[lbo-talk] Speculations

Alan E. DeBakey a.debakey at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 22 20:14:31 PST 2007


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

Cannot follow. First you talk "manure", then "dry" and "fire" and what not. Too much shrink-wrap, too little meat. Can you translate your images of paririe/spark/dryness/fire in a clearer rendering regarding the "potential revolutionary movements" you opened your mail below with?

Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:

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

___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

--------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list