>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 02/16/00 09:44AM >>>
I forwarded Charles Brown's comments to Joel Kovel, who responds:
>Thanks, Doug, You might tell Brown that I do address the question,
>though certainly not in enough depth, having major constraints deriving
>from keeping a manageable length. Anyhow, I do say:
>
>--they falsely assume that the twentieth century regimes that called
>themselves socialist, like the USSR, had a monopoly on what socialism
>means. This overlooks the fact that in virtually every case, the
>statism, centralization, authoritarianism, etc, were the results of
>trying to achieve capitalist ends through socialist means--in other
>words, the failed socialisms didn't believe deeply enough in the ideal
>of superseding capital, or were otherwise blocked from implementing this
>
>(as by ferocious attacks by imperialism, etc);
>
>More to the point, you might suggest that he look at my Red-Hunting in
>the Promised Land, in which the problem is taken up from many angles.
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CB: Thanks for the reply. I don't really expect that a U.S. public figure running for office would make as strong a statement as I did (recopied below) blaming capitalist world historically giganitic warfare as the main cause of the failures of socialism ( even if what I said is true). That you say anything close to that is to your credit. If I can get ahold of your Red-Hunting in the Promised Land, I'll take a look at it. Who is the publisher ?
Charles Brown
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This is a refreshingly , explicitly prosocialist statement from a current left public figure.
Although everybody wants to build a more democratic socialist project in the next effort, Kovel does not address one of the main lessons/problems of what he calls the first epoch of socialism: how do you keep capitalism from annihilating your socialist effort without a centralized socialist system ? He speaks as if the capitalist ruling class will just sit back and allow a fair contest between socialism and capitalism. Absent from his discussion is the world historic viciousness and murderousness of the bourgeois in there response to socialist projects. Ecological consciousness is important, but does not address this central issue from the first socialist epoch.
CB