Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 00:29:52 -0500
Subject: M-G: Dave and the state caps...


Daves Comments in the latest round with the state caps which was sparked by 
Hugh's letter yesterday i think says something extremely important when it 
all comes down to the cookie jar.

And that is all of this discussion about some rather small details of late 
must be seen in relation to what the "state capitalist" trend has done in 
regards to the SU in their history.

There top down empiric view of history instead of a revolutionary Marxist 
analisis of the SU based on classes has led them historically into some 
pretty sleezy *concrete* political actions time and again. Usually of siding 
with imperialism against the former defrormed and degenerated workers states 
or having a line of a plague on both your houses of abstentionism.

This is the bottom line of the whole debate! Not just what you say--but what 
you do.

Another interesting twist which I hope Dave develops a little more is what 
this type of thinking has done to many of those groups claiming to be 
Trotskyist!  The Pabloites
of yesterday and today for example or the recent turn of the SWP towards Cuba!

I think that once one starts down the road of liquidating or questioning the 
ABc's of what Trotsky and the left opposition built the FI on one can wind 
up just about anywhere on the spectrum. But as I believe in the materialist 
view of history this means that it is other social forces and political 
forces then the proletariat which is what many of these fake Trotskyists in 
the final analisis capitulate too.

We can say for example one of the reasons that Social Democracy is and has 
deserted the working class is partially because the class character of these 
parties has definitely changed from being parties based on the trade unions 
and labor aristocracy to a cadre of Socialist Traitors who's material 
reality and schooling is completely petty bougeois and middle class. If this 
is the case for the Social Democracies, parties of a mass character. Then 
why can't this lead to all kinds of political deviations in the "Trotskyist 
envionment" which historically was isolated from the class as a whole!

The only difference being that the sons and daughters of the old labor 
aristocracy are now hardly that any longer but mostly middle class creeps 
and bureaucrats who have grown up on administrating the gains that came 
because of the October revolution...

By the way this does not change the basics. The all powerful "middle class" 
is based on a pretty exceptional period of history which now has ended. The 
post war economic boom which came at the expense of millions upon millions 
of skulls of poor and working class people and created the situation no 
longer exists...

By the way the only thing that can change this is that a sizeable part of 
the proletariat either in one country or in a number of countries are won to 
the banner of orthodox trotskyism which can turn the scales in the other 
direction. The Stalinist pipedream of resurrecting Stalin or at least his 
politics just won't do it. Nor will the state capitalist line because its 
fundemental flaw is empirism. Thus they instead of vying for leadership of 
the class internationally will unfortunately be sideline commentators with 
either right wing pro imperialist tactics or ultra left sectarian out in the 
desert tactics like Neils group..

Warm regards
Bob Malecki



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