--- Michael Pugliese <michael098762001 at earthlink.net>
Elbaum and his
> friends were not interested in the revolutionaries
> who had criticized Lenin during the latter's
> lifetime (or at any point), and they remained
> blissfully unaware of Bordiga, Gorter, and
> Pannekoek. The philosophical critiques of Korsch and
> Lukacs similarly meant nothing to them.
I agree with much of what Goldner says here, but if he is critiquing Elbaum's book, he knows that Elbaum agrees that the "New Communist Movement" was ideologically narrow and dogmatic. It is unclear though how much Elbaum has broken with the ideologies of that time. I get the impression from a number of the New Communist Movement people that they are pretty clear that something was wrong, that democratic centralism had much to do with it but, perhaps due to burn-out, have not been able to move forward.
However, I think it is important to explore why we were attracted to "Third World Marxism" and why these New Communist Movement groups were so popular, at least for a time. (it is interesting that Ulhas- from the outside-has recognized the ongoing legacy of this) Probably others here who belong to SDS can give an even broader perspective on this mater. I came into the New Communist Movement in the late 70s, and so missed the debacle of SDS.
Well, and this feeds back into the discusson on activistism, the Third World was where there were all of these anti-imperialist struggles in the Third World and, so it seemed to us, since the third world was succesfully beating back imperialism, we thought there were theoretical lessons to be learned there. One of the theoretical lessons we drew from the Third World struggles, and especially from Mao, was that communists needed to sink deep roots into mass movements and proletarianize themselves. And so off many of these people went from their liberal college towns into factories, textile mills and coal mines. For whatever it's worth, these people did make huge sacrifices; their lives- every waking moment - were completely centred on making revolution. They were theorteical, but only up to a point. The reading list only contained a few names: Marx (and damn too little of him, Engels (way too much of him), Lenin, Mao, and maybe a sprinkling of a few others. The essential text to study upon entry into the Communist Workers Party or one of its satellite organizations was "A Basic Understanding of the Communist Party of China" by the Shanghai group.
I, who was too young to be involved in the anti-war movement, got swept into the NCM as a teenager, during the great wildcat strikes that hit the coalfields during the late 70s. Again, my reason for joining the NCM was that they were doing something. In other words, it wasn't that their theory was right or wrong; it was the fact that they were doing something that impressed me...and having some success. In my hicktown, there was no chance of coming into contact with other theories outside of those, I was young, and so I just assimilated what I could from these NCM folks and learned that the party line should not be questioned too much.
So, my story is not too different from others in the NCM, and what you got as a result of this activistism is a whole generation of burn outs. Those of you who promote WWP because they are DOING something need to go and read Elbaum's book (even though he is a bit too sentimental about it in a a certain way). Doing is important, but activistism for the sake of activistism is sure to fail in a big way.
However, to be fair, one also would need to ask Goldner where he was, what he did, why wasn't there the presence of these other ideas? In my hicktown how could radical high school students and workers even known about Panakoek and others? The opposite of activistism, perennially ruminating in an ivory tower is certainly not the solution either.
-Thomas
===== <<You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals So let's do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel>>
Bloodhound Gang, "The Bad Touch"
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