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 --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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