Date: Mon, 13 Apr 98 3:58:17 EDT From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com> Subject: Re: M-I: Proyect fires a salvo at the moon To whom..., The problem with the entire neo-Bolshevik approach is its focus on "The Party". The questions all boil down to how radical a laundry list of positions "The Party" should take to "organize the masses." Obviously this approach is a failure. The industrial proletariat rightly looks at "The Party", whatever party it is, with skepticism and apathy because these parties are concerned with political positions and not economic mechanisms. They know all the right political positions to take, but when it comes to transforming the *MODERN, INDUSTRIAL* economy to a socialist one, they are entirely vague. "Sweep us into power and then we'll take care of everything.", they assert. Bullshit. Socialism is not stalled because parties are not radical enough but because they have not figured out a way to FUND socialism and the revolution. When parties come up with proposals that can transfer OWNERSHIP of the means of production to the working class, the working class will listen. They will only listen, however, if that ownership is real and it is commercially and financially viable. No mere distribution scheme, however elaborate, will satisfy these conditions. Moreover, the working class knows full well that they will not simply "become" the state. That line is just a lot of vague nonsense. If we want the proletariat to move, we are going to have to show them the money. As for politics, I think that Ben Seattle's example about the Labor Party abortion plank is wrong, except for the observation that the party is probably controlled by too small a group of people. As to the question of the plank itself, he could not be more wrong. Empty radicalism is entirely counter-productive. It is simple assertion, not argument. The job of the left is to argue and to do so we must engage the enemy on his own terms. If there are moral arguments to be made, then we must make them. If religion can be brought into the struggle then we must do so. The important thing is to have unifying principles, not unitary dogma. The overriding principle is to allow workers to control the means of production. That principle must remain unfettered. peace --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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