[lbo-talk] They're printing another trillion...

Marv Gandall marvgandall at videotron.ca
Mon Oct 11 17:17:09 PDT 2010


On 2010-10-10, at 7:41 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:


> I have really ceased to have much interest in political or
> pseudopolitical discussion or "facts" that are not focused on witbd during a
> period when nothing that is done will make any particular difference. One
> actsd on the basis of expecting the unexpected, that is, the sudden response
> of masses of people to some issue. I want to discuss what we should do to
> make that surprise powerful when it comes, though we can't do anything
> directly to bring it about.

What's there to discuss? You should belong to a revolutionary Marxist organization. They may all be marginal at present, but they wholeheartedly share your perspective that no matter how bleak the period, the main task is to accumulate "cadre" in preparation for the next explosion of class struggle. All are good schools for honing the organizational and other skills which help shape "the sudden response of masses of people…" Like you, their focus is on "witbd" (Lenin's "what is to be done?" for the uninitiated) and they examine political developments, especially within the trade unions and other social movements, within this context. Most of all, you would escape having to deal with the frustrations you are experiencing on this list, which is, after all, more akin to a debating club than a "vanguard combat party". You wouldn't enjoy the same free-wheeling right to grumble and criticize as you do here, but you'd be collaborating with more motivated and active comrades who share your passions and outlook, and acting in accordance with your favourite dictum of Mao that "if you don't hit it, it won't fall" - the "hitter" being understood as a tightly-organized party rather than a loose and uncoordinated collection of leftist individuals attempting to influence events outside of one. You're wasting your time if you think you are going to transform these listserves into a party.

It doesn't much matter which one of these groups you join, since their internal regime, activities, and influence are pretty much the same. The orientation to the Democratic Party in the US and to kindred social democratic parties in Europe and elsewhere is what mainly divides them. No question you'd be more at home within a group like the ISO, SWP, WWP, and RCP, all of whom share your visceral hostility to the Democrats, than with groups like the CP, FRSO, DSA, or other groups which work in and around the party. The "DP question" would only become an important tactical consideration if and when a working class radicalization were to occur in the US, when it would become apparent whether the ferment was passing through the DP or outside of it. Its course would precipitate splits and regroupments on the far left, and if it turned out your little group had been following the the "wrong line", you could join others in leaving it for one which had positioned itself to exploit the opportunities.

You may in fact once have belonged to one or several of these groupuscules. If so, I don't understand why you left since you certainly don't seem to have developed any discernible political differences with them. More likely, you didn't join or left because you were unable to submit to the discipline these groups demand of their members, in which case you wouldn't be the first intellectual to have left for this reason.



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