alanjjohnstone
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I don’t think there is any automaticity in acquiring socialist consciousness.
It is a combination of factors which may result in rejecting capitalism. We have the objective conditions but there are many subjective ones that require to be met. As I see it, such things as nationalism/xenophobia and religion are winning out in the battle of ideas.
The “socialism” that appears to be flourishing (Sanders is I suppose representative of the type) isn’t and where it may be implemented it will eventually and inevitably fail so there will be a backlash to the concept of socialism, setting back those of us with a clearer vision of what socialism means. How often have we had to answer for the state capitalist centralised command economy of Russia and now for the collapse of Chavism in Venezuela?
As for the Establishment suppressing socialists I am actually more confident that in the mature democracies of the developed world, the will of the people can prevail. It is why although politicians can circumvent and manipulate the democratic process, they ultimately cannot eliminate it. Fascism and Nazism were creatures of their epoch. But I am in no way saying that authoritarian totalitarian regimes won’t dominate in various parts of the world. But not in the crucial centres of the world economy. See how China hesitates and hold back in Hong Kong, unlike the reaction to Tiananmen Square (not that they will remain passive)
Nor am I saying that no matter how deep the media brainwashing and ideological conditioning we will remain fooled and duped. Actual real day-to-day experiences will resist attempts to distract and confuse. There is truth in the saying “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time”
I’m afraid I am a bit more sympathetic that the sparks for a revolutionary process will happen when we are faced with no other choice but to take action. Some Marxists I think like Paul Mattick believed the Tendency of Declining Rate of Profit and an ensuing permanent crisis will trigger the working class resistance. But more recently, we have the environment catastrophists suggesting that salvation will be outside class.
With climate change I think there will be a combination of economic and political impacts. The existence of borders and national sovereignty will be challenged by mass movements of peoples. Capitalist distribution of necessities for profit will be undermined perhaps by imposed rationing as in wartime.
Can I suggest you download Pieter Lawrence’s Last Conflict, a sci-fi scenario that visualizes the world faced with an apocalyptic disaster takes precautionary policies with makes the capitalist system’s social relationships redundant.
Do I expect to see socialism? No. Will the next generation see it? Who really knows? It is all speculation.
But what we can be very sure of, is that while capitalism continues, its inner conflicts and contradictions will carry on, too. Hence there will always be an opposition and a resistance to capitalism. Will anti-capitalists always have the right answers. Who can tell? Too many today still don’t.
I have made a decision on which side I stand, whether it is the winning side, I cannot say, but it is the correct side.
The blog has posted about the media black-out on Brasil’s protests
https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2019/08/brazil-and-media.html
It may well do one on Honduras, now you have raised the issue
At least 4,000 people were arrested in Indian-administered Kashmir and held under the Public Safety Act (PSA), a controversial law that allows authorities to imprison someone for up to two years without charge or trial. Most of them were flown out of Kashmir because prisons here have run out of capacity.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said while India had strictly adhered to the nuclear weapons doctrine of “no first use” policy, what would happen in the future will depend on circumstances.
Famous last words?
“I don’t see a recession,” Trump said, preparing to fly to Washington. “We’re doing tremendously well. Our consumers are tremendously rich. They’re loaded up with money. Walmart is through the roof. We’re not going to have a recession…”
1.7 million, nearly a quarter of Hong Kong’s population, took to the streets on a very rainy day.
But what is a worry is that the protests are not resonating with the mainland population.
Again another tactic as I have suggested on the other forum topic, latch on to some aspect from local labor history and draw attention to it with relevance and comparison to today. Letters to the editor. Comments at websites. I always think name recognition is important as the very first stage in a publicity campaign.
If there is a local DSA chapter or any other leftist organization eg Socialist Alternative, I would definitely make some sort of comradely contact (no point in antagonizing a prospective new recruit by being too hostile) and as you say express the alternative, stating our case for socialism and explaining the critique of reformism. Bringing attention to the WSPUS existence and history (as well as Keracher’s Proletarian Party and to much of what Debs wrote and said) would be equally as educational and instructive and of value.
It is a long process and begins with baby-steps which means listening patiently as they endeavor to convince you of their strategy – which will be the lesser of two evils, most likely. It means being a part of their audience at public meetings and protests.
