Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 22:46:48 -0500
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-G: COCKROACH! #49 (Cultural Revolution in cyberspace?)


COCKROACH! #49 (Cultural Revolution in cyberspace?)

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1. A Deformed Worker's State!

2. Academic Marxism?

3. "I couldn't give a flying fuck"...

4. Cultural Revolution in cyberspace?


--------------------------------------------------------
A Deformed Worker's State!


I am reading a book by Simone Weil (1909-43) - published
post-humorously in 1958 called Oppression and Liberty    I have typed
this piece - so hopefully not many typos.  The sentences are long,
but then that is her writing I suppose.

I feel it quite correctly assesses the situation then (1932).   The
piece was probably written just before Weil went to the Spanish
War.  She was 23 at the time. 

Quoted from the Essay titled "Prospects" written by Simone Weil. 
(Published in  "Revolution proletarienne Number 158" in August
1933.) 

 "The Paris Commune was an example not only of the creative power of
the working class masses in movement, but also of the fundamental
impotence of a spontaneous movement when it comes to fighting
against organized force s of repression.   August 1914 marked the
bankruptcy of proletarian mass organizations, both on the political
and trade-union planes, within the framework of the system.   From
then onwards it became necessary to abandon once and for all the
hopes placed in this mode of organization. not only by the
reformists, but by Engels.   On the other hand, October 1917
ushered in new and radiant prospects.    At least the means had been
found of combining legal with illegal action, the systematic labors
of discipli ned militants with the spontaneous seething of the
masses.   All over the world communist parties were to be formed to
which the Bolshevik party would pass on its knowledge and technique;
they were to replace social democracy, already described by Rosa
Luxemburg, in August 1914, as a "stinking corpse", and very soon to
disappear from the stage of history; and they were to seize power
within a very short time.

"The political regime set up spontaneously by the workers of Paris in
1871 , then by those of St. Petersburg in 1905, was to become solidly
entrenched in Russia and soon to embrace the entire civilized world.
Of course, the crushing of the Russian revolution by the brutal
intervention of foreign imperialism might blast these brilliant
prospects; but, unless such a thing occurred, Lenin and Trotsky were
certain of introducing into history  precisely this particular series
of transformations and nor any other.

Fifteen years have elapsed.   The Russian Revolution has not been
crushed .   Its enemies, both abroad and at home, have been
vanquished.   And yet nowhere on the surface of the globe -
including Russia - are there any soviets; no where on the surface of
the globe - including Russia -is there any communist party properly
so-called.   The "stinking corpse" of social democracy has continued
for fifteen years to infect the political atmos phere, which is
hardly the action of a corpse; if at last it has been largely swept
away, this has been the work of fascism, not of the Revolution .
The regime born of October, which either hand to expand or perish,
has for fifteen years accommodated itself very well to the boundaries
set by its national frontiers; its role abroad now consists, as
events in Ge rmany clearly demonstrate, in stifling the
revolutionary activities of the proletariat.   The reactionary
bourgeoise have at last perceived that it has very nearly lost all
force of expansion, and are wondering whether they could not now
make us of it by arranging defensive and offensive all iances with
it with a view to future wars (cf.  the "Deaust Allgemeine Zeitung"
for 27th May).   The truth is that this regime resembles that which
L enin thought he was setting up in so far that it excludes
capitalist property almost entirely; in every other aspect it is the
exact opposite.   I nstead of genuine freedom of the press, there is
the impossibility of ex pressing a free opinion, whether in the form
of printed, typewritten or hand-written document, or simply by word
of mouth, without running the risk of being deported; instead of the
free play between parties within the framework of the soviet system,
there is a cry of "one party in power, an d all the rest in prison";
instead of a communist party destined to rally together, for the
purposes of free co-operation, men possessing the high  degree of
devotion, conscientiousness, culture, and critical aptitude, t here
is a mere administrative machine, a passive instrument in the hands
of the Secretariat, which, as Trotsky himself admits, is a party in
name only; instead of soviets, unions and co-operative functioning
democratically and directing the economic and political life of the
country, there a re organizations bearing, it is true, the same
names, but reduced to mere administrative mechanisms; instead of the
people armed and organized as a militia to ensure by itself alone
defense abroad and order at home, the re is a standing army, and a
police force freed from control and a hundre d times better armed
than that of the Tsar; lastly, and above all, instea d of elected
officials, permanently subject to control and dismissal, who were to
ensure the functioning of government until such time as "every
crook would learn how to rule the state", there is a professional
bureaucracy, freed from responsibility, recruited by co-option and
possessing, t through the concentration in its hands of all economic
and political power , a strength hitherto unknown in the annals of
history.

