Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:21:27 +1000 (EST)
From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au>
Subject: Another salvo at the state caps  was Re: M-I: RE: Opening paragraphs


At 01:47 PM 1/23/98 +1000, you wrote:
>
>  >  Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 13:28:41 -0500
>  >  From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
>  >  Subject: M-I: Opening paragraphs of Castro's remarks
>  >
>  > [...]
>  >  Holy Father, we feel the same way you do about many important
>issues of
>  >  today's world and we are pleased it is so; in other matters our
>views are
>  >  different but we are most respectful of your strong convictions
>about the
>  >  ideas you defend.
>
>How disgusting is this statement? The pope is an avowed anti-marxist. He
>did everything he could to stamp out any vestige of social justice
>contained in liberation theology movement. He has purged liberal bishops
>in numerous places. He denies the fundamental right of women to control
>their reproduction. He consciously perpetuates third world poverty, by
>denying even knowledge of birth control. I don't think he has a
>progressive bone in his body.
>
>Dont give me any shit that Castro admires the convictions and not the
>ideas. Hitler too had strong convictions.
>
>Tony H
>
>
>     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
Well Tony,

I have already posted an attack on the State Capitalist tendency and  it
should appear soon.  But let me point out that yours is a typical piece of
begrudging.   You seize on one aspect of the situation and ignore the total
context.  Very un dialectical.  Thus you neglect to point out that Castro
had a world audience and chose to speak on behalf of those who no longer
have a voice - the slaughtered indigenous Americans.  Here on this list
there have been commentators who have shrugged their shoulders at the
victims of capitalist progress.  In doing the same you forget the positive
dimension of the anarcho-syndicalist origins of your party.  


The problem is that you are so fixated on the state capitalist analysis
that you miss the contradiction that "state capitalists" like Castro have
played an historically progressive role not on behalf of the bourgeoisie
but behalf of the workers by expropriating the property of the bourgeoisie.
 Nor can your theory explain why the capitalists hate Castro so much if he
is as you argue an enemy of the working class.

And when I am at it I might as well point out that here in Australia it is
something of a joke that a tendency which has been dominated by vicious
authoritarians like Ian Rintoul and Mick Armstrong should talk of working
class democracy.  Theirs is a politics of a powerful elitist bureaucracy.
Nor is there any evidence that Cliff & Co in Britain are any different.
Rintoul in particular has been backed to the hilt by the British SWP.   But
then you know all about that do you not?

regards

Gary





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