>Hinrich, it would be presumptuous for me to make proposals for the US
>working class when I am not even inside it.
Louis, it was you who demanded an "integrated world-view". Politically an "integrated world-view" necessarily leads to a programme that is consistent in itself, and it is a precondition of a coherent socialist policy for transforming capitalist societies - as far as you hold to the view that this could only be achieved by some sort of a political party of the working class.
You will not evade the obligation to organize a discussion process in your country - otherwise you or the political movement you support respectively will remain silent or socially non-hegemonic while the Socialist International publishes one programmatic statement after the other, today on globalisation and international economic politics, tomorrow on the welfare state and the limitations of social politics in the situation of an economic crisis.
>The main goal of my overview of political/economic crisis is to somehow
>wake people up to the reality of the seriousness of the situation. I find
>that it is helpful to place things in context. If the Marxist left had
>understood the pre-WWI impasse in the same manner as Rosa Luxemburg,
>perhaps history would have taken a different direction.
I see your point and I agree to your view that the current situation is underestimated - but I think we are in a situation which is more comparable to that of the 1920ies than that of the pre-WWI situation.
>Speaking of Luxemberg, when I got home from work yesterday, I found the
>latest Monthly Review in my mailbox. In it, besides the excellent critique
>of Burbach and Kargalitsky new book, there is an article by Michael Lowy on
>the Communist Manifesto that makes almost the same point I was making
>yesterday--namely, that the Junius Pamphlet is the first major Marxist work
>to question the lingering optimism about capitalism that undialectical
>interpretations of the Communist Manifesto had bequeathed to the pre-WWI
>era revolutionary movement. Lowy is the best kind of Trotskyist, one who
>thinks creatively and intelligently.
Yes of course, an _organized_ discussion on these lists would be very helpful: a discussion on the meaning of the Communist Manifesto for today, on the comparabilty of the pre-WWI-situation of the Junius Pamphlet to the situation of today, or on the economics of the global turbulence, its causes and political alternatives.
>In essence, I believe that the Marxist movement has to be rearmed
>theoretically with the kind of vision that appears in the Junius Pamphlet.
>We need to be rearmed for the same reasons: to prevent fascism and war.
Yes, you're right - and one only can hope that the new initiatives of the socialist and social democratic parties in different countries to manage the political, economic and social crises will succeed to a certain degree. And let me add: despite all the doubts about a success of these initiatives we have to support this move by critizising it. This will be a real test for non-sectarian politics which you are well-known for supporting.
For our arguments - I think they are not that bad, I rather would like to translate your metapher rearmament by "more effective organisation" of the political-theoretical debate.
>Our biggest problem right now is that the intellectual vanguard has
>illusions in the capitalist system that are entirely unfounded. This
>includes people who I have deep respect for, from Doug Henwood to Boris
>Kargalitsky. What is required now is to look into the abyss and have the
>courage to state that the alternatives are barbarism or socialism. Doug
>tosses around the possibility of "market socialism" in the conclusion of
>"Wall Street" while Boris told me that "market socialism" made sense to him
>the last time I saw him up at the Brecht Forum.
Of course "market socialism" will continue to be not only a core but also a watershed of discussions among socialists and Marxists when they analyze the defeat of the communist world movement and debate the specific transformation of mature capitalist societies to a new form of society. The handling of the discussion of these contradictions will be another test of non-sectarian politics.
>Illusions of a different sort also exist in the two largest non-sectarian
>Marxist groups in the US. Committees of Correspondence, a group that split
>from the CPUSA, continues to provide logistical support for Democratic
>Party candidates, while Solidarity, rooted in the Trotskyist movement, runs
>what can only be described as anti-Soviet articles in their theoretical
>magazine Against the Current, edited by the execrable Richard Pipes wannabe
>Sam Farber.
So there are programmatic views that you disapprove and hence that you support - regardless of whether you are a member of US working class or not?
>The most hopeful sign is that journals like Sozialismus, Monthly Review and
>Socialist Register continue to hammer away at these sorts of illusions.