Providing resources to back ourselves up is important. Regardless whether it is classed as a fallacy or not, argumentation from authority works.
No need to undermine Sanders qualities or credentials but to question if elected what would actually happen politically. The rest of the Democrat Party forming bipartisan opposition with the Republicans to oppose any reform, his need for more and more presidential executive orders, the need to dismiss personnel and dismantle department bureaucracies…and then the salient fact that many of his policies will begin to falter and fail as either capitalist relations impose themselves or factors outside his control begin to impact. Even FDR was not unable to fix the Great Depression. It took a global war to do that.
Nor need the movement and the new society be called socialism. It can be described in other ways.
It is the content which is important, not the terminology.
That is one lesson Zeitgeist did pass on which we should appreciate.
Content and context is also why even though they expressed themselves differently, we could distance ourselves from Parecon, despite the new “liberatory” language that served to express stale ideas.
I’ve seen wild elephants, I have seen working elephants, I have seen tourist elephants, I have seen temple elephants. But I have never seen an elephant with happy eyes.
Where I live there is an annual elephant festival, hundreds of elephnts. I never go. I have no interest in seeing elephants play football or baby elephants separated from their mums so locals and tourists can take selfies.
I’ve been many times because my father’s side is from Galloway and every summer holiday was spent thereabouts.
I bought 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade from a shop in Wigtown on my last visit when out of nostalgia I took a drive around the area and that eventually led on to a Socialist Standard article I wrote about him.
I hope everybody’s visit turns out to be a good one. It is a terrific part of the country from the Solway coast to the Glentrool forest
i’m very comfortable with admitting my mistakes…the EC minutes were indeed the 19th July but still not in time to appear on the branch meeting agendas.
Don’t play the victim here, Dave, about some working their butts off – as if others aren’t.
Nor pass the buck that your comrades north of the border should get off their arses (although I personally do strongly sympathise with that)
My complaint is a legitimate one.
There was a lapse in communication from the “hub”. One cause may well have been the absence of the member who had undertaken the insert remit.
But we have Spintcom and we have this forum for party business and they were not used to update members. It was only because I just happened upon your message that I was able to inform some members to be on the look out for the insert this weekend.
However, even if they had been timely notified I would still be questioning what took place.
I do not hold with the one size fit all model. Involving local branches which are now prone to inactivity does mean trying to give them responsibilities of shaping local propaganda and the “molly-coddling” initially happened when they were not invited to engage with this campaign, so i’m not surprise that they happily acquiesced to things being done for them. But I don’t condone it either.
Just like myself, you, yourself, are not the least bit reticent in raising issues which require addressing so that they can be corrected in the future. Nor if they have wider implications to the health of the party and the way it functions. I make no apology for my grumbling and airing grievances. Nor do I ever put down other members for doing the same.
Came across this link on Libcom and gives us some measure of hope although our sights are a lot lower than DSA’s 100,000 members by 2021
http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/wp-content/files_mf/dsamoritzwichmann.pdf
“…In 2013, the average age of DSA members was 68 years. By now the “old guard” has become a minority as the organization has grown drastically younger with a current average age of 33 year…”
The 2019 convention had 1056 delegates representing 56,000 members in 200 chapters but as always the devil is in the detail. A large membership but in the NYC-DSA, for example, there are 5,000 paper members with only an estimated 750 regularly active members.
DSA operates on a budget of 4 million dollars of which a large portion is spent on the organization’s eighteen full-time employees
But, of course, our problem is that we don’t engage with or participate in reformist struggles and so deny ourselves a potential recruiting ground so I think we have to identify where our potential audience is.
It seems the Gibraltar seizure stalemate is not quite over.
The United States has called for the seizure of the ship, which was still anchored in Gibraltar, for “a scheme to unlawfully access the US financial system to support illicit shipments to Syria from Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated foreign terrorist organization”, the justice department said.
The warrant says the vessel, all the oil aboard and $995,000 are subject to forfeiture based on violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and bank fraud, money laundering, and terrorism forfeiture statutes.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/16/iran-oil-tanker-us-uk-gibraltar-warrant
