Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 08:48:53 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
To: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com>
cc: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: Permanent Revolution and Nicaragua


boddhisatva:

I suggest that the answers to the problems of all the failed socialist 
revolutions are to be found in their lack of sophistication in exactly 
the are Marx and Engels outlined : "The weapons with which the bourgeoisie 
felled feudalism."  The economic weapons are the ones I am thinking of.  

Louis:

"Sophistication", or lack of same, is not the problem. The problem is 
that world capitalism can apply the screws to an isolated Nicaragua or 
Cuba or Vietnam in a manner that you can only comprehend if you visit one 
of these countries and see things with your own eyes. When a generator or 
a printing press or a tractor made in the United States broke in Managua, 
there was nothing to do but machine-craft a new part from scratch. 
Factor in the huge number of skilled people who left the country, then 
you get a sense of the problem.

The USSR is a separate problem. They did have an outside chance of 
another path of development, but the Left Opposition was defeated in the 
1920s. I am not interested in recapitualiting their economic proposals, 
but I recommend you take a look at the second volume of Deutscher's 
biography of Trotsky for more information.


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