Archive for the ‘mass line’ Category
Posted by kasama on May 13, 2012
Several people have asked for a written text of this talk. We have added below the notes from which Mike spoke. It is not a transcript of the talk… it is the prepared text, and so is somewhat different from the spoken talk itself.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Kasama, mass line, Mike Ely, New Com. Movement, Occupy Wall Street | 16 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on May 13, 2012
The 9 letters to Our Comrades was an opening shot of Kasama’s project. These essays sketch a fundamental critique of the Revolutionary Communist Party’s turn toward cultism.
In another sense, it also represent a critique of a more general set of problems within the organized left. It is a critique of failure to deeply engage reality, and a corrupting sense of grandiosity.
Now these 9 essays are available in both main e-book formats.
Click here for the new e-book versions
Previously available forms:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, 9 Letters, Kasama, Kasama videos, Maoism, mass line, methodology, Mike Ely, New Com. Movement, podcasts, RCPUSA, theory, truth and class truth | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on March 22, 2012
“Our self-presentation (as a movement, and even as individual people) is part of the symbolism by which our cause is judged. Because people are wise enough not to judge political forces simply by what they say they are about!”
“We should act as if people can listen and transform, and as if we too have things to learn from the each other, and from the oppressed, but even from opponents). This should be like breathing for us.”
“No one minds protest movements stamped by anger — they are trying to pressure for change. But no one wants movements taking power that are governed by anger — because power requires vision and thought, it has to do more than just negate, it also has to construct.”
“In a American society that lives in a permanent infantile present, we should stand out in our long-sighted view — our sense of history and our focus on the future — our patient urging that people look at horizons for what is needed and arising.
“We should come across as intelligent, thoughtful, reasonable in a prepared kind of way — yet that should be marshaled toward shockingly militant and scathing criticism toward everything that surrounds (and oppresses) the people.”
by Mike Ely
Chegitz writes in our parallel discussion around “Communist foreshocks: Words, ritual and symbols“:
“I don’t think Mike is arguing for abandoning rationality, skepticism, the scientific method, but how do we avoid the extremes, and be three dimensional humans.”
Yes, I am making a distinction here between rationalism (which is a form of subjective idealism we should avoid) and rationality — which involves structures of logical thinking and deduction that we should embrace and develop in non-mechanistic ways.
The idea that politics is merely analysis, exposure and telling is a problem I have called “the fetish of the word.” (Some other left political currents have a problem with “the fetish of the movement” — but that is a separate story!)
Politics is not just a “head trip” — and it does not arrive in a linear way “from one to many.” At the same time (to be dialectical) all three parts mentioned here (analysis, exposure and telling) are quite important — we need them, and we need to do more of them. They form central activities of revolutionary work.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, 9 Letters, Kasama, mass line, Mike Ely | 6 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 18, 2012
"Temple to Perspective" by Tom Greenall and Jordan Hodgson. This is an artistic depiction of earth's history, and our place in it (in a pillar of layers) proposed as a visual monument. (Note the human at bottom for scale). A secular exploration of meaning, context and awe.
“Politics is symbolic as well as analytical….
“The audiences we need are gathered by cultural and social means, not just won over by words.
“As Lenin once noted the oppressed and awakening were demanding to know how to live and how to die (and not just what to believe).
“People need living inter-human expressions of world view and morality that are more than tracts on worldview and morality. Successful radical politics need words that are evocative and penetrating — not just precise.”
by Mike Ely:
I have always been frustrated by the assumption that we can draw people toward revolutionary politics mainly by “explaining” everything — as if people become conscious, militant, and determined in the fight for a new society largely by being told a series of exposures backed by elaborate structures of analysis. I have called this problem “the fetish of the word.” Its more formal name (if we need another label) could be rationalism.
And meanwhile we can see both in society and politics all around us, suggestions that “explanations,” however detailed and correct, are not enough — and people are often attracted to politics that are quite anti-rational through powerful symbolic means.
We can trace the rise and fall of Louis Farrakhan’s bizarre and fantastical politics that combines completely delusional mysticism with a gut level appeal for self-respect, self-advancement, pride and biting political alienation.
Or we can see large sections of people breaking into political life in during this Arab spring, being freed for from decades of repression and yet far too often grasping first for deep resonance of “Allahu Akbar!” and naive hope in the justices of Shariah law.
Where does that power come from?
