<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV align=justify>John: 1)Their political program and platform is not petty bourgeois.  They want<BR>to implement a Soviet Union style command economy (or something more<BR>reformist) which certainly isn't in the interests of the Columbian<BR>bourgeoisie.  </DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>George: Yeah! Sinn Fein/IRA said they wanted to implement a programme that would lead to the achievement of thirty two county independent Irish Republic. And look what they are doing now --begging to be let sit on a Northern Ireland Executive that will perpetuate and reinforce petition.</DIV> <DIV align=justify><BR>John: 2)The class composition of the FARC/ELN is not bourgeoisie.</DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>George: This probable fact is neither here nor there. The class composition of the NAZI party in Germany was not in general bourgeois yet it represented the class interests of the German monopoly bourgeoisie.</DIV> <DIV align=justify><BR></DIV> <DIV align=justify>John: The FARC is opposed by international and internal capital, which<BR>funds both the Columbian State and its rich landowners in their respective<BR>efforts to crush the FARC.  </DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>George: Hitler was opposed by the British and American capitalist class which means that for you he was a revolutionary commie.</DIV> <DIV align=justify><BR>John: I think the only way in which you are correct in saying that they are<BR>"petty bourgeois" is to the extent that the FARC (less so the ELN)<BR>represent the interests of peasants.  However most revolutionary movements<BR>(which I am defining as popular class struggles directed against their own<BR>ruling class) have made extensive use of peasants, so I don't think this<BR>takes anything away from the ELN/FARC.<BR></DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>George: But what are the interests of the peasants? There is no real future for the peasants. To suggest that the class interests of the peasants is being advanced by FARC is to say that FARC support the extinction of the peasantry since the Colombian peasantry have no future and are ultimately --like all peasantry-- doomed to extinction. Neither under capitalism nor communism is there any future for the peasantry. Communal based farming means an end to the peasantry. Consequently if the FARC are revolutionary then  rather than protecting the interests of the peasantry they are, willy-nilly, seeking their extinction.</DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>However since FARC are not revolutionary they are still promoting their extinction by their essential support for the bourgeoisie. At the moment they are engaged in peace talks with Pastrana which amounts to seeking a price at which it is  prepared to sell out the very peasants whose interests according to you they represent.</DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>By pretending to represent the interests of the Colombian peasantry FARC are sowing illusions in the masses concerning the nature of capitalist society. Their programme is ipso facto utopian  in the sense that they are claiming that they can achieve a society that is unachievable --a society that sustains the existence of a peasantry. They are reactionary in the sense that they seek a return to the past --since it only in the past that the conditions for a burgeoning peasantry would have existed. By contrast revolutionaries look to the future --the establishment of communal social relations.</DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>Either way they thereby promote the class interests of the bourgeoisie since they sow and reinforce illusion in the masses. Such illusion only serves to disarm the masses politically and ideologically and render them vulnerable to defeat by the bourgeoisie. Consequently by assisting in the defeat of the masses FARC's politics assist the bourgeoisie in its struggle against the masses. This means, then, that FARC's politics are essentially bourgeois. Whether FARC are aware of this or not is beside the point. FARC is not necessarily consciously and intentionally deceiving the masses. Many of its lading fiures may passionately believe that they are serving the interests of the masses. Indeed the more passionate they are about such illusions the more effective they may be in assisting the bourgeoisie in the political and ideological disarmament of the working class.</DIV> <DIV align=justify> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>Warm regards<BR>George Pennefather</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV align=justify>Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at<BR><A href="http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/">http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/</A></DIV></BODY></HTML>