File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9804, message 166


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




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