File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9706, message 81


Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 22:33:58 +0000
From: vlad bilenkin <vlad_bilenkin-AT-unity.ncsu.edu>
Subject: M-G: Re: Hands up those who think Dave's lying!


> Doubtless provoked by Rob S's amazing claim that: "Social Democrats
> represent a powerful voice for  class politics at a time when the very
> notion of class has been at risk of  disappearing" (for who? the working
> class???), Dave B gives a very straightforward run-through of the choices
> facing the working class and revolutionary socialists, under the heading of
> "Jospin's compromise".
> 
> I'd be interested to see who's willing to say that Dave's lying when he
> talks about the fact that "capitalism today is even closer to the polarised
> and collapsing class system that Marx talked of" or capitalism's
> willingness to "pull out the big stops and fascist shock troops" or "the
> reformists will back down just as they did in the 1970's and early '80's".

	I generally agree with the last two observations though the
recent intensification of the fascistic features of bourgeois
democracies in the West posits some new questions for the traditional
Marxist theory of fascism which as we all know represents the last-ditch
form of the bourgeoisie's defense against the tide of a proletarian
revolution.  That the latter
is nowhere in sight is by now must be (painfully) clear to any Marxist. 
So if Dave's first observation is correct, and today
the countries of traditional capitalist development are indeed
"even closer to the polarised and collapsing class system that Marx
talked of" the question is: Under whose blows it will collapse?  Unlike
the Roman Empire, capitalism and bourgeois society have become
planetary.  So, unless we entertain a possibility of extraterrestial
invasion, the System cannot collapse the good old way.  Could
intra-imperialist rivalries
lead to a world war even more devastating than the last one that
would either destroy the entire civilization or produce a world
revolution (on its ruins)?  This is a real though rather distant and not
very likely possibility. International capitalist class has proved its
capacity for class solidarity much better than international
proletariat.  What else?  World economic crisis that would produce a
very severe degree of immiseration in the core imperialist countries?
Again, a possibility but certainly not something on the horizon.  The
same goes for an environmental catastrophe.  More importantly, none of
these scenarios of the System's Doomsday can appeal to a Marxist.  He is
interested only in a catastrophy of the bourgeoisie in the hands of the
proletariat.  It seems more remote now than in Marx's days.   

> We already have a long list of subscribers who have made it quite clear
> that they have no faith whatever in the revolutionary potential of the
> working  class, and a number of these see no working class at all in the
> imperialist heartlands.

Rob S. is correct in a trivial sense when he says that the notion of
class has been at risk of  disappearing.  It has long ago disappeared
from the "public discourse" in the US and most of its
academic production.  Even worse, where this notion still lasts it has
been trivialized by the US "left" of all denominations. The retreat of
the petty bourgeoisie from the theory and even the rhetoric of class
struggle is not unimportant sign since they are sensitive barometer of
the correlation of forces between the main
classes.  And who can seriously fulminate against a university professor
or a social worker for abandoning any faith in the revolutionary
potential of the working class when the latter itself lacks even a
narrow reformist concept of itself?  The political backwardness of
American workers remains the stumbling block for any development of
history "by its good side." Their European counterparts have to face now
the effects of this backwardness on their own skin.  

Speaking of the present status of the concept of class we mean the
present state of class consciousness.  It is miserably inadequate all
over the world and not only in relation to the "imputed" consciousness
but to the objective economic situation in which the class finds itself
today either in the imperialist or peripheral countries.  Never before
the discrepancy between the objective and subjective existence of the
proletariat was so
great and its enslavement by the ideas of the ruling classes so
complete.  Yet never before the class nature of all economic, political,
and cultural institutions of bourgeois society was made so visible to
every one.  This is a paradox of the current moment.  How long will it
last?  The end of the socialist system and the dissolution of the
welfare state in the West seem to give some hope for the return to a
more classical form of class struggle there and hence to the growth of
class-consciousness, though so far it remains well within the reformist
horizon. But the international divisions within the working class
present a strong obstacle to the development of a *revolutionary* class
consciousness.  I've already mentioned the key role of the US workers in
this regard.  (And this is the only place where "socialism in one
country" is indeed *theoretically* possible.
Moreover, it would inevitably entail a world revolution). More
fundamental is the huge difference in the level of well-being (or
depravation) between the workers of the core and the periphery.
Everything is relative.  Even the worst poverty experienced by the
segments of Western proletariat is the object of envy by the masses
elsewhere. The consciousness of this makes the former more complacent,
more ready for a "class peace" with the bourgeoisie, more nationalistic,
etc. And the same consciousness makes the latter worship the already
achieved level of consumption "over there," dream of attaining it and
make peace with their own bourgeoisie so that it may lead them to that
"promised land" too.
The result is false consciousness on both ends and a lot of space for
social-democratic swindlers.  But sooner or later they must run out of
steam.  The only question is: Who will come next, fascists or
communists? The present status of class consciousness
may indicate a grim possibility of no alternative to fascism in the
future.  In the US everything points out in this direction. The outcome
of social-democratic regimes in England and
France may provide a better clue as to the potential for a communist
alternative in Europe.
 
Vladimir


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