File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9707, message 45


Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 02:39:46 -0400
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-G: Reply to Vlad!


Linking on to what I said in a private letter to Vlad and Brown last night
on the Russian question which I reprint at the end of this letter I would
like to take up the fundemental difference that has come to light in Vlad
latest on this question.

Vlad partally rightfully claims that the western left has no understanding
of the realities of the everyday situation in Russia. He is right on this. I
can allso understand his skeptisism in regards to the western "Trotskyists"
left and their internal belly gazing about what the latest groups position
on this or that is and the huge fights that do develop out of these kinds of
polemics.

I think this has to do both with the isolation of "Trotskyism" connected to
how much of the debate has been going on in the perifery of the workers
movement mostly in new left petty bougeois circles especially since the late
sixties. However this does not excuse the fundementals of programatic and
tactical correctness of Trotskyism as and alternative to Social Democracy of
the second international and Stalinism of the Third International.

Nor does it excuse Vlad in capitulating to the specialisation of the Russian
question which leads him to the conclusion that fighting for the reforging
of a communist International on a firm programatic and tactical basis is
wrong in his eyes today.

I can even agree with Vlad when he says yhat Malecki tends to exaggerate
when talking about "800 million" starving Russians. But this does not excuse
him from drawing the fundemental conclusions that are neccessary in forging
parties in all of the former republiics of the USSR.

In fact exactly the opposite. More then ever after the demise of Stalinism
the spectre of Trotskyism and its programatic and tactical conclusions are a
vital neccessity to the communist vanguard of Russia. Otherwise what we get
at best is Vlad devoting his interests to taking part in the daily struggles
and leaving the dire need for the very fundementals of Bolshevik/Leninist
Trotskyist programatic and tactical, but also historical conclusions for
sometime in the future. This is a version of Bernstienism albeit in the
political sphere!

However I do agree that we can not approach the Russian workers in the way
that debates and struggle have taken place in western leftist circles.
Because we are not dealing with basically new left envionment and its petty
bougeois material components. But once again the prospect of gaining a
hearing in the hearts and minds of the Russian Proletariat. We need study
circles and intellectuals who can patiently explain the history, program and
tactic of Trotskyism connected to a limited (at this time) intervention in
the daily struggles and situations that turn up in these countries.
Naturally these two are connected because one can not intervene in the daily
struggles unless you have cadre and militants who can intervene.

But if we follow Vlad's advice and say leave all this stuff about Troty for
the future and lets role up our sleeves and get involved ONLY in the daily
struggles and needs of the workers would be turning not only Trotskyism but
Leninism on its head.

Without a party, parties in these countries and commmunist cadre who have
the programatic, tactical and historical fundementals we go no where except
to never be successful in organising new October revolutions.

Once again we need a new pedogogical patiently explaining approach in
finding the human material in order to intervene and turn back the present
tide of capitalist counter-revolution that Stalinism is responsible for
bringing on the Russian Proletariat.

Warm regards
Bob Malecki

Below is the private reply to Vlad and Brown from yesterday.

 A Reply to Comrade Brown
Vlad writes;.
>
>At first, I hoped to find among the Western left a sense of historical
>obligation to help Russian workers in this dark moment of their
>struggle.  
>To my initial surprise, I found no Romantic sentiments of this sort. 
>Even the trotskyists, who pride themselves for being true
>internationalists,
>were more interested in building International in virtual reality
>rather than in the messy concrete reality of Russia. 

Despite what you claim here you don't know dip shit about what Trotskyists
have been trying to do in Russia and the former USSR. But I can tell you
that there are organisations that are doing everything possible to get into
Russia. Some valuble cadre in recent years have even been killed in this
process. So fuck off Vlad...And it has nothing to do with "romantic"
sentiments but a true revolutionary Internationalist perspective of building
Bolshevik/Leninist organisations in every country in the world. In fact real
trotskyists see the task of finding a way in and the cadre to begin with the
fundementals of organising at this point Trotskyist propganda groups,study
circles,and perhaps producing a leaflett or other types of literature have
been a real top priority for a number of years.