The very novelty of such a regime makes it difficult to analyze.
Trotsky persists in saying that we have here a "dictatorship of the
proletariat" , a "workers' State", albeit with "bureaucratic
deformations", and that, as regards the necessity for such a regime
to either expand or perish, Lenin and he were mistaken only over the
time-scale.   But when an error in degree attains such proportions
we may be permitted to think that an err or in kind is involved.,
in other words a mistake touching on the actual nature of the
regime of whose conditions of existence a definition is bei ng
attempted.   Beside, to call a State a "workers' State" when you go
on to explain that each worker in it is put economically and at the
complet e disposal of the bureaucratic caste, sounds like a bad
joke."

Quote ends

Graham H
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Academic Marxism?

yoshie furuhash;

>I agree with Will that we do need to consider what separates academics from
>other sorts of workers who all Marxists can agree are indeed proletarians.

<snip>

Yoshie I assume with a lot of other people writes a rather formal correct 
position on
the academics and their plight. I can only add that many academics because 
of the
"education explosion" in the post war boom find that they themselves are today
finding themselves on the dole for perhaps the first time in history! Ahh 
nothing like a
good old portion of unemployment for our smarties to get them moving in one
direction or another! Unfortunately historically these kinds of crisises 
usually drive
the smartie crowd to the right at best and even towards fascists and racist 
solutions
when things get really up tight. However there are those intellectuals that 
do not
follow the pack and do work against their both material and cultural 
privileges that
they historically have been based on..

But what Yoshie and others leave out despite their plight is the bougeois 
world of
thoughts, values and ideals that are served to them on a silver spoon from 
birth. It
creates a constant pressure to capitulate to these forces and in this case 
under the
cover of being "Marxists".

I do not think that there is much difference between the labor aristocracy and
academia other then the labor aristocracy has built up its capital in the 
factories near
the workers historically both as trade union bureaucrats and the specialized 
tradesin
the industries whereas the academia do not even have these class roots!

But both are naturally extremely dangerous. But getting back to the academia 
I think
the best examples of academia actually writing something that workers can 
use comes
>from people like Adam Rose (who I disagree with because of his state 
capitalism) but
his style and the things he sometimes produces can be used by workers. Dave
Bedgood is another good example. Negative examples is Doug! Not because I
disagree with his liberalism. The problem with Doug I think is that he does 
not give
workers any information that they can use. He mostly contributes like others 
here as
some sort of ego tripping mind game, sort of like masturbation, or a 
discussion over
the head of workers. Proyect is another example of the same tendency and quite
openly wants to create a list which in style is exactly like the garbage 
that he thinks is
important.

I should mention here Vlad who started off pretty bad politically but has a 
style which
I think workers could understand..

And Stuward who is very honest, in fact to me one of the most honorable of the
intellectual crowd that hangs out here!


Aldolfo despite his religious fever and obsession with cockroaches has a 
style which
can be understood by workers sometimes. But he is constantly wanting to join the
intellectual playpen. When he is not threatening to use the steel boots on them!

Louis G is extremely intelligent but goes on with endless desertations 
without openly
coming out and defending his obvious Stalinist line. He draws all the 
arguments but
not the tactical and organisational conclusions they involve. He is trying 
to get people
to buy a pig in the bag. The same old pig of Stalinist politics that the workers
movement has been chained with for years. Albeit a cleaned up version.

Barkely is just a whining apologist that wants to be one of the boys.

Justin appears to be one of those dry dusty types who will have to change 
his ways if
he thinks he is going to communicate with working class people.

Scott is a clown and lives off leaching on intellectual quips amongst the 
learned here
at Jefferson village.

Bob S. who apparently has disappeared from M-I was more of and honest bougeois
intellectual with quite clear positions that at least defended the male half 
of his
protogees!

Jerry Levy who was one of the "ivory tower" people has his own problems 
these days.
>From carrying the big stick against the "Stalinists" and the Trots on first 
m1 and then
M2 he is getting hit with the stick because of the Proyect affair.Very Funny 
in fact. In
regards to this I find it interesting that the moderators Godena and Zeynep 
defend
Louis on this one with Jerry and quietly let slip by Proyect going all over 
the net
accusing malecki of being and "agent provocateur", "cop" and a lot of other 
lies and
slanders. But for these intellectuals their are one kind of thing that 
should be looked
into and Jerry gets the big stick and others which are ignored that were and 
are far
more dangerous. I assume that the rules and arts of respectability on M-I 
only are for
certain elements of academia. Sort of like being in a sandbox playing with 
your prick
or something! So much for our moderators. Although I think that Jon 
certainly was
principled in removing himself from the Jerry-Proyect controversy. To bad 
you could
not do that with the Malecki stuff on M1 John. And as far as the recent 
controversy I
think that Jerry should not even have been allowed to write and then get 
thrown off
the list for his writings. because he was never a member of the list. So if 
anybody
should get a smack on the hand it is in fact those moderators that allowed 
Jerry's letter
to reach the list despite him not being subbed! But I see that this stuff as 
been taken
care of now.

