[lbo-talk] Speculations

[Carrol Cox]

Think for a moment how many even potential revolutionary movements there
have been in Europe and the U.S. since 1815. By a rough count,  3 in
france; 1 in England (Chartists)(or 2 if one counts the General STrike),
2 in Germany (1848, 1919), 1 in Hungary (1919), 2 in Russia, 1 perhaps 2
in Italy (1920, 1969), one or two in the U.S. And I'm being generous in
my criteria -- counting the CIO & CP of the '30s, for example. Not
allowing for this rarity encourages voluntarism and/or despair.

Perhaps, then, the proper _central_ concern of leftists in the u.s. (a
concern which of course incorporates many other) is what can be done in
the U.S. to reach and mobilize the 3% (or fewer) which is the outside
figure of mass mobilizastion in core capitalist nations except under the
most extraordinary circumstances. 

Was it Gramsci who spoke of manuring the ground? I am moving towards
seeing the CPUSA during the '40s and '50s as the chief model for our
current tasks: keeping something alive that will be there when the next
period of rising expectations arrives and makes mass struggle possible.
The CP simply didn't have the courtesy to disappear when its task was
completed and the '60s emerged. :-(

A little spark can start a prairie fire -- IF THE PRAIRIE IS DRY ENOUGH.

Carrol