File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-01-01.033, message 59


Date: Wed, 1 Jan 1997 15:25:47 +1000
From: rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au (Rob Schaap)
Subject: M-I: Re: 'Challenger Civilisations'


[A quick note on Doug's response to Lou Godena.  Doug wrote:]
One reason these revolutions had so much difficulty, aside from their own
domestic contradictions, was the implacable hostility of the United States
and the other imperialist powers. That power is probably greater than ever
now, now that the USSR is gone. So how can any poor country make a
successful revolution today? For the Third World to have a revolution, the
imperialist powers have to be defanged, and that is impossible without the
masses in those countries doing the job. I don't dispute that they don't
seem up to the task, but they have to rise to it, or barbarism will be the
victor ...

I'm not making this argument for scriptural reasons; I'm doing it from an
analysis of the world I see around me. If I were a true catechist, I'd be
talking about death agonies and imminent revolution; I'm not. What I'm
saying is, if the first world proles don't become revolutionary, or
radically reformist even, socialism anywhere is pretty much out of the
question. In case you haven't noticed, I'm of the opinion that socialism is
pretty much out of the question for the forseeable future.

[Doug is absolutely right on all counts here, I think.  Maybe Bob Malecki
derives more comfort from this than he has any right to, but Lou's feeling
that Doug has lapsed into a hopeless 'reiteration of the long-dead' is
equally off the point.  Precisely the wrong response to sentiments like
Doug's is to give up.  If I may make a *very* general comment:  It's just
as well capitalism won't hit the wall tomorrow (a heartless thing to say in
light of the horrors it authors around the globe, I know) - world socialism
in general, and first-world socialism in particular, need the time (and the
will to unity) to prepare people, internationalise their outlooks, and
provide the odd impetus where required (else horrors of an altogether
different order await).

Cheers, Rob.]




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