Secular rationalism often assumes (sometimes with a stark singlemindedness) that “incorrect ideas” come from a mix of ignorance and the outside indoctrination by “alien” classes — and so assumes that the antidote is simply hammer the right ideas into the uninformed– a method I call “fire your ideas, hire mine.” It has an element of truth — we do need to be evangelical about communism. But it is often very onesided. In other words, this rationalism has views of people, ideas, culture, and change that are somewhat flat — and its failures confirm this.
I believe in spreading revolutionary exposure and ideas. I think revolutionary theory will play a powerful role in regrouping a new revolutionary movement. I’ve often resented as unfair the familiar stereotype of the communist militant “just peddling newspapers at the sidelines.” After all, I have written, designed, edited, sold, promoted, and nurtured radical newspapers all my life. And I think we should (now!) be develop biting, attractive, irresistible centers of news, opinion, analysis, satire, humor, and theory.
But… but… despite all that, I do think, at the same time, we should create and use our new revolutionary media without naively reproducing the assumptions and practice of previous rationalism.
Here is something that has often been missing: Politics is symbolic as well as analytical. Political attraction is also visceral and cultural. It involves a verbal “winning over.” It requires us to be fearless about representing our beliefs.
But, looked at all sidedly, the audiences we need will gathered by a number of cultural and social attractions, not just “won over” by words.
As Lenin once brilliantly described the oppressed and awakening were coming, demanding to know “how to live and how to die,” and not just what to believe. To be able to carry through a real process of base-building, we have to learn from our audience (i.e. “from the people”) as well, not just the other way around. That is the process Mao called the mass line.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Black Panthers, communism, mass line, Mike Ely | 13 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on January 30, 2012
The road is tortuous, the future is bright
“One of the inflexible tasks of any communist organization (and any communist leadership) is to help train everyone (both the communists at all levels, but also the supporters of the movement) to evaluate choices by these criteria: Where does it lead? Who does it serve?
“And one of the difficult tasks in moments of struggle is to apply those criteria consciously, in the midst of great pulls, demagoguery and confusion.”
by Mike Ely
Pham Binh writes in the nearby discussion of Unsettled questions:
“It’s not true that ‘line is key.’ Lines can change. Control from below and the ability to adapt are key. Unfortunately there is no vaccine against political/organization degeneration.”
This discussion reminds me that we have to work to develop a common language. The word “line” is being referenced here in some very different ways. To even engage possible differences (over what is “key”), we have to start by explaining what we each mean by the word “line.”
Here, if I am guessing correctly, Pham Binh is using the word “line,” as it is often used in many corners of the left: Line is a word used to describe political positions. As in: “What’s your line on the war?” or “What is their line on Puerto Rican independence?” And in that usage, it is reasonable to say that specific policies can come and go, and are therefore not decisive in preventing betrayal or defeat.
By contrast the Maoist concept of line, answer the questions “where are we heading, what do we serve?” And the phrase “line is key” is an assertion that in complex struggle, the key question is to evaluate things in terms of where it leads, and what goals it will advance. And in that sense, I would suggest that vigilant attention to overall line (i.e. direction and goals) is key to preventing defeat, reversal, betrayal and getting lost.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely | 125 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on January 25, 2012
by Mike Ely
Chegitz writes:
“…no form of organization is immune from degenerating into something awful.”
And he gives the example of the collapse of the Socialist Party (which he has been part of) — which was constructed along different (more loose and anarchic) lines than the mini-parties we have otherwise been discussing.
I think Chegitz’s point is true, and its implications are worth exploring.
And this includes forms like the commune or soviet forms of governance by representative mass democracy — which solve some problems, but exist in the context of dynamics that inevitably create new and ongoing problems. And it is true for the vanguard party, both in the forms we are familiar with, but also in future forms of core organization that we might imagine or build.
Pointing out the organizational problems with previous mini-parties (and their peculiar versions of democratic centralism) also does not mean there is are necessarily organizational solutions to those problems.
If you have evidence of a form of organization producing troubling dynamics — the solution may involve some other form of organization, but let’s not assume that changes of form provide some simple, definitive corrective.
There may be better forms (political procedures, habits, structures) — better for our purposes, better for our particular moment or our current stage of development — but the solution (to becoming exhausted, uncreative, marginalized, ossified, cultish, even corrupt) isn’t necessarily (or simply) to imagine some pre-figured and presumably immune alternative form(s).
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Maoism, mass line, Mike Ely, vanguard party | 14 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on December 2, 2011
the road to dawn
Can you explain our final goals in a contemporary way?
What would you say?
