[lbo-talk] Regime Change and Paranoid Reaction

Russell Grinker grinker at mweb.co.za
Wed May 23 06:25:18 PDT 2007


This is what one of the "alte Genossen" (Lenin) said of the approach suggested below which he termed 'imperialist economism':

"All 'democracy' consists in the proclamation and realisation of 'rights' which under capitalism are realisable only to a very small degree and only relatively. But without the proclamation of these rights, without a struggle to introduce them now, immediately, without training the masses in the spirit of this struggle, socialism is impossible.

Mike Ballard wrote:

My guess is that these alte Genossen would say (the ones who wouldn't vote war credits for their rulers in the run up to WWI), "We're not in favour of wage-labour, capital or the State no matter what the national flavour. The proletariat has no country." Bakunin would probably say, "A theocratic State opposing a capitalist-imperialist State--get rid of them both." That "left in form, right in essence" dogma is not this, still living, socialist's cuppa : it's an old formulae designed to keep the workers cheering for one ruling class against another. The best thing we can do is to organize class conscious unity wherever we are in the world.



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