>Carrol Cox wrote:
>>Articles in the Nation or Against the Current, no matter how
>>beautifully clear or how wonderful their content, are not going to
>>reach the bulk of the unemployed.
>
>This is an interesting point. I don't think the Nation bills itself
>asa publication in the thick of working class struggle -- though it
>is -- as Against the Current does. I like ATC alot, but don't
>always agree with them editorially.
>
>At any rate, the statement above, if true, might make the case for
>re-evaluating the marxist concept of parties (is Solidarity a
>party?--again, a group of people Ihave a lot of respect for)
>bringing revolutionary ideas to the people or the class. At least it
>calls for asking who finds their articles beautifully clear and why
>we don't think they appeal to workers. If print publications (and
>online publications) still have value for class struggle, what has
>to be done to make them reach working (and unemployed people)?
>Perhaps being in the vanguard isn't equal to saying the correct
>things in "revolution-speak" or in what we assume is the correct
>manner because od some pre-conceived notion that using more
>strategic langauge and idioms is some how a service to the ruling
>class.
Solidarity isn't a political party, nor should it become one.
I think US socialists need at least three categories of publications:
* publications in which questions of history and theory are discussed and long-term goals and strategies are debated, whose target audience are organic intellectuals interested in refoundation of socialism (rather than building up a particular socialist organization)
* publications in which topical issues and questions are examined, targeted toward organizers of social movements on the left (some of whom are socialists and others are non-socialist leftists)
* publications that organizers can bring to new and potential activists who don't know anything about the history of popular struggles, much less socialism
The second and third categories don't talk about socialism, though written from perspectives informed by the socialist tradition.
_Against the Current_, _Capitalism Nature Socialism_, _International Socialist Review_, _Monthly Review_, _Socialist Register_, _Science & Society_, etc. falls into the first category. _Labor Notes_, _CounterPunch_, etc. into the second one. _War Times_, while it existed in print, fit into the last one. Mostly, the last category are filled by flyers and short pamphlets and the like, due to lack of funds. I'd love to have a daily in print that straddles the border between the second and third categories, but we don't have enough fund-raising capacity for that now. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * "Proud of Britain": <http://www.proudofbritain.net/ > and <http://www.proud-of-britain.org.uk/>