Write yours below — – in the length of a tweet.
Let’s compare and contrast.
* * * * * * * *
by Mike Ely
We can now often present communism to a generation relatively disentangled from the cold war — and even from direct, immediate reference to previous “real existing socialism.” We can reclaim communism’s global, visionary, communal and experimental-utopian qualities. We have that opportunity. And we have that necessity. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in communism, Kasama, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely, Socialism | 75 Comments »
Posted by kasama on November 11, 2011
by Mike Ely
CWM writes:
“I can appreciate the desire to limit the critique of the RCP to what Mike calls “questions of line” (i.e., their ideas).”
There is a debate here about “the high plane of two line struggle” — something I have argued strongly for. I want to take a second to clarify this term “questions of line.”
I understand why CWM equates line simply with “their ideas” — but that is not exactly how I would look at it.
What road are we on?
Sometimes, on the left, people say “what is your line on this? What is your line on that?”
This is not what I mean by line. To me (and to Maoists generally) line is a matter of examining “where does this lead?” It is like a surveyor’s tool that projects forward.
It is an approach to methods, policies, theoretical “packages” — that asks the questions: where does this lead? who does it serve? what will come from taking this road?
You have to consciously fight to get things considered and decided on that basis. And only by posing and deciding things on that basis can a communist program come forward, and gain support broadly among key sections of the people.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Kasama, Maoism, mass line, Mike Ely | 14 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on November 8, 2011
by Mike Ely
Louise Thundercloud writes:
“I heard Ralph Nader praise “the brave founding fathers , who settled this land”. I thought I would throw up listening, but I have run into that kind of stuff in many cases in this movement.”
Many people have been trained to think of the settler/slaveowners of the early U.S. as “their” founding fathers. And Louise is deeply correct that this is mistaken, and has ongoing implications for politics. History is not just about the past, but about the present.
This country was founded in genocide and slavery. It was built and maintained by some of the most vicious exploitation imaginable — obviously of kidnapped Africans but also of impoverished immigrants from Asia and Europe who were herded into mines, and mills.
And it is not just that the “founding fathers” were slave traders, capitalists, and slave owners (and therefore not “ours”) — but (more controversial even) their very political system, constitution and even their concepts of property, authority, law, and morality were all deeply marked by this exploitative, expansionist and genocidal nature.
They are not “our” founding fathers — but the founders of the empire we now confront, and within which we seek to act as an increasingly conscious and determined force of negation.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Kasama, Maoism, mass line, Mike Ely | 9 Comments »
Posted by redflags on September 26, 2011
Pr
otests have sustained through the first week on New York City’s financial district. NYPD have increased their pressure, using mass arrests and pepper spray on non-violent protesters. State violence appears to have increased the resolve of the encampment.
Click here for live stream from occupied Wall Street
Click here for photo stream on Flickr
With mainstream media ignoring (or belittling) the protests, you can be the media. Click here for downloadable flyers to put up at your school, workplace, local train station or wherever.
Posted in >> communist politics, >> International, anarchism, art, civil liberties, communism, corporations, economics, financial crisis, mass line, occupy wall street, occupywallstreet, organizing, police, politics, poverty, Protest, social networking, Socialism, USA, working class, youth | 2 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on September 25, 2011
A powerful current in Nepal has wanted a new society and a new form of state power. photo: Jed Brandt
by Mike Ely
CWM raises some important questions when he asks:
“Do you know if there are attempts to strengthen democratic mechanisms within the UCPN (so that the leadership can’t dismiss the wishes of the base in the future)? Also, if a split were to occur, is there reason to suppose that the new formation would be more democratic than the UCPN is now?”
“In comment 25, Eric mentioned mechanisms through which UCPN members can hypothetically influence party decisions, but these mechanisms seemed to require meetings in urban centers, which would presumably be quite inaccessible for people in remote areas. Does this mean that people in remote rural regions (people like Uday) just passively take orders or are there mechanisms through which they can influence the party? Also, Eric claims that Prachanda transgressed the majority position in the UCPN when he began disarming the PLA, which makes me wonder what mechanisms allowed him to disregard the will of the majority and if his apparent lack of accountability played out in the remote areas in the same way as it did in the urban centers.”
I suspect (from our many discussions) that CWM’s assumption is that the Nepal’s Maoist party and revolutionary movement has some inherently anti-democratic structure, and that this (the very existence of a vanguard party) is somehow inherently the problem that needs to be excavated and dealt with. And (typically of such assumptions) it coexists with very little investigation into the actual power relations and decision-making within this living movement.
