File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1998/marxism-general.9804, message 28


Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 16:24:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Walters <dwalters-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: Re: M-G: 1. Resp. to Hugh; 2. "Transitional Method"; 3) "Marxists Withou


Jaun asks some interesting questions. I want to try to answer some of 
them briefly.

Altough from a strickly intellectual point of view with "no strings 
attached" Barnes ditching of PR seems 'reasonable.' But you are viewing 
it abstractly...very abstractly. First, in the speach you quoted, 
"Their Trotsky and Ours" he attacked what is in essense 95% of the 
worlds Trotskyist movement. Secondly, and more to the point, Barnes 
wasn't just 'questioning' PR, or, even, ditching PR...it was the 
acceptance of the two state theory of revolution which WAS key to 
Trotsky's opposition to Stalinism and Cominterns adoption of essentialy 
a Menshevik perspective of two-statge revolution.

That's what I meant by 'abstract.' One should always question these
things in light of history. Barnes not only questioned it, he adopted
the perspecive of Trotsky's enemies and the enimies of socialist
revolution: Stalinism. By rejecting PR he adopted a stalinist position,
essentially...and that position put forward internationally by Castro's
Communist Party...the speech was Barnes mea-culpa toward fidelismo and
EVERYTHING that entails. More another time on this.

On the Trasitional Method...the TM is the underlying Marxist method 
that the Transitonal Program uses. Simply put, in order to bridge the 
cap between the minimilal program of the social democracy and the 
maxilimalist program of the ultra lefts and Third Period Stalinists, a 
series of demands could be raised to mobilze the class in basic defense 
of it own interests AND at the same time, those demands could also 
challenge the basic under pinning of the enemy class AND the union 
bureacracy. 30 hours work for 40 hours pay is one such demand that 
still hold water, so does 'workers' control' over production, demands 
that appeal to workers immediate interests but something the 
capitalists would be hard pressed to concede, either economically or 
politically.

The demands are less important than the method, however, as the demands 
should change depending on the level of the class struggle and the 
level of the consiouness of the class AND the resistance of the bosses. 
The TP and method allow for a fluidity of tactics without getting 
locked into a dogma of demands. MOST Trotskyist groups see the TP as a 
bible of slogans and by doing so, actually reject the method underlying 
the whole point.

David Walters



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