>>> Max Sawicky <sawicky at epinet.org> 05/16/00 06:38PM >>>
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CB: Wouldn't cadre be less confused etc if the old Leninist attitude of concrete analysis of concrete situation were taken, allowing for the necessity of rapid shifts in response to rapid shifts in the real political and economic situation in the village, city, province , country and world ? You know the practical critical dialectic can change in a flash and change back. I'd think that would be as cadre-like as loyalty and glue. Continuity and discontinuity both. _________
[mbs] Some would but many would not. Your model demands a lot of cadres, particularly if it is major postures that are changed.
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CB:If there aren't a lot of cadre, wouldn't the party be an elite minority ?
Doesn't it seem like the fact that the Chinese CP continues to maintain that it's goal is socialism is some evidence that in fact China is not going capitalist, but must bide its time until a revolution occurs in the U.S. or another big place ?
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CB: The great mass of party cadre are still resistant to China aiming to be capitalist and no longer aiming to be partially , temporarily capitalist on a longer road to socialism ?
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[mbs] I can't speak w/any authority on what CCP cadre think. It seems obvious that there is likely to be a lot of confusion because of the apparent ambiguity of current situation. Something like an identity crisis; are we socialist or not?
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CB: As the history of experiences of communist party cadre go, the Chinese party cadre don't have it so bad. At least they are not in a war or in threat of being in a war with capitalists minions.
Also, no doubt, these party cadre are trained in dialectic and contradiction, so the fact that the current situation has contradictions of this type between capitalism and socialism, though of a new form, may be understandable to cadre who are diligent in study, Mao _On Contradiction_ and the like.
Beyond this, it is clear that capitalism is riding high in the world. One way to keep the capitalists from out and out military attack might be to flash them some capitalism.
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CB: Was is 100% socialist before ? Was it mixed socialist and "peoples/communal peasant" ? How much was government owned before ?
[mbs] Moving from capitalist to an increasing amount of socialism is plausible as a socialist path. Ramping up to socialism from capitalism, then deciding that economic liberalism is desirable, is confusing as a path to socialism.
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CB: China wasn't much capitalist before, was it ?
Capitalism has shown itself more than willing to use the most egregious war against socialist countries, as the history of the Soviet Union, Korea, Viet Nam has demonstrated. Why not give the imperialists a little capitalism to keep them from foaming at the mouth , and making war on China ?
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To me, at least. Not that I'm against it. If there was more sign of increasing openness, as in South Korea, and fewer threats to Taiwan, I'd feel much better about the PRC.
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CB: When you say "openness", wouldn't a new Open Door policy to the bourgeois countries be a corrupting influence. I am sure that China would be glad to send millions to the West to live, if the West would open its doors. China has no Berlin Wall. It is the U.S. who doesn't want Chinese immigrants. :>) You know what Mao said to Nixon ?
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People talk about solidarity. Imagine the PRC as a champion of labor standards (ones it could live with, obviously, but which reflected a kind of self-discipline to raise them continuously). Imagine the pickle that would create for MNC's. It's the PRC that is abstaining from internationalism; not the IBT.
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CB: Good point. Maybe the IBT should send a comradely delegation to China to patch up things in a gesture of proletarian internationalism.