Reply To: Status of World Socialist Party (US)
Wez, what about Murray Bookchin as a classic example of what sort of writer I had in mind.
Chris Hedges would be someone contemporary who has created an audience we cannot expect 100% adherence to a Declaration of Principles that he has never ever heard about.
As for approaching socialist consciousness, we tend to set the bar very high and apply our own standard. As I tried to say in another post, people travel towards socialism by different routes depending on culture and traditions and legacy. It means they bring their own baggage with them. Most folk are reticent to discard that baggage. They require to be eased into dropping language, terms and practices.
And of course we too are not immune, clinging to our own expressions. “Free access” for instance is basically just SPGB short-hand. But this goes deeper than only our organization. “Resource based economy”, for example, instead of production for use. While Parecon is a name of an organisation, “participatory economics” is not. But this has a long history. I like to use the description “cooperative commonwealth” and “industrial democracy” but these are archaic definitions these days. So yes there is a lot of re-inventing the wheel. Oh and how I detest the manner in how we repetitively say “wages or salary” at every turn.
It has now become a challenge even to define the left today. And as you say when you look at Maduro and Ortega, these left populists are authoritarian. Some feel we should be interacting more with the ecology movement rather than the political left – but there does exist an overlap – the eco-socialists. From my reading the only difference between them is the reform demands.
Your reference to leaders and political immaturity needs clarifying. When people recognize great orators, great writers, great educators, great debaters, those possessing such talents become the focus of the media, turning them into “leaders” because of the interviews and attention. A election candidate will receive more credence than a branch member. We all tend to defer to the authority of knowledge and communication skills. Isn’t this the case with ourselves even today. A core of public speakers. Wasn’t there periods in our history we had to deal with the Party being identified with individuals – “Turners Party”.
We debate this issue regularly…its the case not the face, but we know the media and the public demand something else. It isn’t so much immaturity but our failure to explain what we ourselves mean by leaders and leadership, a leader-free Party and a party of equals, delegates and representatives. The differences is not beyond understanding as we had a long period of religious history which was centred on the very topic – the Reformation and the creation of Presbyterianism where churches were ran by elected elders appointing ministers. The concept of democracy has not always been so abstract.