Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 21:17:17 +0000
From: Joćo Paulo Monteiro <jpmonteiro-AT-mail.telepac.pt>
Subject: M-I: reply to Sterling


Dear Sterling,


Thanks for your post. I've read that 'marxian' thing too and I don't
make the faintest idea of what it means. Are you there Louis (G)? If you
have already explained this more than once, don't bother again. I'll try
to guess following your next chapters.

The so called middle classes are a very complicated issue indeed. You
seem to be talking of that layer of low income proletarized
professionals, mostly coming from working class or poor origins and with
some public education behind them. I belong here too.
The class struggle is like a chess match. With the whites you have the
capitalists, the owners of the means of production. With the blacks, the
workers, those who sell their labour force for wages in the industry.
And there's plenty of middle ground between them. In fact, on most of
the modern capitalist societies the majority of the population doesn't
belong to any of these classes. The fact remains however that they are
the ones that, through their antagonist relation in the process that
produces the means of material subsistence, form the backbone of
society. The outlook of that society with be basically defined between
them, through their struggle.
The strata refered above will have to choose to wich side they will
mainly lean. It can be very subtle and imperceptible indeed in normal
conditions, but when "push comes to shove", you may have to align
yourself unconditionally in one of the camps.
There are many reasons for taking a political position. Ultimately,
every individual is a case. But I believe, as you yourself, that this
social stratta are very important and we must gain as many people as we
can to our side. These people are all proletarians - that is, basically,
they all work for wages under someone elses direction and supervision.
Technically, so to speak, they are ours. However, capitalists have ways
of seducing them for their side (promises of a better life, consumerist
expectations, propaganda, ideological indoctrination, etc.). There is
however one important factor that you refer to, in a way, and that can
be decisive. Upward mobility expectations are not beeing met presently
and this spreads great frustration among them. Left to itself, this
frustration can be directed against wrong targets. In fact, it can even
be harmful to us. But if we can work it politically, it can also have
great revolutionary potential.
I would sugest that these people should be treated apart and gained for
us through specially design political discussion groups, union work,
etc. . When decisive political action will take place, however, they
must follow the lead of working class vanguard and move along together.


I am a materialist and I believe that moral positions stem from the
conditions people face in their living. Moreover, notions of good and
bad greatly vary historically. For instance, no greek or roman
philosopher or moralist ever voiced any objection to slavery.
Now, about the Liberation Theology. You know, I am an hard-hearted
anti-clerical bastard. I think we will all have to, ultimately, free
ourselves from religious superstition and the sooner the better. There
is however one thing that a good christian has in common with the
socialists. They both believe in basic human dignity and equality of
rights. They'll put it that god created us all equal. For most preasts
this is just talk from the books - they'll continue to side with the
powerful classes and delay social justice to the other world. There is
however a number of them who take it seriously. I'm sure you know some
of them. In a society such as yours or mine they can be critical and
outspoken but they rarely find themselves compel to take a radical
attitude. It all changes, however, if you'll go to places like Central
America, the Philippines or northern Brazil. The injustice and
oppression, the extent of human misery and suffering, are so great there
that any good man can feel compelled to involve directly in political
organization or even take arms to fight it. Liberation Theology is the
religious reflection made by those who have felt morally compeled to
take this attitude.
I have, of course, no business meddling in theological disputes. What I
can tell you is that I have absolutely no objections in siding with
progressive (or simply honest) priests and nuns who sometime go at great
lenghts and take enormous risks to fight for the poor. They can be even
very useful politically in places where the masses are very religious
and repeal help offered by the communists, as is the case of the
movement of the landless peasents in Brazil.

With my most cordial salutes,


=C2ngelo Novo



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