But what could
>they
>do?  The first truly internationalist step would be to help Russian
>workers
>to break their isolation from the outside world and nationally. A
>desperate
>grassroots class struggle is going on in Russia.  But it's going on in
>the
>almost complete darkness.

The first and elementry task is naturally getting small propaganda groups
and study circles going in order to begin the process of creating a tendency
with a small circle of professional revolutionaries that can begin to
intervene on a limited basis perhaps in some of these "grass root struggles"
but even more essential is finding the human material which can lay the
basis of a number of Trotskyists groups in some of the key regions.
Connected to this is enormous security problems and risks but until we have
a relative small but tight knit communist cadre who are steeled in tactics
and program it would be a utopian pipedream to think that we can intervene
and be succesful in leading these all the more desperate struggles. In fact
the next goal after getting a limited amount of communist circles, study
groups etc going would perhaps be the possibility of getting out a
newspaper. However this newspaper can at this point hardly be a tool in
intervention in mass struggle but
a tool for regrouping the Russian left on a fundemental revolutionary
Internationalist
and Trotskyist basis including the fundementals of program and tactics not
to mention the history of the l=F6eft opposition.

There is not a single periodical publication
>that
>represents a voice of orthodox Marxism and serves a tribune for the most
>militant sections of the Russian working class.  That's there is no
>organ that
>would make the experience of this struggle conscious for the masses.
>There
>are regions in Russia where workers have de facto taken power in their
>hands
>and formed soviets or the "committees of salvation." In Vorkuta and
>Rostov,
>in the north and the south they have begun forming workers militias to
>arm themselves in the face of the inevitable street battles with the
>"forces of order."  We know as much about these developments as the rest
>of Russia's population, i.e. almost nothing.  Why? The militant workers
>don't have means of communication to speak out, no informational center
>to mediate between them and the world which is not in the hands of their
>class enemies.  Their organizations don't have even faxes, often even
>telephones, and no one to call to from them except the bourgeois press.

Yes exactly! And why because there is no party organisation and without an
organisation all the desperate cries by the workers in Russia today will not
mean dip shit Vlad..Despite these heroic actions by segments of militant
workers without a professional organisation of revolutionaries in Russia
they can nor will be able to fight and win..
>
>Now, is it utopian to expect that relatively well-to-do Western
>communists
>help them out in creating a system of national and international
>information
>and communication?  There is not a single Russian server on the Net that
>gives voice to Russian workers.  Yet every tiny grouplet of the Western
>left
>has its own, and they multiply every day.  What if only 1/100 of the
>money
>that pay for this vanity would be instead diverted to create an
>all-Russian
>server for the working class, for hundreds of faxes and copiers, and
>perhaps, even for a genuine proletarian press to publish a new Iskra
>in Russia?  Is it utopian?  Well, the Western bourgeoisie, your
>compatriots, do all these on a massive scale in *their* class solidarity
>with
>Russian reaction to help it in enslaving Russian workers and
>even physically destroying many of them. You cannot prevent them from
>doing this. But it is your moral duty to counter the evil they do.
>Reaction in Russia is international in its nature and forces that
>carry it over.  And so must be the struggle against it.

And all Russian server in all ara! I would certainly not be against working
for some sort of solution to Russian workers and the left getting access..
but with out forces and a small well trimmed organisation on the ground a
server would in fact be basically just another cyber fart in the
wind..However I am willing to take up the question on Radio tonight when I
will be discussing the Russian Question.
>
>I hear objections.  Western Left is engaged in "regroupment', it has
>to unite before and inorder to become an international force.  But real
>unity can be achieved only through united action.  And anyway how
>much theoretical unity the left really needs for this kind of project.
>I don't know a single trotskyist group that would not uphold in words
>the principle of proletarian internationalism.  What a great chance
>they have now to put this principle in action, to demonstrate that
>all sectarian differences are negligible in the face of this sublime
>ideal, and by involving themselves in a concrete class struggle, whose
>intensity has no paralel in the West, make a real stride toward their
>own unity! 

