet or is
it the churches and museums you are afraid the Prolos might turn into
chicken farms? Or how about Spain in the 30ties and the revolutionary
axcesses against the church? 

The point being that bougeois "culture" hardly has anything to do with
mankind being some sort of creative cultural animal-but that culture was
and is determined by who has the political power in society. And the
creative types in fact put their creativity mostly in the form of creating
for those in power through the ages.And in fact is a SYMBOL which many
times is thrown in the face of poor and working class people by the class
enemy who's only fucking message is --you know your place--slave--and we
are your fucking masters!

Despite the Pyramids for example being one of the so called "seven wonders"
(who's wonders?) it does not erase the fact that it was slaves and their
blood that buildt them under i would assume not so wonderful working
conditions.

Or how about some of the great paintings and skulptures in say a museum
like the Lourve in Paris? Were these created for the love of creation or
was it a job for the local king or dictator of a particular period?

How about Notre Dame? Why not a chicken farm? 

Naturally one has to approach this as a concious militant communist. Thus
revolutionary accesses will certainly destroy some of the great
institutions of bougeois culture and perhaps even indidvidual works in a
revolutionary overthrow. It will depend on the level of class conciousness
and leadership naturally. And resistance put up by the class enemy..

Nor will a new culture develop automatically but will like the transitional
state be a slow process connected to the political super structure and the
dictatorship of the Proletariat which will try to give as many people as
possible and equal opportunity to develop their cultural skills in all fields.

But to put the question as you do I almost get the feeling that you find
yourself in needing a towel for your tears over the possibility that the
masses in their hatred and revenge might destroy some of the cultural
institutions of the past. I think it will be a combination of the two both
violence and in time the education and development of the victorious
proletariat excersizing its dictatorship which will wash away for perhaps
once and for all time-- all vestiges of the monuments leftover from the
preceding historical period.

Unfortunately I do not have the same tears! My tears are with the millions
upon millions of people historically who offered their blood and in fact
were buried in some of the most incredibly disgusting places in the world.
For example the trenches in world war 1 or Aushwitz in WW2. This was part
of the price so those charming people of the better part of society to live
in their fucking dream world. By the way you stuff about culture in
Ayshwitz is really tear jerking but the truth is that that culture went
into a fucking gas chamber and other parts of it were melted down and sent
to Swedish and Swiss banks!

One the other hand..

In fact here in Sweden the only culture back in the beginning of the
workers movement was a militant carrying a wooden box with a couple of
books or a newspaper around and sharing it with perhaps ten or a hundred
other workers. At the same time the King and Queen here were walsing around
in their fucking palaces with powered wigs and silk dresses!

So I really do not have any fucking tears if the palace in Stockholm with
all of its "culture" might get blow up or burned to the growned in a
Proletarian upprising. But if it is destroyed it will be because it was
neccessary for the workers to storm the palace and not for revanchist
stupidity.  

And in fact you are wrong on the Stalinists and culture. Just as in many
other questions the stalinists did all kinds of Zig Zags on this stuff. In
fact the "Red Front" period where Aldolfo is running around in these days
was a period of fake "Proletarian Culture" where the Stalinists did some
pretty despicable things. And in fact this was connected to the women's
question where the Prolo culture put women on a fucking pedistal and back
behind the stove and raising kids for the "Socialist Fatherland"..And the
other side of the coin was in fact the problems that the Bolshevik's had
after October where many men deserted their women for "the revolution"
insteasd of making these women a part of the revolution..It is not just a
fucking question of how many libraries are available to workers. 

And you stuff on the welfare states. Naturally Communists defend these
instituitions like libraries and even theater, the opera, and the circus
when the state goes in and makes cuts. Not because of any great love for
bougeois cultural institutions but because Communists are the tribunes of
defense for all oppressed people in society including many of the people
who work very hard in these institutions. But not because a fucking Picasso
is hanging on the wall.. 

Finally "Cockroach" has the Trotskyist position on this question. That it
will only be the dictatorship of the Proletariat under the leadership of a
Bolshevik party that can solve these kinds of problems. And it will take a
very long time, not just years, but generations before bougeois culture can
be destroyed! And it will! Good!

However we might keep some of the artifacts to look at.Beautiful things
even if they represent and alien class and historically have been created
at the expense of the blood of millions upon millions of poor and working
class people should not be destroyed. Nor should they be kept locked up but
used in the historical education of the future generations.

Warm Regards
Bob Malecki
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