Paula, I wasn't talking about *all* (perhaps not even most) reforms; I was trying to describe a very particular kind of reform in the abstract and then argued that the Tobin Tax (as opposed, for example, to reversing Clinton's destruction of welfare) was an instance of that kind of reform. The trouble with babbling about such reforms as the Tobin Tax is that even if we were agreed it was good for the working class, there is nothing we could do about it. So for marxists or other progressives to babble on about it is not just "counter revolutionary," its "counter real reform." The more we let Chris Burford or Max Sawicki suck us into these idiotic arguments over nothing that we can possibly affect, the less attention we will give to such important concerns as aiding in or being part of the unionizing of MacDonald's workers or the destruction of the Democratic Party. (And until the Democratic Party is destroyed not only will we not win many of those desperately needed reforms, we will continue to see the enemy impose on us more and more reforms such as the murderous Welfare Reform act of 1996 or the endless war on workers' minds that goes under the heading of "War on Drugs."
Imagine if the Korean workers had their consciousness dominated by Chris or Max. Instead of occupying Hyundai in defense of their jobs they would be standing cap in hand in the lobby of the Korean Central Bank, begging to have a chance to kneel before the Chairman to convince him of the truth and beauty of the Tobin Tax.
(On the other hand, at the right time such a hopeless gesture of submission can be Mao's spark that ignites a prairie file--see Russian history of 1904-05.)
Chris and Max have this obsessive, even addictive, need to discuss whether this that or the other thing would be a good thing. And that addiction comes very close to making them act as provacateurs. Their reforms are as counter-productive as the Omagh bombing. It is Chris and Max, not Lou and Mark and I, who most resemble the Sparts. As superficially different as they seem, both they and the Sparts share one very fundamental trait: let's argue about ghosts so we won't get our fingers dirty in the struggle.
Carrol