[lbo-talk] new blog post: A Coda on Solidarity: Iran, the Left and Noble Savages | The Activist

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

Schulman and Schwartz's
http://theactivist.org/blog/archives/towards-freedom-the-theory-and-practice-of-democratic-socialism
is pretty solid.  As for myself, I have no problem with religious /
ethical socialists or left social democrats calling themselves
"democratic socialists."  In the American context I guess it implies
someone who is an anti-capitalist, but draws upon other traditions as
well.  I think it's unusual for a "democratic socialist" to build an
opposition movement out of power and create a counter-hegemonic bloc
to smash, rather than manage the capitalist state.  That's the stuff
of communism.  The main points of contention I have with Marx is his
view on the desirability of a post-conflict higher stage of communism.

 Even if class contradictions are resolved I don't see how "post
scarcity" transcends the need for politics.  Intergenerational memory
needs to be institutionalized and political deliberation can't be
eliminated from the organization of social life (requiring some sort
of state apparatus).  So, I obviously can't call myself a "communist"
if I don't believe in a communist horizon beyond a radical pluralist
workers state would be feasible and/or desirable.  But the tradition
I'm intellectually steeped in is Trotskyism (I read Animal Farm in the
8th grade then immediately read a biography of Trotsky and thought he
was the finest man I've ever heard of).  With the Trotskyists I have
some fundamental problems with the theory of permanent revolution, the
transitional program, tendency to hide behind front groups, etc...
(not to mention their style and general demeanor) but besides for
that, Hal Draper's breed of Trotskyism is fine by me.

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 4:04 PM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
> out of curiosity, you call yourself a democratic socialist who leans
> marxist - and indicate that this is unusual. What IS a democratic
> socialist?
>
> shag
>> http://theactivist.org/blog/a-coda-on-solidarity-iran-the-left-and-noble-savages
>>
>> It doesn’t take a tremendous appreciation of the dialectic to grasp
>> this contradiction: some of the groups with the most stridently
>> “revolutionary” and “anti-imperialist” politics are, in practice,
>> reactionary and orientalist.  It was today, just one year ago, when
>> protests broke out in Iran over the election fraud that saw Mahmoud
>> Ahmadinejad return to power.  The street demonstrators were
>> ideologically diverse, but their goal was clear.  For the first time
>> since 1979, the whole putrefied edifice of the Islamic Republic was
>> called into question.
>>
>> [...]
>>
>
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