>Perhaps one day there can be a conference in Europe that would be
>co-sponsored by these three and other like-minded Marxists, most especially
>the PDS. Consolidating a "classical" Marxist current seems task number one.
>If the mass movement revives, as it certainly should over the next few
>years, it will be of utmost importance that the theoretical foundations for
>new revolutionary organizations be in place. This was not the case in the
>mid-1960s and we paid dearly for this.
As for the conference I think you are definitely too defensive.
In 1998 we commemorated - I remember a few of your reports - the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto. Only a few highlights of the various political-theoretical acitivities:
- the publication of the Socialist Register 1998 on "The Communist Manifesto Now" in February, <http://www.peacenet.org/MonthlyReview/sr98.htm>
- the 150th anniversary edition by Monthly Review Press with an afterword by Ellen Meiksins Wood in April, <http://www.peacenet.org/MonthlyReview/manifest.htm>
- the Verso "Modern Edition" with an introduction by Eric Hobsbawm in April, <http://www.versobooks.com/versobooks/spring98list/marx_manifesto.html>
- the International meeting in Paris from May 13-16,
- several meetings in NYC and in Germany,
- and - as a temporary conclusion - the publication of "Das Manifest - heute" by VSA-Verlag in December.
The last item is a book which is just off the presses [for the contents see below]. It is a collection of contributions to different international meetings focussed on the Communist Manifesto - so to speak panels of a virtual conference. I think this kind of publication is an example to surmount borders - politically and linguistically. This time the articles have been translated into German with the exception of those which were written in that language. Next time I am sure it will be a proper English edition.
[By the way: The publisher, VSA-Verlag, has been distributing the Socialist Register in Germany since 1996 and has been cooperating with the journal Sozialismus since the early 1970ies.]
But you're right, Louis, another political-theoretical international conference of the Marxist Left would be a big step forward. And I am sure one topic will be an outline or considerations for a socialist programme starting from the current situation in the United States.
Hinrich Kuhls
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
For your information some details of the book I mentioned above.
Eric Hobsbawm u.a. DAS MANIFEST - HEUTE. 150 Jahre Kapitalismuskritik VSA-Verlag, Hamburg: 1998 ISBN: 3-87975-726-7; 304 Seiten, DM 36,80. vsa-verlag at t-online.de
<http://www.buchkatalog.de/kod-bin/isuche.exe?dbname=Buchkatalog&lang=englis h&location=Profisuche&SB=3-87975-726-7>
Contents
***Editorial
***Aus der Geschichte gelernt?
Eric Hobsbawm Das Kommunistische Manifest
Michael R. Kraetke 150 Jahre danach
George Labica Welche theoretischen und praktischen Erkenntnisse bleiben?
Ellen Meiksins Wood Die Geschichte ist nicht zu Ende
***Globalisierung und Klassen
Michael Loewy Globalisierung und Internationalismus
Wolfgang Fritz Haug Im World-Wide-Web des Kapitalismus: Globalisierung
Samir Amin Imperialismus und Globalisierung
Domenico Losurdo Das eigentliche _Herz_ der menschlichen Emanzipation
Suzanne de Brunhoff Die Bourgoisie und die Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie
Harry Magdoff Ungleiche Verteilung von Produktion und Einkommen
***Neue Realitaeten, neue Erkenntnisse
Wolfgang Ruge Das Durchdenken sich aendernder Realitaeten
Frigga Haug Feministische Anmerkungen
Hermann Klenner: Marxistische Rechtsphilosophie - auf dem Abstellgleis der Weltgeschichte?
Paul M. Sweezy Den _gemeinsamen Untergang_ verhindern
***Und die Linke heute?
Boris Kagarlitzky Den Revisionismus revidieren
Karsten Rudolph Was nehmen wir mit auf die Reise?
Frank Deppe Eine _Gespenst_ geht um
Colin Leys and Leo Panitch Das politische Vermaechtnis
Patrice Cohen-Seat Welche Akteuere fuer welche Revolution?
Joachim Bischoff Kapitalismus und Sozialismus zu Beginn des neuen Jahrtausends