The situation is quite the opposite: Never in the history of Nepal has there been a force so dedicated to empowering to the people as this Maoist party. The history of Nepal has literally been divided into a “before” and “after” by the emergence of this movement. In a society where power was previously viewed as divine and the people were viewed as voiceless subjects to a king and his regents — the emergence of an armed force rooted among the poorest and most despised, and dedicated to their interests, is a democratic shift of incalculable magnitude.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, mass line, Mike Ely, Nepal, UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 30 Comments »
Posted by kasama on September 7, 2011
When the old wheel no longer serves your purpose....
The following is an essay by the Freedom Road collective in Tennessee. They describe themselves this way:
“The Tennessee District of Freedom Road is an all young people collective of rank-and-file, former student, and labor activists. “
Posing these important questions is itself a contribution to us all.
This first appeared on the FRSO/OSCL site. Thanks to Harry Sims for suggesting that we post this.
* * * * * * *
“…we’re afraid that we find ourselves doing this kind of thing out of the powerful forces of habit and history instead of a shared and unified vision for how we make revolution out of—prepare yourself for scare quotes—’reform’ work we’re doing together.”
“I’m doing a lot of thinking and asking questions about the mass work, how we do it, what we’re doing even, and that really fundamental and existential question: why do we do this at all? Why fight?”
“We don’t just need a communist commitment to mass work, but a communist method of mass work—and we’re not convinced that we have that yet.
“We’ve heard people talk about mass work before in ways that are already figured out; ‘we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.’ Of course, the reason the wheel never needed to be reinvented is because it worked; it moved us from here to there.”
“How is what we’re doing going to get us from here to there, to revolution?”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Why We Fight:
Three Ideas on Why Revolutionaries Should Do Mass Work & a Salvo on How
Written by Comrade Tennessee
I’ve been having a kind of existential crisis about my mass work recently—a real, deep crisis, like getting beat up over and over again by a question you can’t shake.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Marxist theory, mass line, methodology, revolution | 19 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on June 30, 2011
This statement emerges from within the Kasama Project — in internationalist communist solidarity with the revolutionary movement of Nepal’s people
By Eric Ribellarsi and Mike Ely
Co-signers: Firewolf Bizahaloni-Wong, Jed Brandt, Luis Chavez, J.B. Connors, Joel Cosgrove, Gregory E, Red Fox, Gary, chegitz guevara, Rosa Harris, Lee James, Eddy Laing, Bill Martin, Stephanie McMillan, Giovanni Navarrete, Stiofan Obuadhaigh, Radical Eyes, Redpines, Alastair Reith, Enzo Rhyner, Harry Sims, John Steele, Kathie Strom, Tell No Lies, Adolfo V., Nat W., Fanshen Wong, Liam Wright
For over twenty years, the impoverished and isolated peoples in the southern Himalayan foothills have risen up to remake themselves and their world. Now, after the sacrifices of a whole generation, the future of their movement and society hangs in the balance:
Will the revolutionary sections of the people be able to carry through the struggle to create the radically new Nepal they have dreamed of? Or will the accomplishments of their struggle so far be consolidated into something that falls short of liberation?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Eric Ribellarsi, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely, Nepal, revolution, theory, UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 15 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on June 21, 2011
“I think that is a basic method. And it starts with a global assessment of potential and necessity (who will we need? who might we win over?) — not with what is spontaneously true at any given moment (who is now with us? who is now against us?)
In other words, there are people we should treat as friends (as part of “the people”) even if they are (at this moment, and even for a long time into the future) rather hostile to our views and plans.
“This is a strategic evaluation — we are sketching out who we want to bring together, and start treating them as potential strategic allies long before they are conscious of having any relationship with a specific socialist revolution.”
by Mike Ely
In our discussion “Nailing Jello to the Wall? Creative Struggle Among the Peoplel” BB writes an important comment that digs into the questions of a revolution’s friends and enemies.
BB writes:
“I am trying to think through how Mao’s distinction of contradictions among the people vs. contradictions with the enemy works in our current context(s).”
Mao’s distinction involves specific concepts of “the people” and “the enemy” — so to follow BB’s point it is necessary to revisit and define these terms.
Mao wrote at the very beginning of his political work an analysis of Chinese society and classes. It starts with the now-famous words :
“Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This is a question of the first importance for the revolution.
