[lbo-talk] Social revolution, North or South

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 3/19/07, James Heartfield <Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> Yoshie writes:
>
> " I don't understand the
> problem you and Doug have with my view that social revolution is
> unlikely to appear on the political horizon in the North any time
> soon.  It seems to me that we all agree on that."
>
> I think you fetishise social revolution. Just because we do not live in a
> time of revolutionary change, it seems to me, one should not succumb to the
> temptation of declaring a revolution where none exists. The wish should not
> be father to the thought.

I'm perfectly happy with evolutionary change, a la Venezuela, if it's
going into the right direction.  The quality of people's
participation, decision-making, and so on is probably far more
important than the pace of change if social change is to endure.

The point I'm emphasizing is that Marxism that doesn't have as its
political project transition to socialism -- be it revolutionary or
evolutionary, Leninist or Gramscian, or whatever -- eventually becomes
just a philosophy of progressive capitalist development, social
democracy at best and neoliberal capitalism at worst.
-- 
Yoshie