Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 15:16:53 -0500
From: Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu (Yoshie Furuhashi)
Subject: Re: M-I: Reply to Joshie


Hi Bob,

Sorry if my answer sounded rather too utopian. I didn't intend to dodge the
question of party building, organizational structures, etc, because I think
that without solid organizing work, socialism will never come into reality.
But as you could see in Paul's post, people around me now are just
discovering the fact that they are indeed *workers.* Backward yes, but
that's the reality I have to deal with now. You are in Sweden, so maybe
your environment is a little more hospitable for party-building work. My
emphasis on *prep work* comes from the problems perhaps peculiar to my
surroundings.

So I agree with you that a revolution won't come automatically or as you
say the poor and working class won't drop "like birdshit or something" on
the left side. But what I am trying to accomplish now is something much
more fundamental as well as elementary. People have to see themselves as
"workers" who have common interests in fighting capital with other workers,
regardless of their nationalities, race, gender, sexuality, etc. I don't
think people will become Marxists without first recognizing the above.

>This because there is unfortunately a trend to draw the women's question and
>the gay question as some sort of classless utopia which exists far outside
>of anything else. Most of the single issue stuff is run and operated by the
>class enemy who hardly want the poor and working class people to rule
>society. They want to reform the present society and make a few laws which
>say I can screw or marry who i want!
>Sorry, but as a Communist militant I say that this is not enough! You are
>either part of the problem or you are part of the solution. There are no
>half-way houses!

And I agree with you here, too. That is why I say that we need to do
anti-racist work, anti-sexist work, etc., seriously, within the context of
working-calss movements. I say this because single-issue movements have
absorbed many because the important questions are *not* adequately
addressed within working-class movements. I agree that many marxists have
come to take these questions seriously--though there are exceptions even on
this list. The last year's thread on (homo)sexuality questions made that
clear to me. And if you look at labor movements in general--not the marxist
minorities within them--it is obvious there is a lot of work to do.

As Charlie, Gary, and others' posts point to, the objective conditions cry
out for a marxist perspective and solution, and workers--even those in
academia--are showing increasing militancy and their consciosness is
getting transformed in the process. I see these are hopeful signs. (I don't
share Louis Godena's pessimism; I am cautiously optimistic.) Though I am
not in a position to make immediate use of Hugh's, Jonathan's, and your
advice, I'll keep them in mind.

Yoshie







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