alanjjohnstone
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From our pamphlet ‘whats wrong with using parliament’
“…This is not to say that the socialist majority only needs to organise itself politically. It does need to organise politically so as to be able to win control of political power. But it also needs to organise economically to take over and keep production going immediately after the winning of political control. We can’t anticipate how such socialist workplace organisations will emerge, whether from the reform of the existing trade unions, from breakaways from them or from the formation of completely new organisations. All we can say now is that such workplace organisations will arise and that they too, like the socialist political party…With the spread of socialist ideas all organisations will change and take on a participatory democratic and socialist character, so that the majority’s organisation for socialism will not be just political and economic, but will also embrace schools and universities, television, film-making, plays and the like as well as inter-personal relationships. We’re talking about a radical social revolution involving all aspects of social life.”
Are you saying our D of P is universal for all places and all times?
That the process of the implementation of socialism cannot vary depending on the social and political realities workers will face as class consciousness grows?
That the UK and other western bourgeois democracies are the only form of State entities around the world, that dictatorships or theocracies do not exist?
Although they weren’t socialist revolution but could be called social revolutions, the collapse of the former Soviet Unions satellites was a lot less conquering the political system but more de-legitimising them, no longer recognising them and it was not through any organised political parties but by peoples power just as our pamphlet states
“a constitution is just a piece of paper; what is important is how it is interpreted which is a reflection of political reality including the balance of forces between the ruling class and the working class. So-called “people’s power” is not just a myth.”
I think that interpretation of a socialist party being more than merely a parliamentarian party is the one I sympathise with. We are calling for a class party and such organisations need not be identical everywhere.
So, yes, my definition of a socialist movement is elastic.
I have suggested that many in fact have their own covert “hostility clause”.
I have indicated that it has been we who are flexible in our parliamentary political action approach, not declaring it to be suited for every situation and hoped that likewise they would also recognise that circumstances and conditions may well make electoral participation a tactic to be adopted. No-body took the opening. Dogmatism sometimes wears black.
But for my part, I will persist in seeking a broadening of that Thin Red Line, within our own organisation and on anarchist discussion lists.
A change from alarmism and catastrophism
But there is still a worse case scenario to contemplate
An old thread requiring updating
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51503542
“The German economy had another very weak three months at the end of last year, according to official figures.”
And the economic prospect of the effects of coronavirus adds only more to the pessimistic prognosis
Ralph Nader gives his tuppence worth
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/15/democratic-socialism-bring-it-corporate-socialists
“There are economists in the US who say Sanders’s tax plans are modest, justified and just what any social democrat should support. The Nobel laureate Paul Krugman is one. His problem with the Vermont senator is not his leftist ambition, but his simplistic approach to reforms and his misguided determination to call himself a socialist; Krugman fears his opponents will quickly substitute that term for “communist” once battle is joined.”
The Democratic Party mobilises against Sanders
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/15/bernie-sanders-democratic-centrists-alarm
“The claims that the leftwing Sanders would spell disaster for other Democrats are also tempered by the likelihood that Trump and his allies will portray whoever wins the nomination as an out-of-control socialist”
Except of course, Bloomberg
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/14/michael-bloomberg-california-trump-voters
A disturbing article that should worry Sanders supporters
“…JPMorgan, recently told its clients that, even if Sanders were elected, “we put the probability of major changes like medicare-for-all or a wealth tax at less than 5 percent.”…”
“…many analysts – even those who support the principle of “medicare-for-all” – think there is little chance he could actually deliver it, even if he won power…”
“…the institutional fact that US presidents are constrained by Congress in what policies they can enact. Sanders might be in favour of relatively radical redistribution, but that’s not true of the wider Democratic party…”It is what we have been saying on this forum for some while now. Big Business concurs with our cynicism and scepticism when it comes to America turning “socialist” with Sanders
Songster, David Rovics
” It’s not just about voting — mostly not. But that’s one small element of it. So yes, in case my conclusion for this thought process is not already abundantly clear — take to the streets, shut the cities down, stop business as usual, as much as and wherever possible. But also, vote for Bernie.”
Just to go off on a tangent
“the political purpose of saying that some workers do not produce surplus value but are financed out of surplus value is to show that there are structural limits to what reformism can achieve.”
Our case which very much goes against the intuition of our fellow workers that they do not bear the burden of taxation but that it also come out of the employers share of surplus value extracted via the Labour Theory of Value and determination of wages also leads to the conclusion that there is a limit to reforms that the State can pass and pay for since the capitalist class as a whole will not sacrifice too much of their profit to pay the State’s social budget.
Wolff on his hobby horse again. Workers co-ops will solve climate change.
Will Climate Change Provoke a Widespread Revival of Socialism?
Credit where credit is due, he does an effective job in demolishing state ownership. Yet his is still all about the existence of the State.
“When workers democratize their workplaces, they collectively control the state — in numbers and economic power. That control can secure the social welfare gains they win…A socialist state would serve that objective and be governed by its democratic base in ways capitalism never imagined, let alone allowed.”
For someone who has such formidable Marxist credentials, it is always surprising that he is blind to the Marxist theory of the State and the inherent flaws in co-operatives. Socialism has never been simply about the nominal ownership of the means of production. We all recall the “non-ownership” model of the Catholic Church’s monastery system.“Venezuela’s top diplomat called on the International Criminal Court Thursday to open an investigation into sanctions imposed on his country by the Trump administration, saying the economic warfare has caused the suffering of millions of Venezuelans.
“Our government is seeking refuge with international law,” Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Thursday. “We are convinced the consequences of the unilateral measures [by the United States] constitute crimes against humanity against the civilian population.” “Follow the debate it has ignited at Libcom
http://libcom.org/forums/history/classic-criticism-classical-anarchism-12022020
