alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
“I would need more than that letter to convince me”
Ah, well, does that mean you are not convinced by anything in the private letter/circular, Critique of the Gotha Programme, Wez.
His Mir letter was not some hastily scribbled scrawl but one that went through a few drafts before he thought he had expressed himself correctly.
But i am not some Marxologist seeking to cross the t and dot the i of Marx’s works. There exists the Asiatic Mode of Production which i have very little clue about except that it reinforces that Marx only wrote on the conditions that prevailed in Western Europe (and America) and did not consider the application of his theories as universal for all parts of the globe.
I think i explained, Marx need not have been born nor written his books for socialism to have retained much the same broad principles as we hold today in our Party. Socialism pre-dates Marx. But that there was no link between the Diggers and the Chartists show that there is no linear connections between socialist ideas, that they can spring up quite independently.
And i have suggested that regardless of his views if he had lived, the SPGB would have derived their own interpretation of 1917 events so speculation what Marx would have thought or not thought, to me is superfluous to the debate.
How do you come to that conclusion?
I simply referred to correspondence that explains that he did not automatically propose that his theory need every nation to go through capitalism as an answer to your question.
“Was Marx the first to insist on the full development of capitalism to make socialism possible?”
I may have misread my reference but it implies he did not insist on the full development of capitalism in every case. But i think if he was alive in 1917, he would have thought that the mir had socially disappeared. What faction’s programme he would have supported, who knows. Left Menshevik or Left Bolshevik perhaps, Left SR, not likely. Would he have considered February or October as the most relevant? Who can really speculate? It is all guess-work and in the end, it does not matter hypothetically what Marx thought. The SPGB just as it did with its mentor Kautsky on many things would have determined its own position and not rely on the argument from authority.
In the case of the Bolsheviks, they were moreorless accepting the orthodox SPD “state-socialist” (and that was the original term for state-capitalism) programme and adjusting it to the conditions they found in Russia, just as they adapted the 2nd international party form to local situation.
Wez, was Marx a strict stageist?
Did he not suggest an alternative future for Russia based on the evolution of the Mir.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/zasulich/index.htm
Rather than addressing your suggestion to ALB, our publications committee has the remit for producing such material.
There is no reason why something additional to An Inconvenient Answer (which is to be commended) cannot be published – an update or a supplement to it.
The Chartists appear to have written much that was genuinely revolutionary and without the inspiration of any deeply profound theorist, such as Marx.
I think this is the essence of Marcos post.
It was Chartism which declared a class war.
George Julian Harney wrote:
“As regards the working men swamping all other classes the answer is simple – other classes have no right to exist. To prepare the way for the absolute supremacy of the working class preparatory to the abolition of the system of classes, is the mission of The Red Republican.”A further example from the writings of Ernest Jones:
“An amalgamation of classes is impossible … these two portions of the community must be separated distinctly, dividedly and openly, from each other, CLASS AGAINST CLASS. All other mode of procedure is mere moonshine.”Without Marx, would we be debating the tendency for the rate of profit to fall, or any other theory about the causes of capitalist crises. Wouldn’t it be enough that we suffered the detrimental effects and that the solutions thrown up had not been suffice to end them? Did we need a Marx to tell us that they were periodic and offer up an economic theory to explain them?
Is the labour theory of value, required for workers to recognise the injustice and inequity of wage slavery?
The importance of Marx is questioned itself by the Materialist Conception of History – something that does not hold to the Great Man concept.
Marx may have shaped a form of socialism but he did not create it. His influence in its progress was surprisingly limited. Who actually heeded his Gotha Programme critique? The 2nd International developed a life of its own despite Marx and Engels attempts to steer its direction.
Am i too heretical in saying we, our class, had no need for Marx and ideas on socialism would have grown and spread without his contributions – perhaps even more so without any reference to him or Engels and all those who cite their authority as their political case.
But perhaps i digress from your enquiry, Persnickety.
I think the appeal posted on the other thread from the capitalist institutions will get more of a sympathetic hearing than the voices from the streets
Extinction Rebellion Goes Global
Green Capitalists get active
Global investors managing $32tn issued a stark warning to governments at the UN climate summit on Monday, demanding urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. Without these, the world faces a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 crisis, they said.
