On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 09:31:11 -0400 "John Lacny" <jlacny at earthlink.net>
writes:
> Marvin Gandall:
>
> > I think they would have grudgingly been forced to realign
> themselves
> > with the Mensheviks with the perspective of presiding over a
> > transitional capitalist democracy in Russia along the lines of
> Western
> > Europe, until conditions for socialism "ripened" further.
>
> Of course, as you point out, hindsight is 20/20, so this is not only
> a
> counterfactual history, but an impossible one. They simply had no
> way of
> knowing the disappointing future, so I would argue that taking the
> plunge as
> they did was the correct decision, even in hindsight. And that said,
> assume
> that they had pursued just the course you describe, and somehow
> survived
> despite the brutal activities of the counterrevolutionaries and
> such. What
> then becomes of the history of the rest of the world in the
> twentieth
> century, particularly the war against fascism and the rise of the
> national
> liberation movements? This side of these events, it's hard to
> remember just
> how much of a push the struggle against global white supremacy got
> from the
> USSR's very presence. This is not a small point, no?
And let us not forget that the October Revolution indirectly brought considerable benefits to the working classes of First World capitalist nations as well. Its example inspired working class militancy for decades. The emergence of the welfare state was in part expedited by the fear of God that was instilled in the Western ruling classes by the Soviet example. The Swedish ruling class, in the early 1930s, permitted the Social Democrats took take power and institute their welfare state, after that country had been torn by months of civil strife. No doubt the example of their large nextdoor neighbor was a major consideration in their calculations. And that set the model that was followed by most other western European countries after WW II.
In the US, I think the New Deal would have been inconceivable without the October Revolution, and the acceptance by the US ruling class of the necessity of civil rights legislation, came in large degree out of recognition that Jim Crow was doing great damage to US prestige in the cold war.
And since the collapse of the USSR, we have seen the ruling classes in the US and elsewhere go on a wild rampage, as they have attempted to roll back many of the social gains of the past century.
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - -
> John Lacny
> http://www.johnlacny.com
>
> Tell no lies, claim no easy victories
>
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