[lbo-talk] That giant sucking sound ...

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Brian:
> It's amazing to me that when Marxists lag along 20+ years 
> after anarchist analysis and activity, it's nevertheless 
> Marxists that get the credit for the "breakthrough." In this 
> case, it's Gramsci and Trotsky in the 1920's - 1930's we have 
> to thank for telling us that the power of the state can be 
> countered by grassroots organizations and labor groups. Wow, 
> thank you Marxist Intellectuals.
> 
> People on the shop floor had figured this one out decades 
> before Trotsky and Gramsci came along.

I am anxious to learn when exactly the grassroots organizing achieved
any noticeable success without being aided by (1) a crisis that crippled
the state's ability to stay in control and suppress dissent or (2)
dissident/reformist elements in the ruling class / governemnt. 

from the Russian Revolution to Gandhi, and to the Civil Rights movement
- the success of these movemements lies precisely in the state inability
or unwillingness (for one reason or another) to crush it.  Otherwise,
these movements would have been crushed as any other popular uprising
before and after. 

Wojtek