“The basic reason why all previous revolutionary struggles in China achieved so little was their failure to unite with real friends in order to attack real enemies. A revolutionary party is the guide of the masses, and no revolution ever succeeds when the revolutionary party leads them astray.
“To ensure that we will definitely achieve success in our revolution and will not lead the masses astray, we must pay attention to uniting with our real friends in order to attack our real enemies. To distinguish real friends from real enemies, we must make a general analysis of the economic status of the various classes in Chinese society and of their respective attitudes towards the revolution.”
So we are discussing several long-standing questions:
- How does a revolution identify its potential supporters and allies? How does it identify its “real enemies.”
- And (beyond that) how does a movement “treat” these different categories of forces.
- What does this distinction mean to our practice?
- How does it change over time?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in communism, Mao Zedong, Maoism, mass line, methodology, Mike Ely | 25 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on April 24, 2011
Public debate and conscious social decisions make possible socialist planning
Kasama is publishing a series of articles this week on the destruction of the environment and socialist solutions. These articles will represent sharply opposing views, and (as usual) the posting by Kasama does not imply endorsement of specific arguments. Thanks to the Kasama team that has been researching and debating these questions. We started this series with One Struggle‘s statement.
The following is an excerpt from Draft Program written around 2001 within the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA. The RCP did not (in the end) adopt this program because of their course change after 2003. Nonetheless these ideas of socialist sustainability and Maoist urban planning deserve continuing attention and development.
III. Socialist Sustainable Development and Ecology
Proletarian revolution in the U.S. will be a giant leap in changing the realities of the global environment. Imperialism has produced a wasteful and destructive pattern of economic activity and industrial development. Its profit-above-all-else, blind expansionary nature, its turning of more and more of nature into a commodity, its wars and weapons of mass destruction all this is strangling the fundamental ecosystems of the planet.
The proletariat seeks to achieve conscious social control of production. This requires that the well-being of the natural environment the renewal of eco-systems and the ability of ecosystems to assimilate waste from human productive activity be maintained. Natural resources will be used to further social development but will not be a means to accumulate private wealth.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, ecology, environment, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, RCPUSA, revolution | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on April 20, 2011
“As we carry out the practice of the struggle, we must select campaigns that not only ‘help people.’ We need to select campaigns and methods of work which reveal the nature of the system, help people maintain political mobilization, and create leadership among newer members so that they may carry forward the struggle….
“I would say there is time for advanced actions (advocating for national liberation at major events, flying the red flag, etc), but it should be within the context of a mass movement that is moving TOWARDS those advance slogans and actions which may not necessarily adopt those slogans.”
This is the third post in an exchange on revolutionary work. Greg posted on this topic previously on this question of how to do communist work, and I responded with the essay “We must sing our own song.” Many people contributed to the discussion that unfolded in those threads. Greg maintains the blog, Red Flags Over Utah.
* * * * * * * *
by Gregory Lucero
How to raise revolutionary consciousness
Mike E wrote:
“We need to think through Lenin’s controversial assertion that higher revolutionary political consciousness (broadly among the people) doesn’t emerge largely from a summation of lessons in their immediate struggles. That observation (which is so central to his epistemology in What is to be done?) has been confirmed many times (including by the 1930s experience of the CP, and from our own experience in the NCM).”
I agree completely that class consciousness does not simply arise from the summation of the immediate work. One does not simply point out “See, capitalism is the reason why democrats did not pass immigration reform for cheap labor.” Instead, one must conscientiously link the planning, practice, and summation to the revolutionary struggles.
A rough sketch is below.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Gregory Lucero, mass line | 25 Comments »
Posted by kasama on April 3, 2011
Huey P. Newton: shot, arrested, chained, and railroaded.
“When you ride a tiger, you can’t just “get off” when you are tired and walk away. You have to ride it out to forms of resolution (in which you either survive or don’t, and where your base survives or doesn’t, and where others either rally to you or don’t, and so on).”
by Mike Ely
How should revolutionaries deal with red-baiting campaigns and more lethal forms of repressive targeting?
It is worth looking at how such things happen when advanced actions which “light the sky” in ways that draw tremendous new forces toward a revolutionary pole. One of those examples involved the Black Panther Party stepping forward in 1966-68, militantly, to defy the police murderers of the people, and calling on others to join them.
How does such “lighting the sky” relate to building a base quietly and by other means? How does one “step out” forcefully without being crushed?
What are the risks of getting out on a limb where you can’t handle (or bounce back from) the repression that comes down on you? What is the role of the mass line — creating a connection to the people and fusion with the advanced?
