Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 00:29:18 +0000
From: vladimir bilenkin <achekhov-AT-unity.ncsu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-G: Marxists Without Borders?


Sid wrote:

> A most excellent idea. One of the types of help could be to gather 
> information about various struggles ocurring in the world and 
> distribute them to others. A database could be maintained about this. 
> Another could be to write letters of protests (fax, email, phone, 
> regular mail) to newspapers, magazines, big politicians, etc about 
> particular strikes, atrocities, social cutbacks, MAI, GATT, WTO, etc 
> and send expressions of solidarity to the  working-class struggles in 
> different parts of the world. This will break the isolation to some 
> extent and convey international solidarity. There is one list I know 
> that does this kind of active work. And it has some tangible effect

The database is absolutely essential.  We need to be constantly
searching for whereabouts of local workers organizations and
updating our "mailing list."  I am convinced that have very
vague and perhaps wrong picture of what is going on.  There is a
scientific aspect to this work.  We need something like a map of
proletarian struggles around the world, their ideological level and
specificity, their mutual relation, trends and so on.  I am not aware of
any Marxist effort of this sort.  Yet without this knowledge we are
blind.
There is no Marxism without a most close study of concrete reality.  
Note that as a rule our theoretical and political thinking and
conclusions are
based not on our knowledge of the actual processes within the
proletarian
masses but on their highly mediated expressions (and perhaps also
supressions)
in the realm of political  organization which more often than not is
controlled
by non-proletarian elements.  If I did not talk myself with Russian
workers (alas,
not so much as I would like to) I could never realize to what extent the
existing
communist parties in Russia serve as a break on the development of their
class
consciousness.  

Another type of practical assistance we could offer workers is
information about
the accumulated experience of proletarian struggles.  Again, I don't
know of any literature that would present this experience in a
generalized and comparative study.   This is a big problem .  One
crucial diffrence between the ruling classes
and the oppressed is that the latter do not have history, i.e. the
continuity of knowledge about their struggles.  Their experience and
fighting skills are ever in
danger of being lost in between generations.  They simply do not and
cannot have the mechanisms ensuring historical continuity like those of
the ruling classes.  

I recently heard a paper on the famous Lena strike of 1912.  On the
basis of his 
impeccable research, this professional historian has concluded that no
labor party organized and led it.  It was a marvel of organizational and
tactical skills by the workers themselves some of whom though were
members of different parties.  And this was rather a rule than exception
during that period.  Yet 80 years later 
the Russian proletariat has to begin learning anew as if the working
class of the
Lena strike has never existed.  This is what I mean by the discontinuity
of the
history of the oppressed.  It is true that methods of struggle may and
do change depending on everchanging historical circumstances and that
there should not be
any mechanical application of the past experience.  But it is equally
true that without the knowledge of its past the class is doomed to
invent the bicycle and learn the hard way.  The bourgeoisie knows this
and uses historical knowledge to its own advantage.  When Russian
workers go on hunger strike it is above all a sure sign of their deep
demoralization and the foreclosure of their social
imagination.  There is no quick and easy medicine for this.  Yet if they
knew
that these form of "struggle" never produced any positive effect they
would
perhaps think twice before taking this road.  So ideally I see, as a
component
of such database, a sort of a catalogue or manual of historical forms of
struggle.
Say, what is a sitting or armed strike?  How are they organized and in
what situations they were effective?  And so on.  Or another big
problem:  What 
historical experience tells us about the organization of the unemployed
and their
political mobilization together with the employed workers?

I agree with Rolf that "Marxists Without Borders" is not a good choice. 
He makes
a good point that this name " would suggest that you
hold there are or have been "Marxists *With* Borders", and there
never were such creatures of course. Marxists always have stood 
for Marx' and Engels' call "Proletarians in all countries, 
unite!" and later Lenin's call, in the imperialist period: "Pro-
letarians in all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!".
Actually, I would suggest that we always conclude our letters to
workers with this line.  As to Rolf's discrimination between those who
qualify to be called Marxists and those who do not, I would leave it to 
the discretion of those who support this initiative.  Perhaps, Rolf 
misunderstood the intended political scope of my proposal.  It does not
include "giving guidance to workers."  This would obviously make any
serious collective effort short-lived.  I think what we want to achieve
is to
find the biggest COMMON denominator which would make
our intervention as less trivial politically as possible without making
us to
begin cutting one another's throats again.  I plan to write a draft of a
letter or two
as an example for our discussion.

United Internationalists?  How about United Proletarian
Internationalists?  This 
sounds more politically precise.  UPI-150, perhaps, as a reference to
the Manifesto?  As to "International Marxism-General 
Subscribers," I have two reservations.  First, it would sound very
awkward and
even incomprehensible in Russian translation and perhaps in other
languages as 
well.  Secondly, it's smacks of "virtual reality."  Let us keep in mind
that Internet
is beyound the experience of the masses in most countries.  Anyway, I
think we
can begin without a name.  

One more thing.  I was happy to receve the following
private message from Ms.L V. Trahn as a sign that we are
thinking (and hopefully acting) in the right direction:

>> What I propose then is to discuss the idea of a non-party,
>> organized  help to workers in struggle around the world, 
>> first in terms of moral support and, perhaps, information.  
>> And then we'll see.
>> 
>> Vladimir Bilenkin
 

> 
>         Great go make common cause with these Stalinists and
>they will bury you.They have no principles.They don't believe in >justice.

>Communist greetings,
>Ms.L V. Trahn
>lvtrahn-AT-ibm.net
>[line removed due to objection]

Let us confirm to Ms L.V. Trah that her alarm is well-founded, her
political sense is sound.

Vladimir Bilenkin


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