File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-03-31.182, message 77


From: DDW4%OPSp%SFBPP-AT-go50.comp.pge.com
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 7:03:47 PST
Subject: re:M-I: Socialist Scholars Conference, part 1


Louis's comments on the Socialist Scholars conference was very interesting, especially 
in it's analysis of the confusion of social democacy's ideological and political 
underpinnings. As Trotsky is often quoted as saying about the Socialist Party's Norman 
Thomas: "...is a socialist by the result of a misunderstanding."

What is left out of Louis's comments is what he sees as an alternative to the social 
democratic miashma. While taking a wipe of at the revolutionary marxism expressed by 
Trotskyists at the end of his anaylsis, nothing as an alternative is proposed by Louis.

While that might be true in terms of presentation here on this list, I don't think this is true 
out in the real world where Trotskyists of different persuasions have been very much 
involved in opposing Louis's much hated (and deserverly so) social democratic "market 
socialism" schemes. Whether it's the strikes in France against austerity or 
mobilizations in Brasil, Trotskyists have been in the forefront of leading working class 
struggles, albeit on an often stunted size do to the small size of Trotskyist forces.

The point is that in reaction to all the social democratic and very pro-market policies of 
the Second International Trotskyists have played an important role in countering this 
trend.

David Walters


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