Unity! Let face facts Vlad. It is Stalinism and its decades of treacherous
politics both in the former USSR as well as Internationally that makes the
left see out as it does today. In fact Dave B made the point that the
western left who slavishly applied the Stalinist politics of the post war
period of popular fronts and peaceful coexistence now are looking for all
kinds of "Democratic" solutions to their problems. Broad unity on the basis
of nothing or agreeing to disagree on most of the central questions facing
poor and working class today. The Bolshevik/Leninists more then ever must be
both the irrecouncilable opposition to all this neo-Stalinist Menshevik
garbage while at the same time fighting to find the human material and
resources to turn our at present small forces into larger and more steeled
forces
against not only the class eneny but those that want to take us down a new
road of defeats.

I understand your anguish as you see 800 million people in the former Soviet
Union on the point of starving to death. The destruction of all the
collective property forms. Wiping out the entire social sector. And also
some heroic resistance by communist and militant workers. But without a
regroupment Internationally and without small functioning communist circles
and study groups in the former USSR that can lay the basis for a new
Bolshevik/Leninist Communist trend then all your frustration and the
isolated desperate battles will still take place and in the final analisis
lose! Because without a Leninist combat party all the heroics in the world
will not change anything.

You are faced with a choice here Vlad. You can hate Malecki and blame
everything on the western left or even the small authodox Trotskyist forces
who are seriously trying to change things in a more favorable direction
under extremely difficult circumstances.. But it is Stalinism that it
responsible for the mess we find ourselves in today. As a Trotskyist we have
been saying this for quite a long time. You will either have to find a party
and programatic and tactical approach that is better then the Trotskyists..
Or do as you are doing now in your present trajectory. Blaming everything on
the "western left" and slavishly watching as small groups of workers without
any kind of party or leadership get destroyed in heroic attempts in isolated
battles to turn back what decades of Stalinist politics and now
counter-revolution has led too..

The following points I hope to take up on the Radio tomorrow where I will be
talking about the Russian question..

!: At present their are perhaps two or three
scenarios with a lot of incredible contradictions
and unknown cards as of yet for imperialism
after the demise of the former Soviet Union.
Their is only one way out for poor and working
class people.

2. The military solution on a short term basis.
Nato contingency plans to occupy Russia. Tightening the
ring and getting control of the nuclear Stockpiles.

3. On a long term basis if the whole operation does not
explode in the faces of the bougeoisie..
We have
The Baltic States ala Sweden solution
rather important in regards to
building up a bougeois state structure Polis/military
under the guise of the struggle against criminal elements
and the Mafia, but bottom line is and apparatus to
defend the quite big and growing capital interests
in these countries.

4. or a Balkinisation alla the former Yugoslavia and
Albania..dragging in surrounding countries and
a the possibility of a new big war.

5. The Geman Question?

Reunification of Germany
The monetary union, new member states, inflow of capital
and both economic and political influence connected
to being closer to developments..I think a utopian
pipedream unless the Germans decide to rearm in
order to protect its interests.

How will countries like Turkey, Greece, Italy,even
Spain Portugal react to these developments not
to mention France England..

6. A period of growing inter-imperialist rivilry
on a shrinking world market.The growth of
nationalist sentiments. Nass unemployment,
the dismantling of welfare states at home
as the price to join the wild west show in the
east.

Connected to this we are seeing a clear
growth in the activities of the working
class to defend itself against all of these
attacks But the key will be leadership.
Naturally the cristalisation in all this
of a new Communist Vanguard from Portugal
to the Ural mountains who could quickly
find itself leading very big struggles
in the next period.

7. And unless this leadership develops
both on the political corpses of the
now dead Stalinism and the Social
Democracy who rather then die is
changing costumes to administrate
the bougeois states affairs we
the poor and working class on this
continent as elsewhere are in deep shit without a
paddlE.For me personally this means
concretely that  I have a
very warm feeling in my heart for
the politics of the International Communist League
better know in American circles as
the Spartacists! Although nobody gets
a free ticket in the serious situation
poor and working class people find
themselves today.

Cockroach!
http://www.algonet.se/malecki
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