The investors include some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers and marks the largest such intervention to date. They say fossil fuel subsidies must end and substantial taxes on carbon be introduced.
“The long-term nature of the challenge has, in our view, met a zombie-like response by many,” said Chris Newton, of IFM Investors which manages $80bn and is one of the 415 groups that has signed the Global Investor Statement. “This is a recipe for disaster as the impacts of climate change can be sudden, severe and catastrophic.”
A key demand of the Global Investor Statement is to phase out coal-fired power stations across the world. Peter Damgaard Jensen, the CEO of Danish pension fund PKA, said: “Investors, including PKA, are moving out of coal in their droves given its devastating effects on the climate and public health, compounded by its poor financial performance.”
Investment firm Schroders said there could be $23tn of global economic losses a year in the long term without rapid action. This permanent economic damage would be almost four times the scale of the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis. Standard and Poor’s rating agency also warned leaders: “Climate change has already started to alter the functioning of our world.”
The investors include some of the globe’s largest pension funds, such as Calsters and ABP, and insurers, including Aviva, AXA and Zurich. They also want an end to subsidies for coal, oil and gas, which the IMF rates at $5tn a year and which the G20 has been promising to tackle for a decade. This measure alone could cut global CO2 emissions by 10% by 2030, according a UN report released in time for the Poland summit.
The investors said current national pledges to cut carbon would lead to a catastrophic 3C of global warming and that plans must be dramatically increased by 2020. For developing countries, ”finance is the critical enabler of increasing ambition,” said Niranjali Amerasinghe, of the World Resources Institute.
Four out of five Jews in the UK believe antisemitism is a major problem in British politics, the worst record within the EU, and nearly a third are considering leaving Britain out of fears for their safety, according to the world’s largest survey of Jewish people.
Rising carbon dioxide emissions could cause a decline in the brainpower of workers around the world, according to new research.
A new study by academics at University College London (UCL) found that higher amounts of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere could affect our memory, concentration and decision-making abilities.
Climate change is likely to make intellectual impairment a far more widespread problem in the decades ahead, according to the researchers. The UCL team said evidence indicated that “human cognitive performance declines with increasing CO2 levels”.
“Given the likelihood of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration by the end of the 21st century, direct impacts of anthropogenic CO2 emissions on human cognitive performance may be unavoidable.”
Ummmm?..what was i saying…?????
The Brexit ‘betrayal’ march leaves from Park Lane 12.30pm and follow a set route to Parliament Street. No-one is allowed to join en-route and no vehicles will be allowed. The march must take place between 12.30pm and 2pm, and the rally must end by 3.30pm.
A counter-protest by Oppose Tommy Robinson and Unite Against Racism & Fascism must march from Portland Place along a set route to Whitehall and set off by 12pm. No-one is allowed to join en-route and no vehicles will be allowed. The march must end by 1.15pm and a rally in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, must end by 4.30pm.
As predicted by our blog, COP24 cannot agree.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46496967
US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting “welcoming” the report. Instead, they wanted to support a much more lukewarm phrase, that the conference would “take note” of the report. It appears that the Saudis and the US baulked at the political implications of the UN body putting the IPCC report at its heart.
If we happen to look at a current political event – the yellow vests – it appears it confirms Frederick Douglass observation
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”
When it as simply a protest against a diesel tax rise, Macron could negotiate. But when it turned into broad discontent and general anger, what can be the next move for either side.
It is such an amorphous protest where the right and the left are participating. There is no goal, no aim, no set of principles that it is based upon except that Macron must go and something – anything – must be done to improve our conditions.
For sure, it is presently leader-free, with no political parties, trade unions or prominent personalities determining its course. Some feel that is suffice to endorse it as a peoples’ popular movement.
You could go through our archives and check out our response to the Occupy movement. The SPGB felt one weakness was its unstructured nature, its lack of democratic accountability because it failed to form a defined organisation.
We cited a study of the women’s movement, the Tyranny of Structurelessness.
You no doubt have read it but here is a link to refresh your memory
http://struggle.ws/pdfs/tyranny.pdf
We cannot ignore the need for an organised political party if political action is chosen as the preferred method of change. Yet more importantly, if people are to be mobilised for the purpose to resist the government and the State, they need an agreed objective and a unified strategy to achieve it, as i earlier suggested.
The SPGB insists that our principles are the path for our party
