From: brumback-AT-ncgate.newcollege.edu
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 23:47:27 -0800
Subject: Re: SV: M-TH: Vanguard ?


>
>Li writes;
>
>
>>>     Bob Malecki,I forgot to ask are you a vanguardist ?Do you really
>>>think that it's  valid today ?Do you think the Working Class,the
>>>Proletariat,or lumpen proletariat will buy into it these days ?Have
>>>you considered the fact that there are many competing ideologies on
>>>the Left today besides the Trotsky/Stalin based CP's,SWP-CPUSA.
>>>    I've noticed that the CPUSA is rethinking and looking in new
>>>directions.While the Trotskist based parties seem trapped in the
>>>past,but that is possibly a failure of their leadership.I wish we
>>>could look to a day of Unity instead of having a divided and
>>>dysfunctional Left unable to move beyond minor ideological
>>>differences.Wouldn't that be great Bob ?
>
>
>With Nancy chimimg in..
>>
>>My sentiments exactly! Hear, hear!
>>
>>Nancy
>
>Well, yes I am a vanguardist! And yes much of our history/program/politics
>is certainly viable today just as it has for quite a number of decades going
>back to the only successful revolution in modern history October..

October 1917? Successful? I would expect a "successful" communist revolution
to last longer than the Soviet Union did, and to have a better record re:
women, ethnicity, and the environment, especially.

>Will the workers but it? Hmmm No! Of course not that is why I belong to the
>communist vanguard.. 

What, oh what, can the vanguard do without the class?

The class in itself although revolutionary through its
>position in society is naturally effected by the present dominating ideology
>and it will only be the Communist Vanguard who can go beyond daily
>conciousness or trade union conciousness..

Go beyond? To where?

>A counter question here to the women on this list.. Especially Nancy. Do you
>think women find themselves in the same position thus needing a women's
>component of a communist vanguard.  Or are women under the yoke of this
>society all one big happy family? And will just up and free them
>selves..Sort of like Darwin's theory of evolution...I doubt it very much
>myself..

Of course you doubt it, because you think your way is the only way. And no,
I don't think that women need a "women's component of a communist vanguard."
I do think that the more women and men who accept the idea of (1) that
participatory, democratic process can bring revolutionary change, and (2)
that by working together, we can change the world, the greater will be the
potential of all of those oppressed by capitalism to create communism for
the first time in history. 

By definition, a vanguard cannot exist in a participatory movement. There
will always be some people who are more active and more involved than
others, but they should regard themselves as facilitators, not as
vanguardists: as followers, not as leaders. The activating core of a
revolutionary movement is its principles, purpose, practice, and program --
not any individual or individuals.

To my mind, the remainder of Bob's discourse is nothing more than tired
sectarian gibberish which he and a few other members of his sect may or may
not understand. It is "label-speak," through which communication occurs only
between people who share the same understanding of what "Stalinist" means,
what "August 1914" means, what "Trotskyist" means, etc. Bob and his comrades
have absolutely no impact outside of their own little cell meetings, because
they address themselves only to each other -- not to the oppressed of the world.

I myself have read Trotsky and I have read Marx. It is possible to adopt and
incorporate some of their principles into a revolutionary program, but the
program will have to be written in terms that everyone can understand -- not
just the sectarians.

>And as far as the Stalinists "rethinking" and coming up with something
>"new"...What a farse. They are still at their old fundamental popular front
>class betrayals albeit being forced to deny their own origins..Except for a
>few like Mark Jones and Aldolfo who i do at least respect for at least not
>running in the historical closet and hiding. But the majority of the
>Stalinists have shifted into Social Democratic mode or out right capitalist
>positions after the demise of the Soviet union and at best are preparing new
>"August 1914s" as they try to wash all of the ex-Stalinist dirt from under
>their finger nails. They do this in order to try and create false
>credentials for their *own* ruling classes...The only thing really "new"
>about the Stalinists is they no longer have the Soviet Union to back them
>up... By the way this goes fo our Motown man who "loves" all women and vows
>that his politics are not stalinist. We shall see Charlie. Sooner or later
>the Stalinist running around in all kinds of drag are going to have to come
>out of the closet...
>
>I should mention that one of these new Stalinist faces is becoming the best
>"feminist" in the world..It will not help women one bit and is just another
>notch in their sordid rotten politics which always have led to defeat..
>
>As far as "competing" ideologies and the left. Well, not much new here
>either. We have reformism, Stalinism, Trotskyism, Anarchism, And numerous
>trends that whirl around in varying different postures to these historical
>pillars. However basically not much new under the sun in regards to this.
>
>All of them in one degree or the other pushing a variant or cloned model of
>the above four..
>
>As far as the Trotskyists being trapped in the past. Well, of course there
>are those who think this but that is unfortunately their problem. Like Jim
>and his chasing fox hunts or Proyect putting on a squaw skirt wanting to go
>back to chewing skins..
>
>It will take a nuclear holicaust to erase the central contradictions that
>are derived out of the last 100 years of history. Not some left group
>leaving Marxism screaming Halejluja! This naturally goes for women also. If
>Li and Nancy were smart (this goes for Yoshie too who is smart) [No slur
>intended against Nancy or Li here just don't know you that well yet] I would
>suggest going back to the founding congresses of the Third International and
>start reading seriously "Women and Revolution" put out by the ICL since its
>inception if you want to find a way out of the situation that women find
>themselves in today..
>
>Because just as the proletariat is under attack internationally since the
>demise of the Soviet Union women are in and even far more precarious
>situation...And all the talk about sexual freedom and women's liberation
>which meerly is and expression of and exceptional post war expansion
>connected to the powers that be has been put in the grave along with the
>"Malta" agreements signed by Church Hill, Roosevelt and Stalin..It is and
>entirely new inning but hardly a new ballgame!
>
>warm regards
>Bob Malecki
>
>PS: Dave if you are around --could you send the very long but good document
>produced by your Peruvian friends which sent the Maoists running with their
>tail between their legs back on M1 to the list..Some people were interested
>in reading it. However, I can't find the "Cockroach!" it was published in..
>
>
>
>
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