But as they usually say one of the traits of the petty bougeois intellectual 
is defending
their own kind through thick and thin from those horrible "vulgar" 
proletarians! "Each
to his own and never the twain shall meet." Who said that? Obviously a very 
smart
ass.

Finally I guess that Lenin and Trotsky were the best examples of a communist
intellectual intellegencia who could go to the very heights of the intellectual
aristocracy and deal with them in the interests of poor and working class 
people and
then on the other hand could write to the lowest of poor and proletarian 
elements of
the vanguard of the proletariat and grab them by the balls.

Our list has a long way to go before we find any of this caliber to help 
poor and
working class people find a way forward. It is a sign of the times and 
naturally the
character of the new left and its both historically being born in the post 
war boom and
years after the great events which shaped the intellectuals of the 
first-second, third
and fourth Internationals. In fact not to much original thinking from our 
intellectuals
on this list. Just a parroting of the various trends that have existed since 
the victory of
the October revolution and the Stalinist and Social democratic aftermath! And to
think that these intellectuals have accused Malecki of being a horrible 
sectarian who
just repeats those horrible Bolshevik Leninist formulas and talks about 
Trotsky all the
time. I mean christ our bougeois intelligence who appear to go through every 
word
any asshole writes and bickers about it trying desperately to find something 
so that
they can throw that oh so horrible Lenin and Trotsky out the window! Hmmm it 
just
makes me wonder. But even in these questions the ivory tower types appear to 
defend
their own! However their are a few exceptions!

Probably take a small group of revolutionary Bolshevik-Leninists and a new 
October
somewhere on this planet in order to break all of our intellectuals from 
there bad
habits! Then and maybe then should workers take you people seriously. Until then
nobody gets a free ticket! Especially our "Marxist academicians"! 

So the message is not your woes but where are you thinking about taking poor and
working class people, the revolutionary motor of history. To new victories 
or new
bloodbaths?

Warm regards
Bob Malecki

PS: For those intellectuals I have not named (Rob S) for example. Well, consider
yourself lucky! You might just make it on to my list!

PPS: Oops their goes that horrible vulgar malecki again!
 Why won't he stop picking on us. I guess we will have to deal with him in 
one way
or another! Well, the same goes for you! As the great cry from the French 
Revolution
once again walks the halls of history on Internet! Off with their heads! 
Especially
those with the powdery wigs on...
--------------------------------------------------------
"I couldn't give a flying fuck"

Gary writes;

>This is just crazy nonsense.  There is a world to win.  Outside my office,
>away from my computer and the list Australian workers are being driven into
>the dirt.  Hard as it is for Trotskyist comrades to understand the Moscow
>trial question is not the burning issue in Brisbane right now.  Every Monday
>I stand outside State Parliament on a small picket line defending the rights
>of workers to organize.  The man standing holding the banner with me is an
>admirer of Stalin.  I couldn't give a flying fuck about this.  He regards me
>as a rabid Trot but has agreed to bracket off discussion about the burning
>issue of Nin and the POUM while we try and get people to stand up to the
>state in 1997.

Naturally this is the real problem for you Gary. The fact that you don't 
give a "flying fuck" about history. Because who you are standing next too in 
Brisbane is definitely connected to this history. And will have real 
consequences for Australian workers just as well as workers Internationally. 
Because there is and Australian CP who I am quite certain will and does the 
very same political mistakes as they have been making historically..

And that you take up "Nin" and "POUM" I find very interesting. Because I am 
quite sure the Australian CP is linking those angry workers who "admire" 
Stalin into some sort of block with a wing of the bourgeoisie. And I am 
quite sure that despite all the anger it will lead those angry workers to a 
new round of defeats.

And to think that Trotskyists go around and eat Stalinists for breakfast as 
"traitors"
is taking it far to personal! 

Bob Malecki
--------------------------------------------------------
Cultural Revolution in cyberspace?

To all comrades in LeninList:

I have received - during my rota as moderator in charge during comrade Jim's
absence, the following note.  


