> >Even in the midst of socialist revolution, only a tiny minority of
>>workers and peasants had ever read even a bit of Marxist theory.
>
>It's not a matter of stupidity, or ignorance, or of reading marx.
>Why do you have to read marx to know that your boss is ripping you
>off?
It is not at all inevitable for any worker to make a leap from the thought that her boss is ripping her off to the idea that capitalism must be abolished or else exploitation and oppression -- including war and imperialism -- will necessarily continue. If such a leap were inevitable, all workers who ever felt they were ripped off would be already revolutionaries.
>The real difficulty in organizing workers lies with the leadership.
If workers are smart, they will choose smart leaders, and if they are dumb, they will choose dumb ones, though occasionally smart workers may make dumb choices; more often than not, though, many workers in the USA have never had an actual experience of choosing political leaders of their own, in electoral politics, union organizing, social movement organizing, etc. -- only a minority of US workers participate actively in any sort of political processes. Change must come from workers themselves, not from leaders, existing or potential.
> >As for convincing workers and other classes, some of the workers (and
>>peasants, too, in some nations) -- our main constituency -- will
>>never be won over to the left of any sort, including but not at all
>>limited to the Marxist left. If we get lucky, we'll get about a
>>third of our potential constituency on our side. Just because
>>medicine is good for you doesn't mean that you'll necessarily take
>>it, especially when the medicine in question tastes bitter to some.
>
>Taking their medicine? Please, let's not treat adult workers like children?
It is not just children who take medicine, unless you are saying that only children get sick. Besides, medicine may be offered by one's peers, rather than one's parents or doctors.
>Here's another reason the left can't get its shit together, you've
>got no respect for the "rank and file." What reason do they have to
>think that the vanguard will treat them any better post-revolution
>than their bosses do now?
The sort of workers who would simply wait for their "leaders" to treat them better post-revolution probably wouldn't go for revolution to begin with.
>I am against allowing excessive privilege or disproportionate
>remuneration to accrue to _any_ part of society, _including_
>professionals and "intellectual workers," which refers to those who
>increase their bargaining power in the economy by a monopoly on
>managerial and intellectual skills.
That you are against it doesn't make it go away, though. If you wish to make wages of "professionals" and "intellectual workers" lower than they are now, you need to overproduce them, increasing supply much beyond effective demand.
Yoshie