> My main point of disagreement with Doug does not concern
> reform vs. revolution: it's difficult to even name the difference
> clearly. He speaks (in the text quoted at the beginning of this
> post) of "the (fundamentally conservative) psychological and institutional
> complexities" we encounter in our struggle. I don't think that psychology
> is, ever has been, ever will be pertinent -- except for the kind of
> "psychology" Wojtek noted recently in the post in which he argued
> that people first *join* a movement, *then* come to believe in it. But
> we should be able to fight hard over that without growling about
> revolutionary fervor or the lack of it.
Sorry, I did not read Wojtek's post. If what Doug means, by his reference to 'psychological and institutional complexities' is that we need to start from the point of view of real, existing humans (with their psychological complexities), then I think I'm with Doug on this one.
Some time ago Doug (I think it was him) posted Michael Lebowitz's essay on the so-called 'Silences of Capital', whose core is the argument that to take up the struggle against capital, it is necessary to 'see the worker as subject'. In this sense, I believe, the concerns that Doug raises are valid - what is the nature of our 'subject-hood' under capitalism today? What does this imply for how we build organisations?
Again, I think Gramsci grasped quite well how the construction of 'subject-hood' under capitalism, and the struggle over that construction, is a vital question. That, in essence, is what Gramsci's concept of a struggle for working class hegemony is - the struggle which ultimately each member of the working class must undertake to see themselves as agents of history, not instruments of (capitalist) history. Gramsci saw the communist party (his 'Modern Prince') as developing this struggle.
Anyway, I think a discussion on Marxism and psychology would be a useful one - I'm just not quite certain in what forum to wage such a discussion.
Peter -- Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available 'The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions.' - Karl Marx