Here are initial thoughts to spur the discussion:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Kasama, Maoism, mass line, Mike Ely | 3 Comments »
Posted by Harry Sims on March 18, 2011
This essay raises some important strategic questions for revolutionaries: specifically, how capitalist restoration is carried out and how revolutions can fight against that restoration while exploring issues of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It should be expressed that posting this does not imply endorsement with the views of the author, but we share in the hopes to spur deeper conversations about the nature of these issues.
This first appeared on angrymarxists. Props to People of Color Organize who brought it to our attention.
What Do You Mean, After the Revolution?
by irateadri
As someone who has recently broken with anarchism, and as someone who had till then been an anarchist for the better part of a decade (almost since I first became interested in politics), it has been instructive for me to read for the first time what Marxists say about revolutionary struggle after the overthrow of the old, capitalist state has been successful. It is not often talked about by anarchists, who nowadays shun anything that might sound the least bit authoritarian, and when it does come up, the Marxists are abused with lies and strawmen of all kinds. I’ve come to find, in the few weeks since my deconversion from anarchocommunism, that the anarchists and the Marxists have radically different understandings of what revolution is, its purpose, and how it is carried out. Whereas anarchists see revolution as a struggle primarily focused on overthrowing the state, Marxists see revolution as a constant, living process, devoted to the destruction of the old, oppressive ways of life that does not simply end when the first military seizing of power has been achieved. I now recognize that the Marxist approach is the only practical and informed method of achieving a free communist society.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in anarchism, Maoism, mass line, revolution, V.I. Lenin, vanguard party | Tagged: Anarchism, communism, revolution | 11 Comments »
Posted by Tell No Lies on February 18, 2011
This article from Fire on the Mountain is a follow-up to a previous piece that we also reprinted and that sparked a spirited discussion of the place of state and municipal budget battles within the class struggle in the United States and their potential, or lack thereof, to radicalize people.
“We should note another aspect of all of this that is impossible to deny: the Wisconsin resistance has been inspired by the militant spirit of the Arab revolt….
“This kind of thing is enough to make any old proletarian internationalist all dewy-eyed, and in a real rather than a sentimental way. Year after year we could bang our heads against the wall for international solidarity: end US military aid to Colombia; allow Aristide to return to Haiti; end US military aid to Israel and Egypt; and so on.
“Our efforts were worthy, but we could get nowhere until now because of the iron law — true no matter how much we fight to change it — that people only begin to see the need for international solidarity when they see how the liberation of others is bound up with theirs.”
Two, three, many Wisconsins
By Felix Dzerzhinsky
What a week it’s been! And it’s not even over. I’ve had people asking me whether I feel vindicated about my post of two weeks ago, where I said that the fight over public budgets was going to be the key front in the class struggle in the United States this year. I can’t say that I feel especially insightful; it took no genius to see the significance of these fights. But I am pleased — pleased, that is, to see that in this struggle, our side is now fighting back. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, Democratic Party, Egypt, labor, mass line, methodology, trade unions, working class | 93 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on January 5, 2011
"There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits"
“I think (on the contrary) there is a quite large amount of ‘reflection on mass work done by Kasama members.’ If so don’t recognize it as such — do they perhaps have a different view of what mass work is, and what it looks like when communists discuss it?”
by Mike Ely
Ian Anderson opened an important door when he wrote:
“However, I share … frustration with the sparse reflection on mass work done by Kasama members. Seems like the project would be well-served by that sort of specific discussion. Is this a conscious methodological choice? Would like to tease that out.”
The issue to me involves an important controversy over the role of direct immediate personal experience. I welcome the chance to tease this out together, and would like to add a few words to what TNL has already written.
The Danger of Equating Direct Experience With Social Practice
Karl Marx writes:
“There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous summits.”
This is a philosophical controversy, that is deeply (very deeply) tied to long standing controversies over strategy.
The philosophical controversy is over whether communist theory must (and can) be both developed and tested within the immediate and direct experience of particular communist organizations.
Such assumptions are expressed in a very pointed (and very common) way by the Club Jacobin:
“…a serious political organization needs to stake out some claims and demonstrate their correctness through its practice.”
Is that true? That our claims (theoretical, philosophical, strategic) have their correctness demonstrated by our own practice? Just think of all the things that would mean!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in >> analysis of news, >> communist politics, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely | 7 Comments »
“State of the left: three great arcs and a beginning“
