> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Rakesh Bhandari
> Nathan noted:
>
> > Marx thought Bismarck was an improvement over
> > the localized principalities he replaced, if only by focusing worker
> > energy on a more unified target
>I would like to point
> out that Marx fought tooth and nail Lassalle's cooperation with
> Bismarck--though this does not speak to the point Nathan is making here.
> However, Lassalle's social democracy resembles Nathan's. From his Bastiat
> Schulze: " There is no *social way* that leads out of this social
> situation. The vain efforts of *things* to behave like *human beings* can
> be seen in the English strikes whose melancholy outcome is familiar
> enough. *The only way* out for the workers is to be found in *that*
> sphere *within which* they can be still be human beings, i.e., *the
> state.* Hence the instinctive but infinite hatred which the liberal
> bourgeoisie bears the concept of the state in its every manifestation."
> Quoted in Lukacs' History and Class Consciousness, p. 195
I am actually confused with what you are arguing is my "social democracy" since I am generally a pretty anti-statist socialist. As I noted, I am more of a syndicalist at heart with much greater sympathy for running social coordination of the economy through work-based organizations, rather than through electorally-based state institutions.
But maybe I am missing your point?
-- Nathan