Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 21:37:38 -0700 From: Gar Lipow <lipowg at sprintmail.com>
CB:
> Affirmative action exactly in the direction of abolishing classes.
"Reverse discrimination" would be a right wing way of describing it, and
it sort of robs them of the good credit they should get on exactly
moving to classnessless: affirmative action for peasants.
Umm - this was irony Charles. I was comparing Joannas complaint to that made against affirmative action.
^^^^^^^
CB: Was she complaining ?
^^^^^
^^^^^
>CB: What version of the transitional phase called socialism are you
using ? Marx's discussion of this says the socialist phase will likely
still bear the marks of the old capitalist society in it for a long
while, which it would seem likely to include "social mobility".
If you still have classes it is not socialism.... I don't care how early. (Well maybe not the first month). Socialism that has existed for any length of time had better be a classless society. If not, it is not
socialism.
^^^^^^^
CB: Social mobility is not the same thing as classes. If in socialism, a general rule is "to each according to work", then there would be different social mobilities for different work. Also, as socialism is a transitional phase in which there is still a residue from capitalism, the poverty and its effects of some classes in capitalism remains for a period in socialism. So, differential social mobility in the form of affirmative action is necessary as part of the process of abolishing classes. Classes are not instantly abolished with the insurrection.