>Hello comrade Adolfo,
>
>I'd like to join the LeninList.
>
>Jay told me this address was the one to
>write to at the present time.
>
>Greetings,
>
>Rolf M.
>
>
>

I have replied to Rolf Martens in the following terms:

Your application and other mailings have been received and will be passed to
the commissioners (moderators) panel for their decision.  Unfortunately
some are not presently available due to the holiday period.  

In your particular case there is already a demand from a Swedish subscriber
that you should not be admitted at all. I will ask that comrade to forward
again the charges for counter-revolutionary activities he brings against you,
and I will forward them to you for your comments, so that the commissioners
panel can study the case properly if they so wish.

As far as my personal position, I have already explained it to you.  I am
for allowing you in, if you would accept the rules that apply to your
personal case, something that judging from the content of your other
postings you already dispute, deny most emphatically and in fact
counter-attack charging as "reactionary". There is a consensus among the
commissioners at present (arrived at before hand) that unless you would
abide by the rules IN YOUR OWN PARTICULAR CASE, your subscription will not
be accepted.

It seems to me that you fail to grasp the nature of LeninList.  I said that
we - following BASIC communist principles - had rebelled against the swamp
and that we intended to move away from it. We never claimed to have already
reached the "Maoist Heaven" you apparently inhabit all by yourself (with the
possible exception (and that only occasionally) of some other people you
know in Germany).

Many a times I have said that neither myself, nor anyone else I know
(except, possibly, Enver Hoxha)- but including Chairman Gonzalo - has ever
presumed of 100% Marxism. Neither did Chairman Mao himself.  But then, live
and learn!

LeninList is a MARXISM RE-AFFIRMATION List. In has the nature of a United
Front to defend the basic principles of Marxism and advance its members in
the understanding of the proletarian ideology, departing from the actual
level of development in THESE concrete conditions, and working its way up -
by means of struggle-criticism-transformation, hopefully, to a higher level
of understanding. 

The more modest Marxist-Leninist-Maoists in this list dearly hope and will
struggle to the best of their abilities for this development to result in
more - and not less - revolutionary people understanding the need for Maoism
to command the world revolution.  For that to become a reality, Maoism must
be taken seriously and not made a caricature of.  Other people in this list,
will doubtlessly think otherwise and work accordingly towards their own
proposals and ends. That is the nature of a United Front.  

Under the present level of development of this unity, LeninList is not a
Maoist list. However it is not an anti-Maoist list either.  It will not
allow anti-Mao, anti Stalin, anti-Lenin, anti-Engels, Anti Marx propaganda
or any other counter-revolutionary rubbish even that presented as
"super-rrrrrrevolutionary".

That is the sole basis of the present degree of unity achieved and we do not
claim anymore than that.

If you wish to discuss issues of Maoism with me, then you should set up a
Mao-List yourself and wait around until I, and those who by then may be my
other comrades, feel TOGETHER qualified to engage you in your Olympic level.  

We shall then join in when we have TOGETHER been able to - laboriously and
in continuous two line struggle - scale such lofty heights as you, and the
chosen few who may have join you in the interim, already inhabit.  In the
mean time, I have more pressing things to do and you will excuse me if I do
not have the time - or ability - to answer your lengthy criticisms in
detail. I will just re-affirm mine and leave it at that, for others to judge.  

However, do not despair. The day will come. You ought to learn some patience
since the conquest of communism may even take 1000 years, although we hope
to cut that down to the next 50 to 100 by our own strenuous effort and
self-less struggle. 

But for that to come to pass, one of the first things to do is to learn to
avoid getting bogged down in irrelevant matters and wasting time in
discussing abtruse ones.  

No one forbids you to "swim against the current". Not even to "walk into a
train tunnel against the light at the end that seems oddly to be moving
rapidly in your direction". Do practice such sports as much as you like. 

However, LeninList does - prima facie - not seem to be the place for you to
do that as much and as often as you would like.  Try the Yang-tse river or,
maybe, the Chunnel Tunnel!.

Adolfo Olaechea

Cockroach comments! 

Actually this is no joke. 
This letter was written yesterday. The author recently 
left another list in a wave of slanders,death threats, 
and threats to get the goods on other militants who 
do not support his version of "third period" 
Stalinism with a Peruvian flavor. The author of 
the above claims to be THE TRUE representative of 
the Peruvian PCP thought and follower of Gonzalo.

Hopefully the PCP fighters on the ground would not 
touch this nutcase with a ten foot pole.. 

Bob Malecki 
--------------------------------------------------------
Cockroach Supplement!

Cockroach is now running a special supplement on 
Children of America. As the document is quite long 
it has been set up at the homepage of Cockroach. 

Warm Regards
Bob Malecki
-------------------------------------------------------
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